Sahil Lavingia
Business Building, Inflection Points, and Optimism
Episode Notes (by minute):
-1:30: How one email in November 2017 from Kleiner Perkins unlocked a new chapter for Gumroad and Sahil with Gumroad
-5:30: “there are very few things that matter to a company's success and growth.” Sahil explains that he thinks they are: the product, your ability to sell the product, how good is it, and how often do your existing users tell other people about it.
-6:30: When Gumroad laid off 75% of their employees
-9:00: How moving to Utah from SF started to shape Sahil’s thinking, and it gave him the space to time to write this now viral blog post, Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company
-11:00: How Sahil learned from Bill Gates on how to think about value creation vs value capture
-11:30: How Sahil’s essay turned into a book called The Minimalist Entreprenuer
-14:00: “It doesn't matter how awesome your team is, or how fast you ship features, the market you're in is going to determine most of your growth.”
-19:00: How Sahil likes using Gumroad as a vehicle to experiment on new things
-20:00: How many founders are not actually interested in being a founder
-26:00: Two question likes to ask founders when he might invest in them: 1) What is your origin story? and 2) why is your company not going to work?
-32:00: Why Sahil thinks its important to focus on the core product(s) instead of constantly adding features
-33:00: How Sahil thinks about angel investing and crowdfunding
-36:30: Why Sahil is optimistic about the current envoirnement generally
-37:30: “I think my happiness is predicated on this expectation of positive change”
-39:30: How Sahil likes a Chinese proverb that says there is no such thing as good news or bad news — there is just news.
(Note: these are quick notes and takeaways by David Nebinski. Please see the episode for more accurate information)
Published Date: 3/15/23