Smash Notes

Below the Line with James Beshara

#11 — Sahil Lavingia — Solo Journey

Sahil Lavingia is the CEO and Founder of Gumroad, a platform to help creators create more through simple e-commerce and audience tools. He is also known for insightful and refreshing points of view on Twitter and Medium. To round it out, he’s also a designer, painter in addition to being a technology CEO and writer. Sahil and I have had similar paths in…

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  1. Who Is Sahil Lavingia

    at 0:00 · Transcript

    Sahil Lavingia is the CEO and founder of Gumroad, a platform to help creators create more through simple ecommerce tools. Full answer

  2. What Is Living in Provo, Utah Like

    at 2:48 · Transcript

    Provo is the most conservative and the most religious city in america with over 100k citizens. Crazy mix given it's also a college town. Full answer

  3. Why Did Sahil Lavingia Move to Provo Utah

    at 5:49 · Transcript

    When his company, Gumroad, was flatlining, he wanted to work on something he could control and writing fiction was one of them. Full answer

  4. What's Wrong With San Francisco

    at 9:20 · Transcript

    It's a homogenous bubble where every thought you have is reinforced in the same way and you have very little chance to get any non-conforming opinion. Full answer

  5. Was It Hard to Be an Outsider in Utah

    at 13:06 · Transcript

    It turns out that every homogenous society operates on its own set of principles and outsiders are judged on a set of values common to that community. Full answer

  6. Are Religious People Terribly Misguided

    at 19:15 · Transcript

    Religion gives people a framework to live and to enjoy life in the same way as tech obsession fuels the lives of tech workers in San Francisco. Full answer

  7. What Is the Best Way to Create More

    at 22:35 · Transcript

    Shorten the feedback loop between ideation and a final product. Full answer

  8. What Is the Best Way to Be Good at Something

    at 30:49 · Transcript

    Instead of competing with people at an existing game, create your own game and define the rules, then you can be the best at it by the virtue of being the… Full answer

  9. Why Does San Francisco Chase Scale While Utah Stays Local?

    at 31:53 · Transcript

    Both communities believe that creating something is the best way to put energy into the world, but in Sahil's experience while San Francisco crowd aims to… Full answer

  10. Do You Find Provo to Be a More Creative Place Than San Francisco

    at 36:07 · Transcript

    The competitive nature of San Francisco can push you to create a lot in a short period of time, meanwhile in Utah, while a much less competitive environment… Full answer

  11. Why Did Sahil Lavingia Start Attending the Mormon Church

    at 38:28 · Transcript

    Sahil grew up in Singapore, in a Muslim household, but considers himself agnostic. Full answer

  12. Why Go to Church Even Though You Do Not Believe in the Faith

    at 42:39 · Transcript

    According to Sahil, Church is an excellent opportunity to meet new people from outside of your circle of friends and interests. Full answer

  13. Why Did Sahil Lavingia Write His Failure Essay?

    at 49:49 · Transcript

    It was important for Sahil to understand why he had a goal of building a billion dollar company to begin with, what lead to his failure, and how he's been… Full answer

  14. How Did Sahil Lavingia Start Gumroad

    at 1:01:01 · Transcript

    Sahil started with the idea for Gumroad while still working at Pinterest back in 2011. Full answer

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