Sahil Lavingia

Sahil is the Founder & CEO at Gumroad, an e-commerce platform that helps over 40k+ creators do more of what they love by selling products directly to consumers. Gumroad has sent $178 million and counting to musicians, artists, writers, and more. 

Prior to launching Gumroad in 2011, Sahil worked as a designer and engineer at Turntable.fm and was an early employee at Pinterest with a focus on both front-end and back-end development. Sahil has been honored as one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People” in business.

On his morning ritual.

The first thing I do is either drop my girlfriend off at work and head to the gym, or shower.

I can’t function if I haven’t showered. I can’t go to the gym if I’ve already showered.

Besides that, nothing. I try to do the hardest thing on my to-do list first, and then things get progressively easier from there.

By the end of the day, I’m flying.

On information consumption.

I try to consume as little information as possible.

I think we’re inundated with data, mostly stuff that doesn’t make our life better. Worse, makes us upset and unproductive. I prefer to spend as much of my time creating as possible.

When I do consume, it’s books. To me, they have the least agenda of all the other types of media. And I’ve already bought the book, so they’re not trying to sell me anything.

On working with exceptional people.

I think the most important attractor to me is prolificness.

Someone who produces a lot of content, code, email, anything is a great sign of an exceptional person.

Someone who will grow at a rate faster than almost anyone else. Second is a curious and self-critical nature.

These people are not just content with what they are currently making but always on the journey of making better and better things.

Finally, those who are nice and optimistic. People that are fun to be around. If they’re not fun to be around, I don’t care how exceptional they are.

On advice when it’s not going your way.

It has less to do with you than you think. The good times are not to your credit, and the bad times are not to your blame.

Just keep going, as long as you are learning, growing, and having fun.

Become the best human you can be. The rest will take care of itself.

At least, they eventually did for me.

On protecting time for creative expression.

I started Gumroad to help creators spend more time doing what they love. So the need to write and paint creatively came out of a desire to empathize more fully with our user base.

Beyond that, I just got addicted.

The compounding interest of skill development in regards to both writing and painting are insanely fulfilling and keeps me going.

Eventually, I plan to incorporate these skills into some Gumroad-related projects. Stay tuned for that over the next couple years...

On his nightly routine.

I sleep for at least 7 hours every day. I try for at least 7 and a half, sometimes more. Sleep is the most important thing for me – always has been.

I try to put away my phone and pull out my Kindle. Most books put me to sleep after less than thirty minutes.

I'm currently reading Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb, and also Cloud Atlas.

I read a lot more fiction than non-fiction. I find I'm more open to being wrong if it's about fictional people than real-life scenarios a few degrees away from me.

That’s about it!