S8 E37 Practical Solutions to Difficult Problems with Jeremy Gray

Episode 37 Are you a Minimalist Entrepreneur?

Introduction:

Sahil Lavingia started his career chasing unicorns. He joined Pinterest as employee number two but left before his stock invested to build his own billion company: Gumroad. A tool to help creators sell their products online. Simplicity was key, no complicated setup, no elaborate storefront. Just a link for customers to pay and you are in business. Fifty thousand people visited the site on the first day and Sahil felt he was on the cusp of something big.

Gumroad never did become a unicorn, after burning through $10 million of investor’s capital, growth plateaued, attempts to raise additional capital failed. Three quarters of the company’s staff were laid off including many of Sahil’s good friends. From the perspective of Silicon Valley, and in his own eyes, Mr. Lavinga was a failure.

A move from San Francisco to Provo Utah enabled Sahil to change his perspective. Gumroad was a sustainable business, thousands of creators were using Gumroad to build their own businesses. Real people in the real world were paying their mortgages, their kid’s college funds or simply making pin money selling stuff online. By most people’s estimations Gumroad and Sahil Lavinga were a success. By changing his environment from the white-hot environment of San Francisco to the much more conservative atmosphere of Provo Utah it became clear that many more entrepreneurs want to build a sustainable business that matched their values and gave them a lifestyle they found satisfying rather than chase the elusive unicorn.