He Built It in
a Weekend. Raised
$8 Million. Lost
Almost Everything.
Then Built It Again.
How Sahil Lavingia built Gumroad in 48 hours, chased the wrong game for five years, published his failure to the world before he had recovered, and rebuilt a platform that has now paid creators over $1 billion.
- 01 The Setup
- 02 The Weekend Build
- 03 The Wrong Game
- 04 The Failure and the Essay
- 05 The Traction Framework
- 06 The Mistake
- 07 What You Can Apply
- 08 Your Move This Week
On April Fool's Day, 2011, a 19-year-old tweeted something that was not a joke.
"Just had an idea for my first billion-dollar company. Tomorrow, I start building it."
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How Sahil Lavingia built Gumroad in 48 hours, chased the wrong game for five years, published his failure to the world before he had recovered, and rebuilt a platform that has now paid creators over $1 billion.
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