Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

Sahil Lavingia
Sahil Lavingia

19.8K Followers

Home

About

Pinned

No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees

This article was originally published on my personal website. I started Gumroad in 2011. In 2015, we reached a peak of 23 full-time employees. In 2016, after failing to raise more money, I ended up back where I began: a one-person company. Today, when I’m asked how many people work…

9 min read

No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees
No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees

9 min read


May 30, 2019

Open-sourcing our commit verification tool, Wilfred

If you’re an engineer, you may be familiar with the “can I deploy?” dance. You want to deploy your commit to production, but you’re not sure if all the other commits waiting to be deployed are ready to go. So you ask everyone on the team, “Can I deploy?” and…

Deployment

1 min read

Open-sourcing our commit verification tool, Wilfred
Open-sourcing our commit verification tool, Wilfred
Deployment

1 min read


Mar 22, 2019

Across the Border

Matthew lifted his foot off the gas pedal, inching the car forward. The re-entry point was only a few hundred feet away, but at this pace it would take upwards of an hour. …

Short Story

9 min read

Across the Border
Across the Border
Short Story

9 min read


Published in Marker

·Feb 7, 2019

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

Medium no longer allows this article to be read easily, so I’ve moved this article to be available directly on my website. Sorry for the inconvenience! In 2011, I left my job as the second employee at Pinterest — before I vested any of my stock — to work on…

Startup

14 min read

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company
Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company
Startup

14 min read


Feb 7, 2018

From Bubble to Bubble

This story is now available directly on my website: https://sahillavingia.com/bubble — I’d prefer you read it there! A year ago, I lived in San Francisco. I spent over $2,000 a month for one bedroom in a two-bedroom apartment in the Mission District. Outside of working on my startup, I devoured…

2016 Election

9 min read

From Bubble to Bubble
From Bubble to Bubble
2016 Election

9 min read


Jan 8, 2016

Sell directly on Medium.

Gumroad helps thousands of writers, artists, athletes, designers, software developers, and more take control of their creative careers. Many of them also use Medium to spread the word about their ideas, experiences, and their products. You could include a Gumroad product like any other embed. It turned the link into a static image and some text. Click it, and you’re taken to Gumroad, where you checkout. Not bad, but not perfect.

Medium

1 min read

Sell directly on Medium.
Sell directly on Medium.
Medium

1 min read


Dec 15, 2015

“What is Gumroad?”

Well… In April 2011: “Over this past weekend I had the idea to build a sort of link shortener but with a payment system built-in. …

Startup

2 min read

“What is Gumroad?”
“What is Gumroad?”
Startup

2 min read


Jun 15, 2015

The Small Product Lab.

“Go big or go home.” No, don’t. Nor should you wait for the “stars to align.” They never will. Just bite off a small part of a problem and see if it takes you somewhere. If you want to make big, large, meaningful things you have to start by making…

2 min read

The Small Product Lab.
The Small Product Lab.

2 min read


May 22, 2015

Faking it.

I think that the three big areas most startups (I use this word loosely) fit into is: Providing a product, like 37signals. Creating a community, like Pinterest. Building a useful platform, like Twilio. Many successful startups end up with hands in many buckets, but those identify the three main areas…

Startup

3 min read

Startup

3 min read


Apr 23, 2015

Build apps not businesses.

“Weekend projects” are the staple of many, many developers. I’ve had my fair share. While many are greeted with positive feedback, there are often negative remarks. A common one is that you should be building a business. Worrying about money. Changing the world. David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals is known…

Startup

2 min read

Startup

2 min read

Sahil Lavingia

Sahil Lavingia

19.8K Followers

Founder and CEO, Gumroad

Following
  • M.G. Siegler

    M.G. Siegler

  • Joel Kemp

    Joel Kemp

  • Hunter Walk

    Hunter Walk

  • Sarah Tavel

    Sarah Tavel

  • Jason M. Lemkin

    Jason M. Lemkin

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech