Gumroad is an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

platform that allows creators to sell products directly to their

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

. The platform was founded by Sahil Lavingia in 2011 and is based in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

History

Gumroad was founded in 2011 by Sahil Lavingia, who was previously a designer at

Pinterest Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of digital Bulletin board, pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pint ...

and Turntable.fm.Holmes, David
"Who's Next: Pinterest Designer Sahil Lavingia and His New E-Commerce Site Gumroad"
, ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

'', April 25, 2012.Tsotsis, Alexia
"Gumroad Gets $1.1 Million From Chris Sacca, Max Levchin and Others to Turn Any Link Into a Payment System"
, ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

'', February 8, 2012. The idea for the platform came to Lavingia when he wanted to sell an icon he had designed and saw that the amount of effort it took to sell an item directly to

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. ...

s was considerable. In February 2012, Gumroad announced a $1.1 million seed round. Three months later

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

(KPCB) led a $7 million Series A round. On September 8, 2014, Twitter launched a ''Buy Now'' button in partnership with Gumroad, the ''Buy Now'' and Gumroad partnership were discontinued on January 7, 2017. On September 30, 2014, Gumroad released an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

app. In March 2024, Gumroad banned the sale of sexually explicit content on its platform due to pressure from

Stripe Stripe, striped, or stripes may refer to: Decorations *Stripe (pattern), a line or band that differs in colour or tone from an adjacent surface *Racing stripe, a vehicle decoration * Service stripe, a decoration of the U.S. military Entertainment ...

and

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

Creators on Gumroad

A variety of major and independent musicians , film distributors, and authors"Things I Can Do"
, ''John Green's Blog'' have distributed content or sold products on Gumroad.

References

External links

*{{Official website, gumroad.com Companies based in San Francisco Online marketplaces of the United States

History

Creators on Gumroad

See also

References

External links