3 Questions with Sahil Lavingia from Gumroad

by David Chaitt

After recently covering Gumroad in a general post about their direct-to-fan marketing platform and then seeing them featured in Fast Company, I decided it would be interesting and exciting to get an interview with its founder, 19-year-old Sahil Lavingia.

Prior to Gumroad, Sahil was on the founding team at Pinterest and designed the Turntable.fm iPhone app, so I was curious what would make him leave all that to start something new.

1. With platforms like Kickstarter or Topspin Media out there already to drive commerce among fans, what are a few advantages for a musician to use Gumroad?

I think Kickstarter is great. I think both Kickstarter and Gumroad are after the same goal: letting those that create content have more control over the way they share and gain value from it directly.

I think there are numerous use cases for Gumroad specifically. For example, when you want to sell something easily, simply, and directly to the fans and followers you already have an EP or some behind-the-scenes footage or something you worked on last weekend that is neat but not store-worthy.

2. In the video you reference that e-commerce sites “take a huge cut of the profits.” Does Gumroad take any cut?  If not, how do you plan on monetizing the platform?

We do take a cut. We take 5% + 25¢. For comparison, iTunes takes 30%.

3.  What are some of your goals for the end of 2012?

We just want to help more content creators, so the goal would be to have as many musicians, artists, painters, writers, and other creative types earning more money doing what they love than ever before. Luckily, our business model aligns with this goal very well.