Guillaume Moubeche

lempire

0 to $20M+ in ARR in just 5 years.
Started the company with $1000.
We build the coolest products to help innovative companies with high ambition skyrocket their growth 🚀

Founder & CEO

lemlist

💰 The only tool that uses AI to find your next customers, book meetings with them, and close deals.
🌎 Used in 100+ countries around the globe
❤️ 10,000+ innovative companies are using lemlist to grow their revenue daily

lemwarm

The only tool you need to stop landing in the spam folder.

lemcal

Taplio

The only tool we've used with my teams to reach millions of people on LinkedIn every single month with our content 😍

Eventually, I decided that it was time to acquire the company 🚀

Owner

Tweet Hunter

$0 to $20M ARR in 5 years bootstrapped | I share tips on how to grow a profitable SaaS business | Founder & CEO @lempire (lemlist, lemwarm, lemcal, taplio, tweethunter)

👋 I'm G., and here's my story in a nutshell:

- Founded 2 businesses: one sold at $600k ARR, the other valued at $150M+
- Authored a book - "The $150M Secret"
- Featured in 200+ media outlets

📈 $0-$20M ARR in 5 yrs without funding with lempire (lemlist, lemwarm, taplio, tweethunter, lemcal)
💸 Sharing my learnings on Profit-led Growth: the only resource you need to grow a profitable SaaS business

What you'll get by following me:
🚀 Actionable tips to grow a profitable SaaS business
🔥 Transparent & actionable advice, no fluff
💼 Exclusive updates on lempire’s growth

Ready to adopt a profit-led growth approach and bootstrap the SaaS of your dream? 

I’ll be posting business growth tips and tricks - so hit that “Follow” button!

Peace, love & profit  ✌️

G.

If your friend just launched a company, here's what you should do:

1- Buy the product without asking for a discount

2- Write a review/testimonial

3- Find people in your network who could benefit from it.

You have no idea how much impact you can have as a first supporter to someone who's just getting started ❤️

P.S: If you're not in the target audience, do #3 only.

I’ve talked to 50+ VC-backed startup founders, and you’d be amazed by the number of people who “didn’t know the rules of the game” when they raised their first round…

I’ve also invested money as a LP (Limited Partner) in a few VC funds to understand better the ins and outs.

So, here’s a quick recap of the “golden rules” for everyone who’s thinking about raising.

VC or Venture Capital is a form of private equity and a type of financing for startup companies with long-term growth potential.

VCs usually manage the money of their LPs, promising to return 3 to 5 times the investment over 5 to 7 years.

To make it simple: If you give them $100k, they will give you back $300k in 5 years (or at least that’s what you hope for when investing).

So, to be able to invest money in companies, VCs have to raise funds for their LPs.

But how exactly do they raise funds?

Well, exactly like entrepreneurs - they need to convince investors.

And the best way to do so is to have an impressive track record (this is important for later), either because they’ve worked in other funds before or thanks to their network.

Once they’ve raised a fund they usually invest it over 18 to 24 months.

This is where it becomes interesting…

Remember, LPs will only get a return on their investment in 5 to 7 years. 

But one fund is usually invested over 18 months.

So what’s happening during that gap time?

Well, VCs usually raise another fund. 

And another one every 18 months…

But how can they build a track record if they usually want to exit after 5 to 7 years (as they promised their LPs?)

Well, they usually give a valuation to their portfolio.

And for them to show that their portfolio value is growing, they need two things:

1- They need startups to raise another round at a higher valuation

2- They need a liquidity event to exit (startup is getting acquired - an IPO or selling to other investors)

And that’s where most founders get confused…

There’s a simple reason why VCs pressure founders to spend the money they’ve raised “fast” OR raise another round…

VCs play a “portfolio” game where their portfolio must be growing so they can raise another round.

When founders play an “all-in” game.

VCs want you to take the maximum risks possible because they are fine losing 7 times out of 10.

But as a founder, are you fine taking that level of risk knowing that you could be in control and have a lot more chance to succeed if you decide to take a bit more time to achieve your ambitious goals?

P.S: I have nothing against the VC-backed route. I just feel like it’s important to know which game you’re playing 💪

When a VC invests $100M at a $1B valuation, everyone will say that the company is a “billion dollar” company (or unicorn).

But in the VC’s mind, it’s not (at least not really).

Its ACTUAL value is $100M, which makes it a much lower-risk investment. 

And that’s because of what we call a “liquid pref”.

If you’re not familiar with liquid preference, it means that when the company sells (whether it’s an IPO or a private sale), investors will get their money back first.

So let’s take a specific example:
Let's say a VC invested $100M at a $1B valuation. To keep it simple, we’ll say they got 10% of the company. Previous investors have another 50%. The founders have 30%, and the employees have the remaining 10%.

Now let’s take the scenario where the company get sold at $150M.

They didn’t manage to reach their insane revenue goals, so they had to sell at a price that would make any founder extremely happy! Especially when they own 30% of it.

But here’s the twist 🕵️‍♂️

With the liquid pref, the investors will get their money first - which means that out of the $150M they will get $100M + 10% of the remaining $50M.

If the other investors also had a liquid pref on other rounds, chances are that, in this example, founders and employees will end up with close to nothing.

To simplify what that means 👇

Investing in startups is very similar to picking a specific number at the roulette.

In most cases, you lose.

But if you win, you win BIG.

Well, with a liquid preference, it’s exactly the same as picking a number, except that if your number is not picked, you don’t lose. You just get your initial investment back.

The only way to lose your investment is if it ends up on 0.

Otherwise, you’re safe.

Pretty sweet for VCs 🍯

2018: You’ve already failed 3 businesses are you sure you don’t want to take a “real” job?

2019: lemlist's market is way too competitive, you’ll get crushed eventually…

2020: It’s not because you’re growing 2 digits Month over Month that you have product market fit…

2021: The $150M valuation you got was simply because of the current market

2022: I don’t know why you’d acquire a company like Taplio it doesn’t make any sense

2023: That $23M in ARR milestone is insane! Love what you’re doing!

2024: Are you guys still hiring?

“If people are doubting how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore”

❤️

What is liquid preference and how does it work?

What are some examples of liquid preference?

What is the risk of investing in startups?

Some entrepreneurs flex with:
- Cars
- Houses
- Watches

But I prefer the ones who flex with:
- Helping a friend who’s getting started
- Providing for their family
- Changing people’s lives

Ones focus on toys, others on making the world a cooler place ❤️

Here's how much a bag of chips costs:
- $0.5 in a supermarket
- $1 at the vending machine
- $3 at the hotel minibar
- $4 on a plane

Same chips, different value.

The only thing that changed is the place.

So next time you feel like people treat you below your worth, change place 😇

The biggest mistake you can make as a CEO (I’ve done it myself at lemlist, and I’ll share how you can fix it):

Rewarding someone from your team who is great at their job by giving them a promotion to management.

The issue is that being a top performer and a top manager are two very different things. 
They require a VERY different skill set.

So how to fix this?

The first step is to understand whether your top performers want to become managers for the money or because they want to lead a team.

If they want to lead a team, you should offer them proper training for that and help them level up.

If they simply want to earn more money, they shouldn’t be managers, and you should allow them to earn more than managers even if they stay individual contributors.

Most people feel like the only “way up” is by becoming a manager.

That shouldn’t be the case.

You should offer a path for people to be rewarded for their expertise.

The more value they bring to the company, the higher their paycheck should be.

Hope that helps ✌️

If you want to get hired in an early-stage startup (less than 10 people), DO NOT send your resume to the CEO

Instead, do this:

Send the CEO an email including:

1- What you want to do at the startup

—> “I want to write content to help more people learn about how to do sales prospecting”

2- Explain WHY

—> “I feel like "content" is not something you’ve invested heavily into so far, and from my research, there are around 200,000 people searching about these topics each month”

3- Explain WHY “YOU”

—> “I’ve learned a lot about SEO, and I know how to write articles that rank on the first page of Google like {{example}}”

That’s it - you’re now part of the 1% of candidates who stand out 🎉

No need to have attended the best schools or have any degree tbh.

Startups are always looking for doers and people who can deliver results, and if you've never had a job before or want to change job, do this 👇

Learn valuable skills online (SEO, Copywriting, Sales etc...) apply these skills, and get results.

--> If you're learning SEO, create an article that will rank on a topic you like with a free blog.
--> If you learn sales, book a meeting with someone you admire 
--> If you learn "copywriting", start writing content on LinkedIn on this topic

Tl,dr: Show, don't tell. 

--> Simple, yet soooo rare (And I've received 10s of thousands of applications in the last years...)

P.S: Weekends are usually the best time to send that email 😉

✌️

How I used to define success:
- Being busy all the time
- Shiny objects
- Hustle 24/7
- Wearing suits
- Having an article on Techcrunch

How I define success now:
- Sleeping 8 hours
- Working on projects I'm passionate about
- Daily me-time
- Exercising daily

True freedom and success come from controlling your time and your energy ❤️

Here’s a framework to use if you want to become a star employee 👇

It can be used in all your communication with your team, but especially with your manager.

1- Context
2- Solution
3- Reasoning
4- Action

1- Context:
Managers are switching tasks all the time. So if you don’t give context, you’re adding useless back-and-forth

❌ Don’t say —> “here’s the link”
✅ Do say --> “here’s the updated version of the article including the team feedback”

2- Solution:
Whenever you face a problem you should always look for solutions FIRST. Be a problem solver.

❌ Don’t say —> “Pushing the deadline will mess up the entire marketing plan”
✅ Do say —> “I’ve reorganized our launch strategy entirely so it fits the adjusted deadline for the project”

3- Reasoning
Showing people WHY you took a specific route rather than another one is the best way to illustrate that you thought it through and that you’re not missing out on something.

❌ Don’t say —> “What do you think?”
✅ Do say —> “To me, it will allow us to avoid risk1 & risk2 while at the same time still be able to achieve goal1 & goal2”

4- Action
Most people send messages without clear action items. Be crystal clear about what are the next steps to remove friction.

❌ Don’t say —> “What do you think?”
✅ Do say —> “I just need your “GO” if you agree with this solution”

TL;DR:
1- Context (here’s why it’s important)
2- Solution (here’s how I’ve planned to solve this problem)
3- Reasoning (here’s why I think it’s the best solution)
4- Action (here’s what I need from you)

✌️

Entrepreneurship changed my life.

Here is my love letter ❤️ 👇

Entrepreneurship changed my life. And even though things didn't go as planned, Everything was much better than I could ever imagine. Every failure, all the successes. I would do everything all over again. And for all of that, I'm eternally grateful...

Open video: My love letter to entrepreneurship on youtu.be

My best friend Arthur Landon is looking for a new opportunity as a Key Account manager 🔥🔥🔥

He was the first employee at a startup where he helped grow the Annual Revenue from $150k to $3,300,000 in 6 years.

If you're a french startup who's looking for someone highly skilled in sales and customer relationships, he's your guy! 

If you want to know more about him - he created a cool Notion where you'll also be able to book a meeting with him (slots are limited)

Here's the link 👇

https://lnkd.in/ek78geMg

Most people who get started spend months building their first website when they actually don't need one to start generating revenue...

Here's why 👇

#NursesOnLinkedIn if you want to learn about #business #startups #funding - how this world works - see Guillaume Moubeche below. 

His posts are spot on and provide deep understanding to the current market relevant to #healthcare #startups and beyond. 

#HealthcareOnLinkedIn #VCs #PrivateEquity

Taplio

Guillaume Moubeche's Linkedin Analytics