About Joel Lessem

"I Was Not Qualified for a Profession so I got a Job in Sales"

After getting an MA in History of Science & Philosophy, I landed a job selling Playtex Bras at 25 years old. Turned out I was good at it, but disliked working at a big company. I wanted to know everything and knowledge of everything was not very forth coming in a fortune 500 company. I lasted one year. From there I got a full commissioned job working for an entrepreneur selling “grey marketed” Apple computer and peripherals. I made three times as much money. It was my entrée in to technology and entrepreneurship.

Working for Bootstrapped Entrepreneurs

For 5 years I worked for bootstrapped entrepreneurs, before my first SaaS start up which failed. At 34 I was broke. I spent 5 years working for other entrepreneurs, bought a house, got married and started a family. Then sold the house, co-founded another SaaS business and began a 16 year journey with Firmex. With families to feed, my co-founders and I decided failure was not an option and that we were going to grow a capital efficient and profitable business. If you make money you can’t lose.

CEO of Firmex

Founded in 2006, Firmex was a SaaS virtual data room business in a mature market. We were not first to market. Incumbents had way more money and resources. We came up with a differentiated commercial model, raised $4m from friends & family we were profitable in 3 years. We had double digit profitable growth every year. The business went through 3 successful sale processes each at sequentially higher valuations. Founders (and employees) took chips off the table through the progression of the business. The last sale was in 2021 for nine figures. Our success was due to strong data driven approach to operating the business. We also had a highly engage team of 125 people, with a company Glassdoor rating for 4.7 . We delivered value for our customers, employees and investors.

Lessem Investments

After 16+ years , it was time for something new. In February 2022, I passed the baton to the existing management team at Firmex. Over the last year, I have learned that I like to invest in and help the next generation of capital efficient founders. After working with LUMIQ’s founders (https://lumiqcpd.com) as an advisor in prior years, I led a $5m transaction which closed in August 2022. The business growing over 100% a year for 4 straight years funded almost entirely on customer revenue.

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