←back to thread

Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

(medium.com)
2101 points jamesjyu | 4 comments | 07 Feb 19 15:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.876s | source
Show context
lancesells ◴[07 Feb 19 17:36 UTC] No.19106759[source]▶
I've always liked Gumroad as a product and service but this line kind of bothers me:

> There is, of course, the $178,000,000 we have sent to creators

This money wasn't sent to creators. They sold products worth $178M + Gumroad fees through the service. The creators made the products, marketed the products, acquired the customers, etc. When I use Paypal to sell something they aren't "sending me money".

replies(4): >>19106820 #>>19106830 #>>19106906 #>>19108484 #
1. libria ◴[07 Feb 19 17:55 UTC] No.19106906[source]▶
> There is, of course, the $178,000,000 we have {sent, channelled, moved-through-our-platform, assisted in transferring} to creators

All of the above seem synonymous and none seems particularly malicious, but "sent" is easiest way to express it. For a marketplace, I don't think anyone's naive to believe the host is directly advancing funds to the tune of millions. Is it really necessary to nitpick that?

replies(1): >>19106953 #
2. supermw ◴[07 Feb 19 18:00 UTC] No.19106953[source]▶
They should have said $178,000,000 in transactions.
replies(1): >>19107497 #
3. komali2 ◴[07 Feb 19 19:01 UTC] No.19107497[source]▶
"Enabled customers to achieve 178,000,000 in revenue they may not otherwise have," maybe?
replies(1): >>19108254 #
4. rossdavidh ◴[07 Feb 19 20:27 UTC] No.19108254{3}[source]▶
That would be better, but I also agree with the others who think the way it was written pretty clearly meant the same thing, in the context of the article.