Today we launch our coverage of @gumroad: the online checkout and product page for creators.

We dug into the data, built a revenue model, and interviewed creators and entrepreneurs to understand what @gumroad could be worth. 👉

As @ljin18 points out, the unbundling of work has fueled the growth of a broad ecosystem of tools for creators.

Today, we’re seeing a rebundling of that ecosystem across both all-in-one platforms (@stir, @podia) and best-in-class products (@gumroad).

https://t.co/merZhn8bfo
.@gumroad’s mission is to be the easiest way to get started selling goods online, whether that’s a digital brush set, a photograph, a video, an app—or virtually anything else. They added memberships in 2020, and courses are next.
The company has facilitated $400M+ GMV since its inception. In 2020, COVID tailwinds drove 90% YoY growth, with more than $9M in revenue coming in on $142M in GMV.
.@gumroad is big with new creators and those making under $10,000 per year because of the ease of setup and 6.5% (blended) take rate, low relative to other online marketplaces like:

- eBay: 10%
- Etsy: 12%
- Cameo: 25%
The problem is that past $10k~ per year in revenue, there comes an equilibrium point where a course creator on Gumroad can pay the same or less on a vertical platform like @kajabi and get more features.
The result has been a bifurcation of the market, with platforms like @teachable @kajabi @podia more closely serving the needs of those higher-income creators and Gumroad serving the long tail or mass of creators.
While it's true that selling online is a side project for many, creator upward mobility is critical.

The top 1% of creators generate 50% of total GMV and the top 12% generate 80% of total GMV

Without a robust middle class, @gumroad may have trouble sustaining its growth
.@gumroad has one major advantage: their roadmap and fundraising strategy have been carefully tailored for creator-alignment.

That gives creators the feeling that they can trust Gumroad to act in creator-aligned ways rather than VC-aligned ways in the future.
And the large scale possible from operating over the long tail could be a huge opportunity for @gumroad.

Just as @Shopify leveraged operating at that kind of scale to “arm the rebels” in e-commerce, Gumroad can do the same for creators.

https://t.co/GyyhS4VCZc
Where companies like @Shopify & @Bolt are using data to optimize the B2C checkout, @Gumroad can do the same, with more interoperability (native, deep embeds with 3rd parties), more conversions (Apple Pay, recommendations) and more products (courses, coaching, NFTs).
In our base case, Gumroad continues to grow as a kind of onramp to the creator economy for millions of new makers.

But building the best checkout for creators gives them a shot at building a $1B company and becoming an integral part of that economy.

https://t.co/cz3sI2z7ZL
Read our full report and 6 expert interviews on Gumroad here: https://t.co/Vc0iSjhFfe

And for more deep dives on private companies, sign up at https://t.co/F9g3cPZ8tA

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I hate when I learn something new (to me) & stunning about the Jeff Epstein network (h/t MoodyKnowsNada.)

Where to begin?

So our new Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was "longtime lawyer and confidant of...Robert Maxwell," Ghislaine Maxwell's Dad.


"Pisar was one of the last people to speak to Maxwell, by phone, probably an hour before the chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers fell off his luxury yacht the Lady Ghislaine on 5 November, 1991."
https://t.co/DAEgchNyTP


OK, so that's just a coincidence. Moving on, Anthony Blinken "attended the prestigious Dalton School in New York City"...wait, what? https://t.co/DnE6AvHmJg

Dalton School...Dalton School...rings a

Oh that's right.

The dad of the U.S. Attorney General under both George W. Bush & Donald Trump, William Barr, was headmaster of the Dalton School.

Donald Barr was also quite a


I'm not going to even mention that Blinken's stepdad Sam Pisar's name was in Epstein's "black book."

Lots of names in that book. I mean, for example, Cuomo, Trump, Clinton, Prince Andrew, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen - all in that book, and their reputations are spotless.
The first ever world map was sketched thousands of years ago by Indian saint
“Ramanujacharya” who simply translated the following verse from Mahabharat and gave the world its real face

In Mahabharat,it is described how 'Maharishi Ved Vyasa' gave away his divine vision to Sanjay


Dhritarashtra's charioteer so that he could describe him the events of the upcoming war.

But, even before questions of war could begin, Dhritarashtra asked him to describe how the world looks like from space.

This is how he described the face of the world:

सुदर्शनं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्वीपं तु कुरुनन्दन। परिमण्डलो महाराज द्वीपोऽसौ चक्रसंस्थितः॥
यथा हि पुरुषः पश्येदादर्शे मुखमात्मनः। एवं सुदर्शनद्वीपो दृश्यते चन्द्रमण्डले॥ द्विरंशे पिप्पलस्तत्र द्विरंशे च शशो महान्।

—वेद व्यास, भीष्म पर्व, महाभारत


Meaning:-

हे कुरुनन्दन ! सुदर्शन नामक यह द्वीप चक्र की भाँति गोलाकार स्थित है, जैसे पुरुष दर्पण में अपना मुख देखता है, उसी प्रकार यह द्वीप चन्द्रमण्डल में दिखायी देता है। इसके दो अंशो मे पीपल और दो अंशो मे विशाल शश (खरगोश) दिखायी देता है।


Meaning: "Just like a man sees his face in the mirror, so does the Earth appears in the Universe. In the first part you see leaves of the Peepal Tree, and in the next part you see a Rabbit."

Based on this shloka, Saint Ramanujacharya sketched out the map, but the world laughed