Guillaume's $150M startup story

Hey, it’s Guy & Farzan.

Sydney broke records this weekend. Our hottest day in late March for around 140 years meets St. Patrick's Day party. There I was, sweat pouring down my sparkly green jacket, Guinness in hand, questioning my polyester life choices. The bright green Adidas trackies weren't helping. Enjoy this week's founder stories.

Reading time: 9 mins

In the mail today. 3 founder stories, 1 bit of growth advice, 1 tweet

 Founder story 1 

How a McDonald’s reject found a self-funded SaaS company worth $150M: The story of Guillaume Moubeche and Lemlist.

The Journey
- Grew up in Paris with parents from a modest farming family in southwest France
- Rejected from McDonald's during university, questioning his worth
- Earned a Master's degree in marketing
- Built Lemlist to a $150M valuation in just 3.5 years
- Now serves 37,000 businesses globally

The Evolution of Vision
- Started with a T-shirt business with his father
- Joined a lead generation agency and became a sales prospecting expert
- Attempted to build a LinkedIn-like visitor tracking tool
- Pivoted to a red ocean strategy with Lemlist focusing on cold outreach
- Evolved from focusing on features to focusing on the "magnet persona"

Overcoming Obstacles
- First business only sold six T-shirts total
- Web tracking tool collapsed when LinkedIn changed a single line of code
- Hit rock bottom with only $1,000 left in savings
- Girlfriend had to cover rent while he ate "cheap pasta" at home
- Co-founders left just as the business was gaining traction

Today's Impact
- $30 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR)
- $10 million in EBITDA
- Customers in over 100 countries
- Team of approximately 100 people
- 37,000 businesses using the platform

Growth strategies that worked
- Bootstrapping: Built first version in just two weeks with $1,000
- User-generated content: Wrote campaigns for customers in exchange for testimonials
- Activation focus: Completely redesigned product when only 15% of users were launching campaigns
- Magnet persona: Identified sales reps as ideal customers who would naturally attract more users
- Product rebuild: 18-month marathon to strip down and rebuild the entire infrastructure

Key Milestones
- $600 revenue in first month
- 40% month-over-month growth initially
- $250,000 ARR within first year
- $1M ARR in second year
- $10M ARR within three and a half years

The Philosophy "Success is rarely as instant as it may seem. Though Lemlist's rise might look like an 'overnight' success, it was actually the result of nearly a decade of persistence, learning, and relentless hard work."

True success lies not just in the destination but in the adventure of striving, learning, and evolving along the way.

Founder story 2

From working at Apple & Amazon to building a SaaS startup: The Laminar Co-pilot story

"I was working 60 hours a week to run this company. One thing I missed from my corporate 9-to-5 was having access to the best tools and software."

This is Kevin describing his life after leaving corporate America to start a freight logistics company. Today, his team has built Laminar Co-pilot, an innovative scheduling solution. But this journey began with a problem that needed solving.

Here's his path:
→ Left prestigious roles at Apple and Amazon to start a freight company
→ Business grew rapidly, adding trucks and drivers weekly
→ Found himself overwhelmed by manual scheduling processes
→ Discussed the problem during a car ride to Santa Barbara with Moses
→ Built an algorithm that scheduled 55 routes in seconds instead of hours

His mindset transformation:
- Corporate life: "Having access to the best tools money can buy"
- Entrepreneur reality: "A lot of Excel, a lot of spreadsheets, a lot of manual maneuvers"
- Discovery: "When I Googled it, I found none. That's when I realized - there's something here"
- Today: "Success means Laminar Co-pilot succeeds not just for myself, but for team members who've invested hundreds of hours"

The turning point came when:
- Their algorithm successfully scheduled 55 out of 60 routes in seconds
- They expanded from a basic upload form to a full application
- Designer Jeremy joined to create the user interface
- The team proved both the logic and customer demand

Today's results:
- Working algorithm and logic proven
- Positive customer feedback
- Focused on scaling backend infrastructure
- Ready to expand nationwide

Key insight about software development: Success isn't just about solving your own problems. It's about finding gaps in the market that affect many businesses and building solutions that save lots of hours.

The best part? "It's always fun when you're trying to build something, but the moment when you add people into it and they've invested hundreds of hours is when the risk transitions from the business failing to you letting your team down."

Founder story 3

How Antoine and William are revolutionizing networking with sustainable digital business cards and reaching €160K in revenue.

The Journey
- Met at Mines Nancy, one of France's top engineering schools
- Started entrepreneurial ventures while still students
- Launched their first company in 2021, two years before graduation
- Started with "JustOneCard" before evolving into Cardynale
- Relocated to Lisbon in 2024 to fully embrace entrepreneurship

The Evolution of Vision
- 2021: Created sustainable NFC business cards made of recycled wood
- 2022: Expanded materials to include metal and PVC based on customer feedback
- 2023: Developed a dedicated platform and mobile application for contact management
- 2024: Built a comprehensive digital networking solution
- 2025: Reached €160,000 in annual revenue with 232 recurring subscribers

Overcoming Obstacles
- Balanced intense engineering studies with starting a business
- Initial focus on outbound marketing didn't yield expected results
- Had to pivot from just selling cards to building a complete platform
- Managed transition from student life to full-time entrepreneurship
- Built a team while still learning the ropes of business

Today's Impact
- €160,000 annual revenue
- €6,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
- 232 subscribers (recurring clients)
- 15,000 total users across the platform
- 3,000 website visitors per month

Growth strategies that worked
- SEO Investment: Built strong online presence through search engine optimization
- Business Development: Hired Anna as business developer to drive commercial efforts
- Freemium Model: Offered free digital business cards as entry point to paid services
- Physical Products: Supplemented SaaS revenue with NFC card sales (60% of revenue)
- Word-of-Mouth: Leveraged engineering school and incubator networks

Key Milestones
- Started as engineering students with a side hustle
- Took a one-year gap from school to focus on the business
- Secured first funding after 2.5 years
- Arranged for internship with own company in February 2024
- Graduated and relocated to Lisbon in September 2024

The Philosophy "I see entrepreneurship as a form of truth and sincerity toward oneself. To become a better entrepreneur, you have to become a better human. That means growing your skills and competence, but also prioritizing your health, finding balance, and building strong, meaningful relationships."

"Successful people see opportunities in every failure. Normal people see failure in every opportunity. They're both right, only one gets rich."

 Growth advice from David Hieatt

Bamboo does something that most fast-growing trees don’t.
It doesn’t grow.

Year 1 - no growth above the soil.
Year 2 - ditto
Year 3 - ditto.
Year 4 - ditto.

Then in year 5, it must have had a triple espresso or something because then it goes. Like really goes. The Chinese Bamboo tree grows 80 feet in just six weeks.

Those early years look like nothing is happening.

But it is putting down roots.

The roots that will support that rapid growth.

Hmmm.

I see brands that want insane growth but haven’t taken the time to put the roots down.

All their effort goes above the soil.

And none below it.

You know how that ends.

 A tweet we loved

That’s us for this week.

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See you next Monday.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo