How Domitille de Saint-Exupéry (CMO at Lemlist) Turned $1.2M into $31M in New ARR

#332 | Dave is joined by Domi de Saint-Exupéry, CMO at Lemlist, a bootstrapped $40M ARR sales engagement platform, to break down exactly how she turned $1.2M in marketing spend into $31M in new ARR in 2025. Domi shares the full breakdown of every channel, agency, influencer strategy, and partnership play that drove results. This includes how they went from $0 to $500K in paid ads, why partnerships are the most underrated B2B growth channel, how they built a micro-influencer program, and what AI use cases are actually working (and which are overrated). If you want real numbers and real playbooks, this one's for you.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - Introduction: $1.2M in spend, $31M in new ARR
• (03:33) - What Lemlist does and how the company got to $40M ARR
• (06:48) - Going from $0 to $500K in paid ads: what triggered the shift
• (11:03) - How to execute paid ads well: outsourcing vs. in-house, and scaling by channel
• (17:18) - LinkedIn ads creative: why "on-brand and safe" was the wrong approach
• (21:48) - Mistakes made in paid: Snapchat, Spotify, and channels that didn't work
• (25:18) - The micro-influencer playbook: how to find, brief, and measure creators
• (36:44) - How influencer content compounds with paid ads and outbound (the Julio story)
• (42:14) - Partnerships: why $450K went here and why it's the most underrated B2B channel
• (50:44) - AI in marketing: what's overrated (content generation) and what's actually working

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