Gumroad

Gumroad^[1] is an e-commerce platform that allows creators to sell products directly to their audience. The platform was founded by Sahil Lavingia in 2011 and is based in San Francisco, California. Gumroad enables creators to sell digital products, such as e-books, music, videos, software, and physical goods. The platform provides creators with tools to create custom landing pages, track sales, and process payments. Gumroad's primary focus is serving independent creators, such as writers, musicians, and designers, who want to sell their products without going through intermediaries.^{[citation needed]}

Gumroad, Inc.

Industry	Digital distribution, self-publishing, e-commerce.
Founded	2011; 12 years ago (2011)
Founder	Sahil Lavingia, Sachin Khanna
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Number of locations	11,894 (2023)
Area served	Worldwide
Website	gumroad.com

History

 

Founder Sahil Lavingia in 2010

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Sahil Lavingia built the first iteration of Gumroad over a single weekend in 2011. Sahil is a self-taught developer who has said in an interview that he learned coding by searching through each problem he hit on Google. Lavingia, who was previously the first designer hired at Pinterest and the designer of Turntable.fm, he was 19 years old at the time.^[2][3][4]

The idea for Gumroad came to Lavingia when he wanted to sell a photorealistic icon he had created and realized that the amount of effort it took to sell an item directly to consumers was considerable. He decided to build a service that would make the process as easy as sharing web content.^[2]

In February 2012, while still the sole member of Gumroad, Lavingia announced a $1.1 million seed round from a notable group of investors including Accel, Chris Sacca, Max Levchin, SV Angel, Josh Kopelman, Seth Goldstein, Naval Ravikant and Danny Rimer.^[3]

Three months later, it was announced that Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) had led a $7 million Series A round for Gumroad. The investment was the first made by former Twitter engineering head Michael Abbott as a KPCB partner.^[5]

In September 8, 2014, Twitter announced its first commerce product, the Buy Now button, in partnership with Gumroad,^[6] the Buy Now and Gumroad partnership was discontinued on January 7, 2017.^[7] On September 30, 2014, Gumroad released its first mobile product, a utility iPhone app that acts as a mobile library for content purchased via Gumroad.^[8][9]

Creators on Gumroad

Many major and independent musicians have sold products via Gumroad, including Eminem,^[10] Bon Jovi,^[11] Garth Brooks,^[12] David Banner,^[13] Ryan Leslie^[14] and others.

Magnolia Pictures distributes a curated selection of films via Gumroad.^[15] Landmark Theatres also curates a selection of films distributed via Gumroad, including Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Man on Wire, Gonzo, Page One: Inside the New York Times, and Jesus Camp.^[16]

Best-selling authors like Tim Ferriss,^[17] Chris Guillebeau,^[18] and John Green^[19] also publish their books on Gumroad.

See also

• Online marketplace
• Online shopping
• Digital distribution
• Online marketplaces available in the United States

References

1. "Gumroad – Sell what you know and see what sticks". gumroad.com. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
2. Holmes, David. "Who's Next: Pinterest Designer Sahil Lavingia and His New E-Commerce Site Gumroad" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Fast Company, April 25, 2012.
3. Tsotsis, Alexia. "Gumroad Gets $1.1 Million From Chris Sacca, Max Levchin and Others to Turn Any Link Into a Payment System" July 4, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, TechCrunch, February 8, 2012.
4. Shontell, Alyson. "The Most Interesting Teenager in Silicon Valley" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Business Insider, April 2, 2012.
5. Gannes, Liz. "Kleiner Perkins Leads $7M Funding for Payments Upstart Gumroad" October 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, All Things Digital, May 7, 2012.
6. Brustein, Joshua. "Explaining Twitter's New ‘Buy’ Button" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Bloomberg Businessweek, September 8, 2014.
7. "Twitter is phasing out the "Buy" button, will continue to offer donations". TechCrunch. from the original on August 20, 2022. Retrieved September 22, 2021.
8. Ifeanyi, KC. "Online Marketplace Gumroad Launched An iPhone App" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Fast Company, September 30, 2014.
9. DBW. "New Gumroad iPhone App Helps Authors Sell EBooks Direct" December 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Digital Book World, September 30, 2014.
10. . Gumroad. Archived from the original on April 7, 2016.
11. "Bon Jovi's Gumroad Page" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Gumroad
12. "Garth Brooks’ Gumroad Page" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Gumroad
13. Popper, Ben. "Girl Talk goes Gumroad: a web payment startup woos pop stars" October 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Verge, August 17, 2012.
14. "Ryan Leslie's Gumroad Page" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Gumroad
15. "Magnolia Pictures" November 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Magnolia Pictures
16. "Landmark Theatres" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Landmark Theatres
17. "Tim Ferriss’ Gumroad Page" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Gumroad
18. "Chris Guillebeau on His New NYT Best Seller, Writing, and the Road" September 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Gumroad Blog
19. "Things I Can Do" December 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, John Green's Blog

External links

• Official website