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$0 to $4,000,000 ARR in 3 years bootstrapped - 7 key learnings

Hello IndieHackers 👋

Here's the recap of the last 3 years as a first-time SaaS founder:

  • Went from 0 to $4,000,000 ARR with lemlist
  • Sold lempod, our side project, after 18 months of hypergrowth
  • Scale our team to 23 amazing people
  • Raised $0 in fundings (fully bootstrapped)

To start 2021 in the best manner possible, I wrote an article where I share 7 secrets that have helped us get where we’re at today.

I also discuss our plans for the year to come 🚀

Enjoy ❤️

P.S: I'm answering all your questions so feel free to ask anything you want in the comment 😊

https://blog.lempire.co/0-to-4m-arr-in-3-years-bootstrapped/

  1. 5

    Your next article will be --> 30 déc 2021 : $0 to $10,000,000 ARR in 4 years bootstrapped 🔥

  2. 1

    Great story, congratulations Guillaume 👏

  3. 1

    Amazing article! I really enjoyed seeing your process. Keep it up :D

  4. 1

    You guys are killing. I love your product! Cheers.

  5. 1

    Did you bring your own lempod users to upvote your post, lol?
    But 4 Million in 3 years, that's truly remarkable. Is it because you found a good niche, or just because you found a way to cheaply attract tons of users?

    1. 1

      lempod got acquired so I don't have anything to do with it anymore 😅

      I guess people really enjoyed this article ;)

      If you read all my articles you'll find the answer to your question 👀

      1. 1

        Haha, it's good that you replied. Even though we didn't get a change to film a podcast together, I think you are a good person and know how to market your lemlist really well.
        In your articles you mention that you do a lot of cold email outreach. Are you using your own tool to grow the MRR?

        1. 1

          Thanks for your kind words Alex 🙏❤️

          I don't recall receiving an invite from you for a podcast... When did you reach out exactly? (Sorry if I didn't reply, I usually answer every single email I receive...)

          Absolutely! Using lemlist to do our own cold outreach is what makes it easy to sell. We know where we're better than our competitors and we always test new approaches so we can help people get better at their own outreach 😊

          1. 1

            I will be trying out your product shortly as our SaaS reaches maturity and need to tap into cold email outreach.

            Question. How did you obtain cold emails? How is your team prospecting and where you buy email lists?

            1. 1

              You can go through this article for finding email addresses: https://blog.lemlist.com/find-email-addresses/

              And then check out this guide to get you started: https://blog.lemlist.com/cold-email-guide-for-beginners/

              1. 1

                The language switcher on your blog has only French in it and doesn't work. What website translation plugin you are using? Try ConveyThis.

                And thanks for the links. I will pass it to my sales staff so they will be educated during their onboarding process.

                1. 1

                  It's not a translation plugin as we don't translate all articles.
                  On our website we use weglot and it's working fine so far 😊

                  I'll ask the team to check out Convey This ;)

                  1. 1

                    You can save 50% or more when switching to ConveyThis from Weglot.
                    Here is the comparison: https://www.conveythis.com/weglot-alternative/

  6. 1

    What kind of skill will you need in the future?
    90 days / 5 years / 10 years

    1. 1

      90 days / 5 years / 10 years --> I need to get better at helping people reach their full potential and strive to do something they love 🚀

  7. 1

    We’re there any books or blogs that you found particularly valuable?

    1. 1

      1- The sales acceleration formula
      2- The hard things about hard things
      3- Lost and founder

  8. 1

    What a story!!! :)

  9. 1

    Amazing results reached 🔥and even more awesome projects to come in 2021 🚀

  10. 1

    Amazing! Let's crush 2021 🔥

  11. 1

    Wow!

    This is one of the best start-up stories I've ever read! Thanks for sharing!

  12. 1

    Ready for 2021🚀

  13. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

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