Lemlist's rise to $150M

Hey - It's Farzan & Guy

Christmas chaos in full swing. Power washed the front porch for our Christmas eve party and burnt my head in the sun. Brain's burnt, busy and scattered but the content's solid. Let's dive in.

Reading time: 8 mins

In the mail today. 3 founder stories, 1 audience-building playbook, 1 tweet

 Founder story 1 

Lemlist’s rise to $150M (when everyone said no)

(Guy summarised this founder story)

"I had $1,000 left. My girlfriend was paying the rent. I was eating pasta every night."

This is Guillaume Moubeche describing his life before building Lemlist. Today, his company is valued at $150M. But this "overnight success" took 10 brutal years.

Here's the wild story:
→ Started with a failed t-shirt business with his dad
→ Moved to Russia, lost everything on a failed LinkedIn tool
→ Built Lemlist from his last $1,000
→ Now doing $30M ARR with $10M profit

But the fascinating part isn't the numbers, it's how his understanding evolved:
2013: "I'll get rich with t-shirts"
2015: "I'll build the next LinkedIn"
2017: "Let's make sales more human"
2023: "We're building tools for our magnet persona"

The journey was brutal:
- Ruined relationship with his dad after first failure
- Girlfriend stopped believing in him
- Lost all savings in Russia
- Had to lie to friends about being "busy" (was too broke for dinner)
- Co-founders left him alone at $10M ARR

Then everything changed. Guillaume discovered the "magnet persona" strategy - focusing entirely on sales reps who've never churned.

Today's results:
- $30M in revenue
- $10M in profit
- 100+ employees
- Customers in 100+ countries

Key insight about B2B software:
Success isn't about features. It's about finding your "magnet persona" - the customer type that naturally attracts others. For Apple, it was designers. For Lemlist, it's sales reps.

Why this matters:
Most founders chase features. Winners chase the right customers. When you nail your magnet persona, growth becomes inevitable.

The best part? Guillaume finally helped his parents retire. "When they realised they don't have to work or worry anymore... that was the best feeling in the world."

Founder story 2

How Julian Nom built a $37K/month SaaS in 6 days

See how Julian:
- Commuted 3 hours/day while building side projects
- Built NoteForms MVP in just 6 days
- Grew to 100K users and $37K/month
- Bootstrapped solo to a team of 4

What worked:
- Building on Notion's existing ecosystem
- Launching fast before adding features
- Creating viral loops through form embeds
- Starting free, then monetizing gradually

Key Lesson:
Success came from launching quickly on an existing platform rather than building something from scratch.

 Founder story 3 

See how Kushank and Natik built a 5 figure revenue bootstrapped SaaS business using TikTok and content creation.

See how Kushank and Natik:
- Built a venture studio creating micro-SaaS products after 5 failed startup attempts.
- Grew from shy engineering student to social media powerhouse with 900k+ followers
- Transformed their TikTok habit into a scalable business model

Distribution tips from Kushank and Natik:
- Focus on short-form viral content before exploring traditional channels
- Convert best-performing social content into targeted ads
- Build audience first, then leverage it to validate and launch products

I love this story because Kushank shows how persistence pays off - his first startup got just a few visitors, the second made only $1.70, but they kept iterating until they found success by combining engineering backgrounds with content creation.

Audience building playbook

Greg Isenberg: How I’d build an audience from zero in 2025

1. Build your content engine
- pick one painful problem and one platform
- create daily micro-insights - make people laugh or learn
- test different formats/styles - create swipe files of winning formulas

2. Distribution machine
- post 2x daily for 90 days
- track what gets saved/shared vs. liked
- note which times hit different
- test hooks in different groups
- double down on high engagement

3. Build real relationships
- reply to everyone for 90 days
- jump in key conversations (set notifs for 10+ people you respect in your niche)
- try to meet your 10 people IRL
- add value in comments
- share others' victories

4. Build content magnets
- turn customer questions into guides
- package failures/wins into playbooks
- build templates from your process
- share actual numbers/metrics
- basically, start getting email subs instead of followers (gate some of your content)

5. Amplification strategy
- put $50 behind posts that hit
- target look-alike audiences
- boost what's already working
- never boost cold content
- scale winners immediately

6. Compound winners
- turn top posts into ads
- build retargeting sequences
- create content buckets
- let data guide topics
- kill anything under 2x roi

7. Future-proof strategy
- build multi-platform presence
- own your distribution channels
- create library of agnostic/evergreen content (SEO traffic)
- build media properties
- own searchable terms AI might take your job, but not your followers

2025 is a good time to be building internet audiences & communities. i am rooting for you.

 A tweet we loved

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading.

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See you in 7 days.

Guy + Farzan
Founderoo