I tried Gumroad for about a year and I really loved it but unfortunately I was forced to move to Paddle due to the lack of some core payment features (eg. localized pricing, VAT-inclusive price, wire withdrawals, ability to change subscription plans for an user). I was told that although those features are planned, it will take a really long time before they are implemented, which makes sense considering the fact that Gumroad seems to be in a maintenence-only mode.
No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
271–280 of 543 posts
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#272anti-overtime, interesting! > We also have an “anti-overtime” rate: past twenty hours a week, people can continue to work at an hourly rate of 50 percent. This allows us to have a high hourly rate for the highest leverage work and also allows people to work more per week if they wish.
It is devilishly genius. You set a 20 hr/week regime and only keep the employees who work twice as hard, at 20-30 h/week you are actually extracting 80% of the worker productivity in any case at 50% of the cost.
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#273> When someone new joins the company, they do what everyone else does: go into our Notion queue, pick a task, and get to work, asking for clarification when needed... Instead of setting quarterly goals or using OKRs, we move towards a single north star: maximizing how much money creators earn. It’s simple and measurable, allowing anyone in the company to do the math on how much a feature or bug-fix might be worth. Qu…
I actually really like the anti overtime policy (half your hourly rate after 20h / week)
I suspect that scares off workaholics.
It's definitely sustainable if they don't plan to grow, and frankly it might still be sustainable at much larger sizes
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#274> Instead of having meetings, people “talk” to each other via GitHub, Notion, and (occasionally) Slack, expecting responses within 24 hours.
I like that. I'm not a fan of any IM system. I will use iMessage, from time to time, but it's usually email and Git Issues.
I use Slack as a "store and forward" system, like email; only checking it occasionally.
But I have the luxury of being the only tech person on one team; doing 100% of the coding, and being nothing more than a "hands off peanut gallery" on another. The designer for the first project uses Figma.
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#275The article keeps talking about “creators” and services catering to their needs. What are creators? Or perhaps, what are they creating?
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#276Imagine if all the companies in the world switched to this friendly, non-competitive mode? I heard something like that before... hmm, communism? You don't have to work (hard), you'll still get your paycheck.
Problem is - it doesn't work in the long term. It can work for a while, until your money runs out or someone more competitive comes along and blows you away.
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m making $10K/mo for a quarter-time PM role at Gumroad (so about $250/hr).
Interesting is the Product Management market pretty active? What's kind of roles are on offer?
Not sure what end of the scale of PM OP is on.
It goes from "I make PowerPoints" to "I write unit tests and debug code before I start the deployment."
$250 an hour is great for the bottom 75% of the market though and better than average for anyone not in facebook/google.
I'm a contractor too and the tax breaks you get are essentially another 20% raise.
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, I own a SaaS business and also sell my own products on Gumroad itself. In fact, the latter was my biggest income source in 2020 — $282K sales last year: https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1333888186762678274
And you are not even 26? Congrats man, you made it :) That's more than I ever made in my life (close to 40).
Money is not how you count if you made it. I made as much as OP at that age (and am now a few years older) and I'm very far from making it. Millions don't go as far as they used to when everyone around you is even richer.
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is Gumroad your only gig?
No, I own a SaaS business and also sell my own products on Gumroad itself. In fact, the latter was my biggest income source in 2020 — $282K sales last year: https://twitter.com/dvassallo/status/1333888186762678274
Respectfully - and I'm sure i'm just missing something - but I still don't actually understand what you do. The only thing I can see that makes you money is a subscription service to help people how make money on the Internet.
Re: No meetings, no deadlines, no full-time employees
#280I work at Gumroad, mentioned in this article. Sometimes, I read things by CEOs about how a company works on the inside and I wonder if it really looks like that, or if it is a view from the top that doesn't reflect what it's really like. This article, with its discussions of the upsides and downsides, is accurate to my experience and my understanding of other people's experiences. For many people, Gumroad wouldn't be…
> I make more than enough to afford proper health insurance on the open market. Everyone at Gumroad is paid very well and should be able to afford the same.
This might be true for everyone at Gumroad, but I wouldn't be so sure. You also seem dismissive (probably unintentionally) of one of the biggest problems we have in the US right now: health care and insurance is ridiculously expensive–especially for people with families who want to be self-employed or contractors.
A family of 4 who doesn't qualify for ACA subsidies is going to pay $1,400/month or more out-of-pocket for health insurance. And it goes up every year. Imagine paying 10%+ of your salary just for health insurance.