Sahil Lavingia

Sahil Lavingia is the founder of Gumroad, the platform that lets creators sell digital products, memberships and courses directly to their audience. He started it in 2011 as a weekend project while he was an early employee at Pinterest, and it has since paid out more than a billion dollars to creators.

Gumroad's path made Sahil a symbol of the indie movement: after raising venture money and nearly running out of runway, he shrank the company, moved it to a remote team of part-timers, and rebuilt it into a profitable business. He later crowdfunded from Gumroad's own creators, held public board meetings and published the company's financials, reporting $17.8M in revenue for 2025.

He wrote The Minimalist Entrepreneur (2021), which argues for starting with a community, building as little as possible and staying profitable. Through his Antiwork umbrella he open-sourced Gumroad and related tools like Flexile and Helper, and in 2025 Gumroad acquired Daniel Vassallo's Small Bets. In late 2025 he stepped down as Gumroad's CEO after 14 years, handing the role to Ershad Kunnakkadan.