Guillaume Moubeche was running a lead generation agency when he noticed that generic cold emails got ignored. In January 2018 he wrote the first line of code for lemlist, a tool that inserts personalised images into sales emails. He put in $1,000 of his own savings.
The first paying customers arrived about three months later. Tens of venture investors turned him down, and a competitor announced it would copy the personalised image feature just before launch. The Product Hunt launch in 2018 reached number one of the day, and lemlist had 100 customers by December.
He chose to grow without venture rounds. In 2021, at about $10 million in annual recurring revenue, Moubeche says he sold 20% of the company in a $30 million cash-out at a $150 million valuation.
He has since built the parent company lempire, which runs several brands. Moubeche puts lemlist at about $20 million in annual recurring revenue around 2023 and says it is profitable.