diff ~/p/daniel-vassallo ~/p/sahil-lavingia

Daniel Vassallo vs Sahil Lavingia

Products, revenue & stack compared side by side.

Daniel Vassallo

Ex-Amazon engineer who popularized the small bets portfolio approach

@dvassallo United States

Sahil Lavingia

Founder of Gumroad and author of The Minimalist Entrepreneur

@shl United States

Daniel Vassallo vs Sahil Lavingia at a glance

Both Daniel Vassallo and Sahil Lavingia build in public. They overlap in Educators & Course Creators and Creators & Writers. Daniel is based in United States, Sahil in Brooklyn, United States. Daniel started in 2019 and Sahil in 2011. Daniel Vassallo has 4 products listed on IndieMakerList vs Sahil Lavingia's 3. Daniel has sold 1 product. On revenue, Daniel self-reports $210K profit in 9 months (info products) (as of 2020) and Sahil $17.8M/yr (Gumroad, 2025). On X, Daniel has about 205K followers and Sahil about 394K.

Side-by-side comparison

Based in: Daniel Vassallo: United States; Sahil Lavingia: Brooklyn, United States
Started: Daniel Vassallo: 2019 (7 yrs indie); Sahil Lavingia: 2011 (15 yrs indie)
Revenue (self-reported): Daniel Vassallo: $210K profit in 9 months (info products)self-reported, as of 2020 · source for Daniel Vassallo's revenue; Sahil Lavingia: $17.8M/yr (Gumroad, 2025)self-reported, as of 2025 · source for Sahil Lavingia's revenue
Products listed: Daniel Vassallo: 4; Sahil Lavingia: 3
Product status: Daniel Vassallo: 3 active · 1 acquired; Sahil Lavingia: 3 active
X followers: Daniel Vassallo: 205K; Sahil Lavingia: 394K
Categories: Daniel Vassallo: Educators & Course Creators Community Builders Creators & Writers Developer Tools; Sahil Lavingia: E-commerce Creators & Writers Educators & Course Creators Open Source Makers
Style: Daniel Vassallo: solobootstrappedbuilds in publicexited; Sahil Lavingia: builds in public
Courses & resources: Daniel Vassallo: 3; Sahil Lavingia: 1

Revenue figures are self-reported by each maker and not audited; dates and scope differ. Highlighted categories are shared by both.

Tech stack

No tools in common in their publicly listed stacks. See the indie maker tech stack.

Daniel Vassallo

No stack shared publicly.

Sahil Lavingia

No stack shared publicly.

How they build

Daniel Vassallo

Place many small bets instead of one big bet; outcomes are hard to predict.
Keep things simple and avoid leaving your fate to a single employer or product.
Build an audience by sharing what you know openly.
Optimize for independence and optionality over prestige.

Sahil Lavingia

Start with a community you are already part of, then build for it.
Do things manually before you build software, and build as little as possible.
Profitability gives you the freedom to make your own decisions.
Run the company in public: open metrics, open board meetings, open source.
Creators should own their audience and get paid directly.

Learn from Daniel and Sahil

Daniel Vassallo

[book] The Good Parts of AWS
[course] Everyone Can Build a Twitter Audience
[community] Small Bets

Sahil Lavingia

[book] The Minimalist Entrepreneur

Daniel Vassallo vs Sahil Lavingia FAQ

Who makes more money, Daniel Vassallo or Sahil Lavingia?

Daniel Vassallo self-reports $210K profit in 9 months (info products) (as of 2020) and Sahil Lavingia self-reports $17.8M/yr (Gumroad, 2025). By these self-reported figures, Sahil Lavingia's reported monthly revenue is higher. Figures are unaudited and may cover different periods or businesses, so treat them as rough indicators.

Who has built more products, Daniel Vassallo or Sahil Lavingia?

Daniel Vassallo has 4 products listed (including Small Bets, Userbase and Single Server); Sahil Lavingia has 3 products listed (Gumroad, Flexile and Helper).