Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#1

Post by thoughtpeddler » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:06 PM UTC

Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB
venturebeat.com

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#2

Post by btucker » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:25 PM UTC

For anyone that doesn't recall, this was how Gumroad started: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#3

Post by helipad » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:32 PM UTC

Congrats to Sahil, I think a few of us have been watching this since day 1. His record speaks for itself.

It's also good that Gumroad was essentially made possible by Stripe's very accessible API (as far as I know). I think I speak for all Europeans when I say hurry up and get Stripe over here.

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#4

Post by auston » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:32 PM UTC

This is pretty interesting, because Sahil just raised his seed like 3 months ago...

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#5

Post by igorsyl » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

What is Gumroad's competitive advantage? It doesn't look like it's its technology but its brand.

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#6

Post by jkeel » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:34 PM UTC

btucker wrote: post #2

For anyone that doesn't recall, this was how Gumroad started: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2406614

Thanks for the link. I was looking for it as I remember this post from what I thought was last year (apparently longer - boy does time fly). Glad to see them doing well.

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#7

Post by dreamdu5t » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:34 PM UTC

Why would they need money for growth? They use Stripe and host on the cloud. If they aren't profitable now why would they be at 10x the size?

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#8

Post by hansef » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

igorsyl wrote: post #5

What is Gumroad's competitive advantage? It doesn't look like it's its technology but its brand.

Brand and product simplicity, elegance of implementation. What is Dropbox's competitive advantage, or Instagram's?

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#9

Post by wulczer » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

dreamdu5t wrote: post #7

Why would they need money for growth? They use Stripe and host on the cloud. If they aren't profitable now why would they be at 10x the size?

I have no idea, but I find it easy to find plausible reasons to raise money. Hiring a team of engineers to implement all the great things they have in the pipeline? Getting a sales team to get big deals with content producers? Buying lots of ads?

Re: Gumroad raises $7 million from KPCB

#10

Post by patio11 » Mon, May 07, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

dreamdu5t wrote: post #7

Why would they need money for growth? They use Stripe and host on the cloud. If they aren't profitable now why would they be at 10x the size?

Engineers cost $20k a month. They want to hire them faster than they can add $666,000 of processed transactions a month. This suggests taking investment.