Sahil Lavingia wants creators to get interest on their interests

Welcome to Means of Creation!

Every Friday, Li and Nathan interview a guest in the passion economy — founders, creators and operators who are carving their own paths. This is a write-up of the most interesting parts of the conversation. If you want, you can listen to the full talk in your podcast app, or watch it on YouTube. There’s also a transcript at the end of this post.

Enjoy!

For the first episode of Means of Creation, Li and Nathan talked to Sahil Lavingia, the founder and CEO of Gumroad, about building a network for creators to turn their passions from side hustle to livelihood — and how he had to switch up his roadmap along the way.

Gumroad is a Swiss Army Knife for people who make things and the people who will buy them. The site hosts creators selling movies, music, online courses, and apps, among others. It also assists them through the entire process — from marketing to payment processing and delivery — helping them earn $300 million in revenue. Sahil Lavingia founded Gumroad almost a decade ago, at the age of 19. Today, more than 40,000 creators belong to the platform.