Growing a profitable company is never a linear process.
It’s a bumpy curve with tons of mistakes and the faster you test and learn, the faster you will scale.
I started lemlist in 2018 with $1,000 and six years later we crossed $26M in ARR.
During that time, we’ve tried a looot of things. (We still do because growth = experimentation + constant optimization).
Today, I want to share with you what didn’t work at all, so you could use my experience for your business and avoid my mistakes.
1- Hiring from big “logos”
Every single time I hired people coming from “top companies”, I came to the same conclusion 👇
They look great on paper.
They’re great at communication and politics.
BUT —> They’re the biggest bullshitters on the planet.
“I’m ex-Meta, I’m ex-Google…” yeah, your contribution was a drop in the ocean.
When it comes to really getting shit done and moving fast when you’re an early stage startup, they’re not the right fit.
2- Paid Ads
We tried ads multiple times.
We hired an expert to do that full-time.
We hired agencies.
And we always had the same conclusion —> No real ROI.
I think Ads will work really well for companies that have raised 100s of millions and who need to show growth at all costs.
But for B2B SaaS companies that are bootstrapped and profitable, I’m not sure it’s the best acquisition channel…
I have a video on how you can find customers without spending tons on marketing. Check it out 👉 here
3- Hire too fast
You know the saying, “Hire fast, fire fast”…
Well, in my opinion, it’s BS…
It’s best to hire “slow”.
Because the time you and your team spend onboarding people is the time you’ll never get back if you have to fire the person after a few weeks or months…
Only hire people who you could picture working with for 5 years
I break down the process of hiring A-players in these two videos:
Find the best talent for your business
How to hire your first employees
4- Go too broad too early
When we started getting traction, we attracted many different types of customers.
We felt like we could build a product for a much broader audience to scale faster.
It was a mistake.
If you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one.
Always focus on the customers that get the most value and have the highest willingness to pay (high ACV, low churn)
Every week I’ll publish new articles on how to build and grow a B2B business that generates millions of dollars.
Without any BS and giving you practical templates that you can steal.
Peace, love, and profit 💰
G. ✌️
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