Why Startups Shouldn’t Raise Funds Just Because They Can

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.