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40 Comments

We said NO to $30 mln offer from VC investor 😱 (and here is why)

  1. 7

    Why we refused $30 ml offer from VC?🔥

    1. Why did we decide to raise money?
    2. How did we do it?
    3. And why we said NO to the $30 ml offer ($15 ml cash out to founders)

    Everything is in the 4-mins video

    1. 3

      You're legends Ilya! Love what Guillaime, you and the team at lemlist are doing.

      1. 3

        thanks, we just want to show the new description of "success" and it's not about how much money have you raised 🔥

  2. 2

    This is how we win.

  3. 2

    Nice video! I used Lemlist before, it is a neat product to do what it does. Not surprised about its growth. The team really understands cold outreach well. Kudos!

    1. 1

      3 years = $5mln ARR (fully bootstrapped)

  4. 2

    Whoa, nice work!

    Random question: how come you have your blog at https://blog.lemlist.com/?

    I've been thinking that for SEO it's better for it to be at /blog which is why I did that for my blog (instructions on doing that for Ghost here).

    1. 1

      we didn't spend too much time at the very beginning, but it's time to step back and define the things we can improve (this is one of them)!

      Thanks a lot ❤️

  5. 2

    This was brilliant! Congrats for getting to this point.

  6. 2

    Fantastic video! 👏

    1. 2

      Thanks! We really tried to make something cool 🔥

  7. 2

    This was a very well-made video! Congrats on growing the business to this level of profitability.

    1. 2

      Thanks!
      3 years of hard work to show the world a new type of "success" (success might be reached in a bootstrapped way as well)

  8. 2

    This is exactly what I am explaining my friends and family since I went full-time on my project and they are all asking if I will "raise funds" 😅
    Raising fund is not necessarily a healthy path and one I want to take...

    1. 3

      Not sure about your situation, but just saying "raising funds means I'll lose control of my company" is enough of an explanation for the non-startup crowd to understand why you are avoiding it.

      1. 2

        Yes, probably the best explanation together with "unaligned objectives" between VC and founders.

    2. 2

      profitability rules 🔥

  9. 2

    I noticed quite a few entrepreneurs refusing VC money lately. This is a fascinating position/trend. Also, great news because the next unicorn would likely be a bootstrapped upstart––and that'd mean more return to the founders and the early team behind it.

    Congrats, Ilya. This is not only a bold decision but also an inspiring one in several ways.

    1. 1

      Thanks!
      We do really want to be successful without VC funds 🔥

  10. 1

    I first I thoguht that it's just a another clickbaity header with no content whatsoever, but it turned out to be a rly nice experience - watching the video. Keep up the good work!

  11. 1

    May I ask what css framework do you use on lemlist.com? It looks nice.

  12. 1

    That's one well made video. And that's one well made marketing campaign.
    It's refreshing!

  13. 1

    Oh no, my gateau. 😁

  14. 1

    Well .. i was wondering... for which company you got the offer ? what product ? the email tracker ? :)

    1. 1

      lemlist.com (the sales automation platfom)

  15. 1

    Would you have said no if it was 100M?

    1. 1

      In 6-9 months, we could get this offer, but with 99% we'd say - no

  16. 1

    We had previously rejected 200,000. Welcome to the club. :)

    1. 1

      saying NO to VC it's a new trend? 😂

      1. 1

        No, our initiative was the dating app. 😃

    1. 1

      Man I don't know if this has been a good idea, but as long as it reflects your vision ... it's the best possible :)

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