Why Startups Shouldn’t Raise Funds Just Because They Can

Entrepreneur Talks by STATION F

Fundraising has become a rite of passage for any startup that claims to be ambitious. It is perceived to be a must by many founders, especially those who are building SaaS products that need to grow fast and want to acquire a large market share.

However, fundraising is not always the only way for such a company to succeed.

In this episode, we catch up with Guillaume Moubeche, co-founder and CEO of Lemlist, who bootstrapped his company with $1000 to reach $5M ARR in less than 3 years. Guillaume recently turned down a $30 million offer from a private equity that included a $15 million cash-out for the three co-founders of Lemlist. That meant saying "no" to receiving $5 million straight into each of their bank accounts. What was the thinking behind this decision? Listen now to learn more.

Lemlist is STATION F alum, part of Zendesk program alum and our list of Future40 companies in 2019.

Topics:

00:22 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza

01:13 — Guillaume on why he publicly turned down €30 million

02:22 — Investment offers that Lemlist received from VC and PE funds

03:34 — The background and growth story of Lemlist

04:15 — Guillaume’s approach to company building: focusing on customers rather than fundraising

05:40 — Why he recently went after fundraising

09:18 — When fundraising is relevant for a company

10:26 — The advantage of having constraints on building product

11:31 — The number of offers that Lemlist got

12:23 — Growth strategies: how Lemlist turned $1000 into $5M ARR in three years

15:27 — Things that went wrong and learnings

18:47 — On selling vs. not selling

23:05 — What can we expect to see from Lemlist in the coming months

This episode is hosted by Roxanne Varza and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

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