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Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

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Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#81

Post by WilliamEdward »

AznHisoka wrote: post #4

I wasn't interested in the emotional story behind this. But I did resonate with 1 line in particular here: "It doesn’t matter how amazing your product is, or how fast you ship features. The market you’re in will determine most of your growth." This is so true, in my experience. You hit a roadblock in recurring revenue, not because your product doesn't have enough features, or your team sucks, but simply: your market…

This is weird because... I've noticed the opposite. Often markets are way bigger than you think; or rather, 1000 users for a product seems small but is actually quite a decent size depending on how much effort has been put in.

What it comes down to is being content that you will not always make a billion dollar product. With that in mind, a big market has many definitions. Maybe you should have paid attention to the emotional aspect.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#82

Post by eanzenberg »

Jesus this part sucks:

"In those nine months, when the whole team knew that we were fighting for our company’s life, not a single person left Gumroad. From “this is gonna be hard,” to “yep, turns out it was,” every single person worked harder than ever."

Did everyone one of these people have significant equity in the company?

I'd expect people who love their jobs and who work on something crucial, such as researching new medicines or making more efficient batteries to want and be able to do this. No offense, but if this ultimatum was handed out and I wasn't vested like the top guys I'd bail.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#83

Post by jonplackett »

sahillavingia wrote: post #13

Hey, #1 on Hacker News! I don't think that's happened since...I launched Gumroad back in 2011: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614 Thanks HN for being a part of my journey!

Thanks so much for telling that story.

In hindsight, what do you make of companies choosing or rejecting venture funding in the first place?

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#84

Post by sahillavingia »

bdcravens wrote: post #39
the_other_guy wrote: post #33

I am not sure whether he's really serious or this is a long false modesty article about himself

I've had some interactions with @shl on Twitter where he seemed a bit full of himself (a few years ago - I didn't realize he was so young, so that probably had a lot to do with it). However, he could, and most would, have cut and run and found the next opportunity. Not doing so probably cost him millions of dollars; that's pretty authentic in my book.

I'm sorry you had those interactions with me in the past!

I think I've grown since, but it still sucks to hear that about past-me.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#85

Post by jshowa3 »

Honestly doesn't seem like he failed at all. Sounded like just bad times for the business. I mean 2 years of difficulty seems like a minor thing in the grand scheme of the business lifetime. Not only that, the business literally keeps growing if the graphs are to be believed.

Failing is when you can't come back and you close the business.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#86

Post by eanzenberg »

austenallred wrote: post #76
ChuckMcM wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love your story Sahil, it is so true that people equate 'wealth' with 'success' but that is short sighted. If you step back and look at the big picture, you're on this planet for anywhere from 70 to 100 years, and at the end of that time there are two metrics, the number of people you helped and the amount of wealth you amassed and held on to, which number is a better representative of 'success'? Working on things…

Based on the revenue and growth rates of Gumroad my guess is Sahil will make more money from it than he would have at Pinterest. It will take longer but it will be on his terms.

How is that even remotely possible, unless he got no equity in pinterest? They are ~10b IPO'ing this year. Even 1 basis point of pinterest is worth more than what Gumroad brought in.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#87

Post by mindcrime »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #57
sahillavingia wrote: post #13

Hey, #1 on Hacker News! I don't think that's happened since...I launched Gumroad back in 2011: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614 Thanks HN for being a part of my journey!

I love your story Sahil, it is so true that people equate 'wealth' with 'success' but that is short sighted. If you step back and look at the big picture, you're on this planet for anywhere from 70 to 100 years, and at the end of that time there are two metrics, the number of people you helped and the amount of wealth you amassed and held on to, which number is a better representative of 'success'? Working on things…

at the end of that time there are two metrics, the number of people you helped and the amount of wealth you amassed and held on to

I don't disagree with your overall point, but I do wonder why those should be the only two metrics to consider. IMO, the range of metrics is nearly infinite and highly subjective.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#88

Post by rhizome »

jiveturkey wrote: post #74

Nice story, but: > It doesn’t matter how amazing your product is, or how fast you ship features. The market you’re in will determine most of your growth. This is just a cop-out. The market will limit , not determine, your growth. It's up to you to hit that maximum, and use marketing/sales to extend that maximum. That is called creating a market. And overall it's called execution. OTOH, Sahil isn't wrong. Some markets…

This story seemed inside-out to me. With the "you just have to find the right pre-existing market" logic, as well as the (much more significant to me) "but we were venture-funded, which was like playing a game of double-or-nothing," buried as an aside.

I think these are the real stories in this story: basically stable and relevant, coupled with irrational growth pressure. I get it, though: the personal journey through the wilds of Sand Hill Road, doing battle with market forces with an army of unknown strength, and so I would have liked to see some spotlight on the mistake of taking VC.

In this way, we also see this conclusion about halfway through the essay, "[s]o instead of pretending to be some sort of product visionary, trying to build a billion-dollar company, I’m just focused on making Gumroad better and better for our existing creators. Because they are the ones that have kept us alive."

I remember hearing a lot about Gumroad! People in the UK(? Aus?) used it a lot! In that way, this incredible journey appears as another log on the fire when it could have been part of a nice house. Or something like that. Everything about this story signals a decent business that was killed by VC.

Re: Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

#89

Post by asaddhamani »

sahillavingia wrote: post #42
asaddhamani wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Sahil, Big fan of Gumroad! As a customer, it's one of the neatest checkout flows I've come across, among Stripe. Do you have any plans to expand into subscription offerings?

We do offer subscriptions! https://help.gumroad.com/11163-products-and-customizations/s...

Oh that's great! I'm gonna look into integrating Gumroad into my product in that case. One question: Do you support domestic cards from India? Or just credit cards?

Because that's a problem I face with Stripe as well.

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