Video by Three Pillars Media of Lincoln. Post-production by Evolve of Des Moines.
When Sahil Lavingia turned 18, he came to an important conclusion. “I was an adult,” he said, “so I decided I was going to get serious about my career.”
That career, in a very short span, has included stints at Pinterest, Turntable.fm and now Gumroad. Lavingia founded Gumroad, which is designed to help people share and sell their creations directly to their social network followers and friends. As a speaker at Big Omaha 2012, he discussed his path to Gumroad.
Thanks to our sponsor
Through it all, has been driven by one underlying desire. “I build products,” he said, “so that I can scale myself.”
Why scale himself? In addressing that, the 19-year-old exhibits a preternatural appreciation of legacy. “Products keep us alive,” he said. “After we die, we have legacies. And products are kind of the best way, the most scalable way, the fastest way, the cheapest way and, honestly, the most fun way to keep us alive.”
Check out the 35-minute video above, the third in the Big Omaha 2012 Video Series presented by Microsoft BizSpark, to hear Lavingia discuss scaling himself and field questions from the audience.
Read our recap: “Sahil Lavingia: ‘Build products to scale yourself’ “
About Sahil Lavingia
Sahil Lavingia is the designer, founder and CEO of Gumroad. Previously, he was on the founding team of Pinterest before he left to build a number of other projects, including the turntable.fm iPhone app and the file sharing site Crate. Most recently, he started Gumroad with a focus of democratizing the ability to sell stuff online – easily, simply and beautifully. Gumroad assembled an A-List of investors for its latest round of funding, including Chris Sacca, Max Levchin and Seth Goldstein of turntable.fm (also a Big Omaha 2012 speaker).
Find Lavingia on Twitter: @shl
About Big Omaha & Thinc Iowa, SPN Premier Events
Silicon Prairie News hosts two premier annual events, Big Omaha in May and Thinc Iowa in October. Both events bring together entrepreneurs, innovators, creative individuals, investors and others for a lineup of inspiring speakers, a schedule of unique networking opportunities and a community of support.
To sign-up for alerts regarding Thinc Iowa, which will take place Oct. 10-11 in Des Moines, visit thinciowa.com.
About our sponsor, Microsoft BizSpark
Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps software startups succeed by giving them access to Microsoft software development tools, connecting them with key industry players, including investors, and providing marketing visibility to help entrepreneurs starting a business. BizSpark will fast-track the success of your startup with software, support an visibility.
