From Broke to Building a $150M Company in 4 Years
Guillaume Moubeche went from being a newbie to co-founding two startups in four years. His second startup, lemlist, currently does $15M+ ARR and he plans to create 100 millionaires in the next five years. What is the wild story of Guillaume Moubeche?
Tibo
Building https://t.co/SqfsvoXTFh & https://t.co/CSayh5CcgM to $10m ARR (both acquired) 🚢 sharing all my learnings about startups & audience building - while building new stuff
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From broke to building a $150M company in just 4 years.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
Last year, he earned more than the CEOs of LinkedIn, Zoom, Hubspot and Shopify combined.
In the next 5 years, he plans to create 100 millionaires.
The wild story of Guillaume Moubeche 🧵 pic.twitter.com/ko5QxSQLa0 -
But back in 2018, Guillaume was a newbie.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
He had no network, no capital, just the hunger to be an entrepreneur.
4 years later, he has co-founded 2 startups.
1) lempod, grew to $600k ARR & was sold.
2) lemlist, currently does $15M+ ARR and is valued at $150M+ -
He is 30 years old - & still no one can pronounce his name correctly. So we call him "G".
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
How did it all start for him? 👇 -
Guillaume grew up in a family that didn't have a lot of money.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
So, the idea of becoming an entrepreneur never crossed his mind.
His parents didn't have the opportunity to pursue higher education, so they worked hard to provide him and his brother with a good education. -
They believed that becoming an engineer was the key to success.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
So G followed their advice and got a master's degree in chemical engineering.
He worked for big companies like Procter & Gamble and Hermes, -
But after graduating, he felt the need to do something different.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
For himself.
So he took a break to travel the world for a year. (my kinda guy!) pic.twitter.com/lJttqPcROx -
On the trip, he & his best friend turned to social media for free accommodations and exchanged work for longer stays.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
He did it all:
- taught English in Bolivia
- worked at a coffee farm in Colombia
- learned permaculture in Costa Rica. pic.twitter.com/bQo5KE0OmV -
Experiencing the generosity of people from all over the world was a liberating and fulfilling experience for him.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
He felt truly free.
And came back stronger. -
After returning to Paris, he decided to launch a business to create the same freedom he experienced while traveling.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
With his dad's expertise in graphic design and fabric printing, they launched a t-shirt brand, "Paris reste un rêve". pic.twitter.com/0GaV2657ai -
He was a chemical engineer & didn't know anything about business
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
So he decided to study business while his dad handled production
He was confident that they'd receive 1000s of orders
But, the launch was a failure - they only received 6 orders. Yet it wasn't that big a failure -
He got to know that they were not the only business that started and failed to get customers.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
Now, that was the problem he solved with his next business.
"Customer Acquisition"
He started a lead generation agency with a friend. -
As soon as it took off, he decided to sell his shares to start a SaaS.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
As G was frustrated with the tools they were using at the agency and believed he could create a better platform. -
He pitched this idea to 2 other friends, and they loved it.
— Tibo (@tibo_maker) June 10, 2023
In Jan 2018, they launched @lemlist - a platform that helps people worldwide connect with their customers. pic.twitter.com/sh8d3jACSp