
I started Gumroad as a weekend project - JamesIH
https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/4fc6cbc0e8
======
Matticus_Rex
Yes, this is the same Gumroad and same founder of "Reflections on my failure
to build a billion-dollar company" ([https://medium.com/s/story/reflecting-on-
my-failure-to-build...](https://medium.com/s/story/reflecting-on-my-failure-
to-build-a-billion-dollar-company-b0c31d7db0e7)). Interesting how the
different framing changes the narrative quite a bit.

~~~
vtange
It's a different framing but this frame hides a lot of crucial information
like the fact this venture used venture capital (and probably VC connections
too) and hired many employees. You can't really compare this to the solo-
garage-weekend-project.

~~~
AlphaWeaver
>A few months later, I left Pinterest to work full-time on Gumroad and raised
$8MM from KPCB, Max Levchin, and other investors.

------
Ayraa
As other people have already commented, Gumroad raised venture capital
([https://medium.com/s/story/reflecting-on-my-failure-to-
build...](https://medium.com/s/story/reflecting-on-my-failure-to-build-a-
billion-dollar-company-b0c31d7db0e7)) before. Sahil had to revert Gumroad to a
solo lifestyle business after it didn't grow fast enough to raise another
round.

My question is, without having been venture funded for a period of time, would
Gumroad still be able to $350k/mo now?

During the time Gumroad had a team of engineers, designers, etc., they shipped
a lot of features, made improvements and presumably had a decent advertising /
marketing budget. Gumroad likely wouldn't have reached the point where it is
today product and awareness wise if it had just been one 'indie hacker'
grinding away.

~~~
i_cant_speel
Sure, but if you are an 'indie hacker', you don't need to make anywhere near
$350k/mo to have a very comfortable life.

~~~
Matticus_Rex
That's gross revenue. Their business model probably ends up giving them 5-7%
of that in average net.

~~~
dwild
Their "gross revenue" is $5m a month. Their part of that is 350 000$ a month
(which is still their gross revenue, but I feel like that's what you meant).

> So I built Gumroad. Fast-forward over seven years and we're doing about
> $350,000 in revenue monthly, helping creators earn over $5,000,000 a month.

~~~
gamblor956
_Their "gross revenue" is $5m a month._

The $5m they process is not gross revenue to Gum Road since they're not the
beneficial or legal owners of the $5m in payments received. Their X% share of
that $5m is their gross revenue.

------
hackartist
So now "took money from VCs, tried to do the fast growth and over hiring but
learned the hard way, and now still on it work with a small team" counts as
indie hacking... Who knew? Taking money from VCs is not bad if that is the
path you are choosing, I'm just pointing out it is disingenuous to get
featured on a site which is all about an alternative slow growth but higher
ownership path.

~~~
buboard
if it shows people that VC is not the optimal path, then it has value for IH
too

~~~
topicseed
I think OP meant that while it may not be ideal for the CEO to have used VCs,
it most certainly helped the product itself in terms of resources allocated to
build and perfect it.

I understand that more cash isn't always the best way to build software, but
if the CEO is good (and in this instance, he is) then more cash mostly helped
building the current product.

------
LeonM
'I started Microsoft as a weekend project and now it's making 1B/mo'

'I started Apple as a weekend project and now it's making 1B/mo'

'I started Google as a weekend project and now it's making 1B/mo'

How the company was started is completely irrelevant to the outcome and it's
clearly an 'entreporn' clickbait title. Gumroad raised millions to get started
and it took 7 years to get to the point where they are now. And 350k/mo in
revenue doesn't even mean that they are profitable.

If you are an (aspiring) entrepreneur, don't compare yourself to the typical
story posted on IH.

~~~
warent
Agreed. I stopped visiting IH some time ago after finding that about 95% of
the community seems to be obsessed with get-rich-quick ideas and making as
much cash as possible to retire by 30 or something. This headline exemplifies
that.

~~~
camelNotation
None of them will actually retire in any meaningful sense. You have to change
so much of yourself to become that type of person that even after you reach
that early, luxurious retirement number, you won't take it because there won't
be anything left that you enjoy outside of work.

Perfect plan is minimizing work while maximizing income over a long career.
Those that figure out how to do that will never share their secrets.

~~~
mbrameld
I think (or maybe just hope) that I can avoid that trap by reframing how I
think about retirement. Instead of thinking of retirement as not working on
anything, I'll be thinking of it as working on the things I want to work on.
Instead of seeing progress on the company I'm building every day, I'll be
looking for progress in my mountain biking, or guitar playing, or whatever
hobby I'm interested in at the moment. I'll still be working, I'll still be
building things, they'll just be my things and not done for money.

------
projectramo
Can't believe the founder just built v1.0 over a weekend.

Cleary they didn't know that they should have learned serverless, functional
programming, and then iterated through 4 different front end frameworks before
they actually built the app.

Low expectations for this one.

~~~
ineedasername
His prototype might have taken a weekend, but a team of 20 VC-funded employees
built out the platform's features and infrastructure.

------
pathseeker
"now it's making $350k/mo"=="we're doing about $350,000 in revenue monthly"

~~~
ezekg
Gross profit:
[https://twitter.com/shl/status/1083805607201669120](https://twitter.com/shl/status/1083805607201669120)

~~~
tim333
Yeah that has for Dec

Revenue: $341K

Gross profit: $135K

Still not regular profit / earnings / bottom line, which is what people tend
to mean by 'made'. To get that from gross profit you have to deduct overhead
which is probably quite a lot here.

~~~
ttul
That is a terrible gross margin for SaaS.

------
nyrulez
I have to say a lot of the story writing around GumRoad itself seems to be an
attempt to attract new customers as they have told multiple narratives that
are all click-baity (from trying to be a billion dollar startup to a weekend
project making big bucks).

Almost all projects start small. I am a solo founder and my "venture" also
started as a Python script I wrote over the weekend to help with my own
investing. But it's taken a lot more work since then to actually make it
accessible and useful for people who are not me.

The real question is did he finish and make significant revenue from that
weekend version? It looks like a heavily VC funded startup that did not
produce the growth at par with the funding. For a solo company, this would be
terrific. For a VC one, probably mediocre. Not too bad, but it can be
deceptive to other entrepreneurs reading this as "inspiration".

------
fb03
Is someone here selling music/tracks on Gumroad?

I know a _lot_ of people selling gfx stuff (mostly 3d stuff like shaders and
models) through it but no one selling musical assets, and I'd like to know if
it is a good platform for this kind of content.

Or if you know somewhere else that might be a better fit for this kind of
content, please share.

(Just for the sake of it: I make techno/house/psytrance with lots of
inspiration from chiptunes/vgm music)

Anyone here can share an experience?

~~~
mandelbrotwurst
As a listener / purchaser, I'm a fan of Bandcamp.

~~~
fb03
I want to sell music as an asset. Like, background tracks for videos or game
music, etc.

just for the sake of curiosity, this is the kind of sound i produce:
[http://www.soundcloud.com/flipbit03](http://www.soundcloud.com/flipbit03)

------
sigi45
Ah Boy I hate such unclear wording and simplification.

So he just created that thing with 22h effort and 7 years later it makes
350000$/month?

~~~
cubano
I'm betting probably not...but it's a "feel good" write up and who can't use a
little motivational fantasy once in a while?

------
VectorLock
>How have you attracted users and grown Gumroad? People always ask me this,
and the answer is always super boring: we sent a lot of emails.

Thats really grim advice. Spamming people sucks but do it until you gain
momentum.

~~~
arbuge
Caveat: It worked 8 years ago when they were starting out.

People might have been jaded by spam already at that point, but they are
probably way more jaded now. Spam filters have also gotten alot more
aggressive. Just because that worked in the past does not mean it will again.

Likewise, SMB SaaS competition is alot more intense these days. Even if you
get somebody's attention, they will likely have alot of options to compare you
to.

Distribution is tough.

~~~
VectorLock
Everyone wants to know because building a product is comparatively easy.
Building a customer base is the hard part.

------
ezekg
I wish this interview would have delved a bit deeper into the journey of going
from "weekend project" to VC-funded to life-style business. Right now, it kind
of lacks any real substance and comes off as a typical entreporn story of how
a Python script exploded into a multi-million dollar company. It skips over a
lot of what could have been valuable info for other founders. Not to be too
harsh, but the interview just seems overly romanticized.

------
SamuelAdams
Here [1] is Sahil's original post, 8 years ago. Note that this startup hasn't
been all fun and roses: they had layoffs and restructuring over the years [2].

[1]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614)

[2]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10517008](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10517008)

------
roynal
I do think the narrative is propagating a false sense of easy to achieve
story, considering the founder wrote a lengthy note of self-reflection. Very
sad to see this narrative this removes the faith in the founder's earlier
reflection. Creating a successful business is never easy, you could get lucky,
but you rarely get that lucky. This kind of article makes it seems all rosy.

------
Upvoter33
I use Gumroad for some stuff and it has been great, easy to use and better
than alternatives.

------
meritt
> After payments, hosting, and risk—our only three costs of doing business

What is risk in this context and how is it quantified as a dollar amount? Is
that an amount allocated for returns/chargebacks/fraud?

------
NeoBasilisk
If I did it, then so can you.

~~~
minimaxir
That is, unfortunately, the foundation of a _lot_ of discussion/talks in the
entrepreneurship industry.

------
yardie
I love this story. In life it is so important that you actually get out and do
something. It doesn't have to be big, or elaborate. But it should be important
to you. A single python main.py file and Google App Engine! LOL

------
airstrike
DISCLAIMER

[https://xkcd.com/1827/](https://xkcd.com/1827/)

