Gumroad founder's framework for a bootstrapped business - Sahil Lavingia, Gumroad
Sahil Lavingia is the founder of Gumroad, the platform that allows creators to sell products online. The beating heart of the creator economy. You'll likely have heard Sahil's story about his failure to build a billion dollar company with an article that went viral, but let me summarise for those that haven't.
Sahil founded Gumroad in 2011, aiming to build the next unicorn, leaving Pinterest where he was employee #2. He raised $1.1m from angels, then $7m more in 2012. Things started growing, then they didn't. Sahil laid off 75% of the company to keep the product alive, moved to Provo, Utah to figure where to take Gumroad from that point. Almost a decade later Gumroad is growing quicker than ever, making millions in revenue and helping creators make a living online.
Sahil has just launched his book, The Minimalist Entrepreneur, where he shares a decade of learnings on how to build a profitable, sustainable business and how entrepreneurs can do more with less to make more impact on the world.
👉 I'm giving away 5 copies of Sahil's book on Twitter, enter here.
What we covered on this episode:
- Sahil’s approach to funding
- Bootstrapping vs VC
- Why Gumroad runs so differently to most companies
- Why longevity has helped Gumroad
- Sahil’s book: The Minimalist Entrepreneur
- Building a project in a weekend: Verification Letters
- Livestream of building Verification Letters
- The framework for starting a business
- Why you should start and then learn
- Barriers people have to starting their business
- Fear of failure
- Importance of writing
Recommendations
- Book: Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- Podcast: All-In Podcast
- Indie Hacker: Naval
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