Head of Growth @lemlist

T-Shaped growth guy with sales skills and marketing education 👋

Je l’ai dit en arrivant chez lemlist :  
“Je suis lyonnais, on fera un événement à Lyon.”
C’est calé. Ce sera le 26 février. 

On organise une table ronde au H7 avec Vanessa et Basile, à laquelle j’essaierai humblement de participer.

L’idée n’est pas de faire une conf de plus sur l’IA magique ou la méthode miracle, mais une discussion honnête sur l’outbound tel qu’il se pratique vraiment aujourd’hui.

On a plus d’outils, plus de données, plus d’IA.

Et pourtant, moins de réponses, des cycles plus longs et une complexité qui explose.

L’objectif est simple : faire le tri, et parler de ce qui améliore réellement la performance commerciale sur le terrain.

On abordera le ciblage et les signaux utiles, le passage du signal à l’action commerciale, le rôle réel de l’IA dans la personnalisation, et pourquoi la crédibilité commence bien avant l’email.

Oui il y'aura un apéro et oui les places sont limitées, inscris toi via le lien en premier commentaire.

Erwan Gauthier

why do people reply “please remove me from your mailing list”
…when replying literally removes them from the list?

like man...

you just did it
you won
we’re done here

but I get it, most people think every email = newsletter from 2009
not a human behind a campaign

just funny how outbound is this weird dance where replying is the opt-out but you still have to write like it’s opt-in

anyway

undefined undefined

VP Growth @lemlist & @claap

Tom is a BDR Team Lead at Paddle. He averaged 145% of quota this year and hit 366% in May alone.
And he said I could share his outbound secrets with you.

We spent 1 hour with him at lemlist office. He walked me through the exact playbook and tactics that helped him and his team scale outbound and outperform.

Want it? 

1. Add me 
2. Comment "Tom"
3. I'll send you the complete playbook 


Inside you’ll find:

→ The KPIs and benchmarks he uses to consistently exceed quota
→ How he sources and qualifies high-intent prospects
→ Multichannel sequences that actually generate replies
→ Real outbound wins and experiments that drove results
→ Proven outreach frameworks you can reuse

And the #1 move that stood out: how he leverages personalization and relevance at scale to break through the noise and book meetings.

This is not theory.
It’s the real system behind a top performing BDR Team Lead. 

Want it?

1. Add me 
2. Comment "Tom"
3. I'll send you the complete playbook

I want to coach an outbound team.
Only if everything is public.


What “public” means:

- Every call recorded and shared
- Me and the team posting learnings on LinkedIn
- Decisions, tests, mistakes, iterations
- No private advice hiding in DMs

What I’m committing to:

- 30 min live call every week for 2 months
- Async feedback on Slack, basically 24/7
- Real outbound work, not decks or frameworks

Who this is for:

- A team of at least 5 people
- Already using lemlist (I’m better when I know the tool by heart)
- A market I can actually help with
- You already have PMF meaning outbound is here to scale, not to prove

If you’re in a very small or exotic niche, I might not be the right fit.
I’d rather be honest than pretend.

Why I want to do this:

Outbound advice is usually too clean -> Real progress is messy and visible

That’s the part worth sharing

If this sounds like you, DM me.
If not, you’ll still get the learnings in public.

Antoine Thoreau shared with me the 1h masterclass he did on everything people need to know about lemlist. This was only for his clients first but he accepted that I can share it with you...

Want the link?

1️⃣ Comment "lemlist"
2️⃣ Add me
3️⃣ And I'll share it with you 

This content is a gem.

It’s the most complete breakdown I’ve ever seen on how to use lemlist to book more meetings.

But even if you don’t use lemlist, it’s packed with pure outbound gold.

Here’s what’s inside:

→ How to set up multichannel campaigns that actually get replies
→ How to write messages that sound human, not automated
→ Real examples and workflows used by top outbound teams
→ Extra tips anyone running outreach can steal, tool-agnostic

No fluff. No filler. Just 1h hours of clear, tactical value.

Want the link?

1️⃣ Comment "lemlist"
2️⃣ Add me
3️⃣ And I'll share it with you

most outbound teams still start with lists
and i think that’s already the mistake


lists are static
but buying moments aren’t 

this visual we built with ColdIQ reflects how I actually think about outbound today: not as “campaigns” but as reactions to real signals

here’s the mental model.

1️⃣ signals don’t mean “sell now”

a pricing page visit
a funding announcement
a new hire

none of these mean the person wants a demo they mean something is changing internally.

Outbound fails when you treat every signal as a green light to pitch.

2️⃣ signals should change how you show up

Concrete examples from what we do:

Pricing page visits
→ ask what’s unclear or what they’re comparing, not “want a demo?”

Hiring SDRs
→ share onboarding content or first-30-day mistakes, not feature decks

Champion changing jobs
→ congrats message + one relevant insight, nothing else

Repeated LinkedIn engagement
→ one sharp insight related to the topic, no “saw you liked my post”

same signal but very different message

3️⃣ outbound works when you attach to momentum

you can’t force demand with better copy, you can only catch it when it already exists

lemlist helps us act on them without manual chaos

Hiring only people “from the space” is how you end up scaling the same mistakes faster.

As a growth lead at lemlist, I don’t try to build the best growth team on paper.
I try to build a team that doesn’t agree too quickly.

That means mixing people deep in the space

with people who come from very different backgrounds.

Hugo and Victor come from outbound and growth agencies.
They know the market, the users, the shortcuts.

Lamia comes from consumer: NordVPN.
Julia comes from a different kind of SaaS: CMS, not sales tools.

Same goals. Very different mental models.

Here are the 3 things this unlocks.

1️⃣ Outsiders bring productive naivety

They don’t respect fake best practices.
They ask the questions insiders stopped asking.

2️⃣ Insiders are forced to explain themselves

When “that’s how outbound works” isn’t enough,
ideas either get better or disappear. Both are wins.

3️⃣ Learning speed goes up for everyone

Context flows from insiders to outsiders.
Fresh angles flow the other way.

Growth isn’t about stacking experts in the same room
It’s about creating enough tension to make better decisions

I’m not building a team to look smart
I’m building one that learns fast and hits targets.

VP Growth @lemlist

Ok I’ve seen the slides from this webinar and I can tell you this isn’t another “AI growth story” with nice charts and vague lessons. 

You really need to come

When I knew this was going to happen, it went straight into my calendar

Because this is the behind-the-scenes of how ElevenLabs went from $0 to $330M ARR in 3 years

I mean not the story you tell on stage but the one you live while building : 

- What actually changed when things scaled?
- How outbound slowly went from “why are we doing this?” to 30% of closed deals, even with crazy inbound?
- What they measure?
- What they ignore?
- What didn’t work (which is usually the most useful part)

Jonathan Chemouny is breaking down the real GTM mechanics and @charle
won't let him hide anything, I can tell you that. 


February 18th - 9am PT / 6pm CET - link to block your calendar in comments ⬇️

Every time I meet another growth leader, one question is always on the table.
“How do you get employees to post at lemlist?"


They expect a system, a copy-paste framework they can use internally and I really wish I can have something like this. 

But the answer always disappoints them..

Because there isn’t one guys

- No Notion doc
- No internal challenge.
- No Slack reminders
- No “employee advocacy” program.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth : 

If employee posting isn’t already there, it’s very hard to manufacture it as a channel

I know it's hard to hear. 

People talk about it like a lever you can pull but imo it's not

At lemlist, employees post because:

- some people like writing
- some people like sharing what they’re learning
- some people like being visible

and it was never framed as “you should do this”

No we didn’t convince anyone, no one earned extra bonus for that and I'm not promoting anyone in my team because of it. 

If you want employee posts:

1. start yourself
2. post consistently
3. show the messy parts
4. don’t overbrand it
5. don’t turn it into a KPI

That's an annoying answer, I know.
But every other one is lying so please trust me

I sent 3 cold emails
Your job: guess their reply rates

Same product
Same story
Same target

If you skim them, they look identical
If you really read them… still pretty close.

And yet, people replied very differently

So let’s make it a game

In the carousel, you’ll see:

A
B
C

Guess the reply rate for each one before reading the comments

play the game

The intent signal is clear:  Real Madrid C.F. is in a tough spot right now.
Here’s how I can help Kylian secure his next move for next year ⬇️

it's 9pm on a fucking friday, we're going to Hï Ibiza let’s go

we're going to Hï

Trellus (YC W22) is now integrated within lemlist and that’s a very good addition for sales reps.
Let me tell you how you can use it (stay with me, it will be short and impactful) : 


Ok so we all know personalized outbound creates valuable intent signals.
But most of them go unused right?

- John open your email
- Rebecca replied yesterday 
- Albus click on your link 

That's stats for your manager but it's not helping.

Then let's pretend lemlist already captures all of this: deliverability, replies, and engagement across email and LinkedIn

So you can see interest earlier in the cycle

Now imagine that Trellus (YC W22) turns that interest into action on the phone

Instead of calling cold lists based on static rules, reps call when something actually happens (remember John, Rebecca and Albus?)

Timing finally matches intent 

What changes:

– Email opens and replies inform when calls should happen
– Deliverability signals help reps focus on reachable accounts
– Phone outreach feels relevant instead of random

The phone stops being a cold interruption
It becomes the natural continuation of a conversation that already started 

Suji, Ajinkya at Trellus (YC W22) and the lemlist team share the same motto :
sales is one of the hardest jobs.

So we should give reps every unfair advantage we can

Here’s another one

Any Trellus or lemlist users here?
Curious to hear how you’re using it.

it's very clear that you need a bit of my help OpenAI

open ai

most outbound doesn’t fail because reps are bad at selling
it fails because we talk to people at the wrong moment

we spend weeks perfecting copy
then send it to companies where nothing is moving

this carousel with Alex from ColdIQ is how we try to fix that: 

not by “finding hotter leads”
but by reacting to real intent signals in real time

here’s the logic behind it:

1️⃣ signals are about attention, not intent

a website visit or a pricing page loop does not mean someone wants a demo
it means they are actively thinking about the problem

when someone comes back to the pricing page, i don’t ask for a call
i ask what they are comparing or what is unclear right now

the job is to reduce friction, not to force urgency

2️⃣ signals reveal internal change

a funding round, a hiring surge, or a new leader joining usually means priorities are shifting
tools are being re-evaluated and decisions are not locked yet

when a company starts hiring sdrs, i don’t send a product tour
i share onboarding mistakes and what typically breaks in the first 30 days

showing up before the stack is finalized changes the whole conversation

3️⃣ signals should change how you show up

a champion changing jobs or repeated engagement on the same topic is context and context should always change tone

when a former champion changes jobs, i send a congrats message and one useful insight
no pitch, no cta, no artificial follow-up

this is exactly why we built intent signals inside lemlist
to track these moments in the background and act when something is actually moving

5 intent signals

your outbound probably isn’t broken, it’s just blind half of the time

and it's not because the tools are bad
but because humans are terrible at noticing signals consistently

this is how we think about it instead

1. signals don’t wait for you

- job changes
- site visits
- linkedin engagement
- champions moving around

either you catch them or you miss them

2. everything has to land in one place

meaning not ten tools, not scattered alerts
one hub where signals are deduped, scored, and contextualized

if it’s not worth acting on, it shouldn’t move forward

3. timing beats creativity

most teams spend weeks polishing campaigns and miss the moment that actually mattered

although the strongest signal is rarely the sexiest one: champion switches keep outperforming almost everything else because trust travels faster than copy

4. evergreen beats episodic

no launches, no pauses, no “we’ll come back to this later”

just listening, scoring, and reacting quietly every day

this is what we’ve been building and iterating on with Hugo, Ruben Vleurick, and the Crumbs team

Jimmy Donaldson (yes it's MrBeast on Linkedin), I just want to help I'm sure I can bring even better than the Super Bowl ads with Salesforce

MrBeast

Here's how we're going to generate 100K$ ARR for Claap by working with creators on Linkedin in Q1 : 

lemlist bought Claap in November and our first instinct was to reuse what already works at lemlist and scale influence quickly.

We didn’t.

Claap isn’t a pipeline product. It’s about what happens after the call.
And influence breaks very fast when the story isn’t real.

So instead of a content plan, Lamia built an operating model.

1️⃣ Fix the foundation before publishing anything

Before posting a single piece of content, we contacted every existing influencer working with Claap.

Not to re-brief them, but to ask two simple questions:

- are you actually using the product 

- and do you want to keep working together?

Then came the unsexy part. 

Contracts, clear expectations, and cutting creators who weren’t using Claap anymore.

This step is non-negotiable.
If the creator doesn’t feel the pain, the audience will.

2️⃣ Go smaller than feels comfortable

For Q1, we capped it at 6–8 creators.

Each one uses Claap in their real workflow, posts once per month, and focuses on telling one strong story instead of chasing volume.

No content machine
No weekly AI productivity posts

One honest story beats ten polished ads.

3️⃣ Reduce the messaging to almost nothing

We picked only two angles.

“My sales calls changed” for reps.
“Managers finally see what’s happening” for managers.

That’s it.

No feature dumps.
No generic AI talk.

If a post doesn’t fit one of these angles, it doesn’t go out.

4️⃣ Soft CTA, hard math

Every post points to a demo or a free trial.
Nothing clever or hidden.

Claap has higher ACV, so we don’t need volume.
We need trust.

With 6–8 creators doing real stories, and around 7–10 deals each, $5100k ARR is realistic.

If you’re launching influence, you can steal this.

Start with credibility, not reach.
Go smaller than feels safe.
Force focus on messaging.

Influence isn’t a growth hack.
It’s an operating discipline.

The real career risk isn’t going back to IC
It’s staying a manager you don’t want to be


I’m constantly hiring, and I keep seeing the same pattern.

Smart, ambitious people who became managers and are clearly unhappy doing it.
Not bad at it. Not failing. Just drained.

And most of them stay anyway, because going back to an IC role feels like admitting something went wrong

Management isn’t a promotion, you hear me?

It’s a role

And for some reason, it’s the only role you’re not allowed to leave without being judged.

From what I see, some of the strongest candidates I meet are former managers who chose to go back to IC roles

They don’t chase scope or headcount
They chase impact

They understand how decisions get made, where leverage really is, and when saying no matters more than doing more

They don’t over-execute on low-value work, and they don’t need constant alignment to move things forward

In lean, ambitious companies (like lemlist), that profile is incredibly valuable

Those teams don’t need management by default

They need people who can own outcomes end to end, execute fast, and think beyond their immediate task without creating noise

Yet most career ladders still assume a single direction: IC, then manager, then more manager

As if excellence in craft was just a phase you’re supposed to grow out of

That mindset is how you end up with managers who don’t really want to manage, ICs who feel stuck or undervalued, and companies that slow down as they grow

Some people scale through people
Others scale through judgment, execution, and craft

Both paths matter

Pretending only one of them is real progression is lazy career design and a good way to lose great talent

If you tried management and didn’t like it, that’s not a failure.
It’s information

And in the teams I want to build, that kind of clarity is exactly what I’m hiring for

We spend a lot of energy trying to convince strangers
and almost none tracking the people who already trusted us once

Your best champions don’t disappear: 

- they change jobs
- they get promote
- they re-enter buying situations

and suddenly the conversation is not:

“who is this?”
but
“great to hear from you”

yes cold outreach matter, we all do it

but pretending every deal has to start from zero is lazy thinkink...

this came out of a bunch of chats with Soheil at ColdIQ

Same pattern every time: the easiest pipeline is usually the one you already built and forgot to follow.

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