Lemlist targets 25% to 35% profit margins while investing in growth
Charles Tenot · Lemlist Revenue Hits $40M: CEO Charles Breaks Down $25M Claap Acquisition Deal · Nov 18, 2025 · at 15:51
Charles Tenot, CEO of Lemlist, explains the bootstrapped SaaS company's operating discipline and margin targets.
0:00 / 0:26exact quote · 26.1s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“We try to remain around 25 to 35% of profit margin. Just because we always try to invest in, in the team. So we hire more developers, product managers sales to grow the company, but we always try to remain highly profitable. So, or let's say threshold is like, we always want to be above 20% EBITDA while we always invest in growth.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Charles Tenot
Lemlist generates approximately $10M in annual profit
“Beside this we're profit making at Lemnis. We do around ten million Profit every year.”
Claap reached $2M ARR at 10% monthly growth and cash breakeven
“They pivoted to Conversation Intelligence a year and a half ago. And they grew this product to two million AR and kind of very fast growing, like recently about 10% month over month. And so they had raised the seed, but now they were like almost breakeven. The…”
Charles Tenot says Claap's product equates to a $20M ARR company
“It's a product that is much better than the two million AR product. It's a, it's certainly at the level of a twenty million AR product.”
Lemlist acquired Claap for $15M upfront, scaling to $25M with earn-outs
“It's so the price is between 30, 15 and twenty-five million but there are some components that are like earn-out part, so it depends on future growth but basically we paid around fifteen million right now, and with add-on price if they reach a revenue target.”
Lemlist funded Claap acquisition via convertible bonds without setting a valuation
“We don't set a valuation. We don't need to set a valuation. We don't know, to be honest. Like, you don't need to set a valuation because you convert the bond at the time that there is an operation, you know, the two million worths with a discount. It's 20%.”