Building a billion dollar company

So instead of pretending to be some sort of product visionary, trying to build a billion-dollar company, I’m just focused on making Gumroad better and better for our existing creators. Because they are the ones that have kept us alive.

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company - Sahil Lavingia

Looks like a solid plan to build a long-lasting business.

I remember our early VC Pitch decks from 2013 and conversations with John as we tried to give VCs what they wanted. "It seems like they are looking for us to lie - either to ourselves or to them." I tried on putting together a deck which at the time was far fetched. It didn't fit. Ironically, a lot of the guesses we made back then have come true, and we weren't far wrong. We just didn't have any confidence in them back then. Things like going multi-channel, and having a an ACV somewhere in-between Mailchimp and Marketo.

What we knew was that we had something that solved a pain for us and for other people. We knew there was a market there. We had no idea how big it would be, but if we built a business focused on our customers, we could create value.

Optimizing for fundraising rounds with billion dollar visions is a game that will probably lead to disaster for your company.