George Hartley

George Hartley

Three-time founder, two exits. Now building AI-native email.

George Hartley is an Australian founder and product builder. He co-founded Bluethumb, Australia's largest online art marketplace ($100M+ in sales), and SmartrMail, an email marketing platform acquired in 2022. He's a Startmate mentor and angel investor in 30+ startups. George stepped back from running Bluethumb in 2025 to go all-in on AI. He's now building Nitrosend, an AI-native email platform, and published the Email Marketing Bible, a 59,000-word open-source guide compiled from 908 sources that also works as a Claude skill.

Timeline

  1. 2026
    Publication

    Email Marketing Bible

    59,000-word open-source guide to email marketing, compiled from 908 sources. Also runs as a Claude skill.

  2. 2026
    Publication

    47 Best Email Designs of 2026

    Curated gallery of the year's best email designs (Apple, Stripe, and more).

  3. 2026
    Publication

    email-design (Claude skill)

    Open-source email design skill for Claude Code.

  4. 2026
    Press

    SA brothers launch AI startup with half a million in the bag · InDaily

    George and Edward Hartley launch Nitrosend.

  5. 2026
    Press

    Adelaide AI martech startup Nitrosend nails $700,000 Seed round · Startup Daily

    Nitrosend's seed raise.

  6. 2025 - present
    Company

    Nitrosend · Co-founder

    AI-native email marketing platform, built MCP-first. Transactional, campaigns, automations, and deliverability in one. Co-founded with Edward Hartley and the ex-SmartrMail team (Kam Low, ex-CTO).

  7. 2025
    Press

    Lessons from building a $100M art marketplace · Startup Playbook (Ep204)

    George on the Bluethumb journey.

  8. 2024
    Press

    Bluethumb paints a brighter future for Australian artists · Forbes Australia

    Profile of the Bluethumb marketplace. (Subscriber article.)

  9. 2022-11-30
    Press

    SmartrMail founders sell to Relay Commerce · The Australian

    David Swan covers the SmartrMail acquisition. (Subscriber article.)

  10. 2022
    Press

    How heavy metal educated this exec · AFR Life & Leisure

    Personal How I Made It profile. (Subscriber article.)

  11. 2016 - 2022
    Company

    SmartrMail · Co-founder & CEO

    AI email + SMS marketing. 12,000 customers, 6B+ emails sent, $350M+ merchant revenue, #1 on Shopify. Graduated Startmate 2017. Acquired by Relay Commerce (NYC) in November 2022.

  12. 2012 - 2025
    Company

    Bluethumb · Co-founder & co-CEO

    Australia's largest online art marketplace. 23,000+ artists, 100,000+ collectors, $100M+ artwork sold. Backed by Adam Schwab, Jeremy Same, Artesian, Blackbird, Sydney Angels. Stepped back in 2025 to go all-in on AI.

Talks & interviews

A decade of building, on the record. Newest first.

2026

Nitrosend at Southstart (iTWire)

Launching Nitrosend, AI-native email and where the category is going.

2026

The future of email

Why email becomes its own experience in the inbox, not just a click-through.

2026

SEO, content and AI search in ecommerce

How AI search changes content and discovery for ecommerce.

2022

Built to Sell Radio: the broken LOI

The SmartrMail exit war story and lessons on building to sell.

2021

Ecommerce Australia: building a marketplace

The origins and mechanics of building Bluethumb.

2020

Q&A: selling art online

How to create an online marketplace, from the Bluethumb playbook.

2020

Why build startups

On the grind of startups and the Bluethumb journey.

2019

Founding Bluethumb

Coming into the art world as an outsider and the marketplace mission.

2019

Founder origin story

How George got into building startups.

2018

Decrypt Asia: why we built an email tool

The SmartrMail origin story and email's future, on Asia's first blockchain podcast.

Nitrosend is the fastest email platform that works where you work. Prompt it from Claude. Trigger it from your code. Let it automate email marketing across the brands, products, and clients you manage in Codex.

It's full stack email automation inside your AI agent, not an email marketing tool with AI added.

We're obsessed with speed. Not because speed is trendy, but because speed is the thing that separates the people who ship things that change lives from the people who plan to ship. Every minute you spend configuring email automations is a minute you're not talking to customers, writing code, or selling.

We believe the best tools disappear into your workflow. You shouldn't have to learn our interface.

We're George, Ed and Kam, and we're building Nitrosend because the world has shifted and email hasn't caught up. Until now - welcome to faster email.