How to start a tech startup. Sahil Lavinga is the founder of Gumroad and was the first employee at Pinterest. Get Sahil's Book, The Minimalist Entrepreneur: https://www.minimalistentrepreneur.com/ Read full transcript: https://lifemathmoney.com/how-to-start-a-tech-company-interviewing-sahil-lavinga-founder-of-gumroad/ Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 01:03 The Minimalist Entrepreneur Book 02:55 Where should an 18 year old start to become a tech entrepreneur05:08 How much coding do you need to know to start a startup in tech? Do you need a computer science degree? What courses would you recommend? 08:22 Which programming language do you recommend starting with? What's the best language for a beginner to know? 12:00 How to get your first customers as a new tech startup? 14:48 Should you have a co-founder like Y-Combinator says? What are the challenges you faced as a solo founder? 19:06 How do you hire a good employee? What do you look for and what are the things that you want to avoid? 21:56 What do you think of the "Engineers are bad at communication skills" stereotype? 23:10 How much time does it take you to manage the Gumroad at this point, between the employees, the book, and the VC fund you've started? 27:48 What does Gumroad as a company look like? GitHub, Accounting, Legal, Software Engineers - what does a tech company structure look like? 33:00 When is Gumroad going to start accepting crypto? (Plus a discussion on cancel culture) 37:35 How did you build a software as big as Gumroad over a weekend? (Plus a discussion on building products for yourself and testing the market) 42:20 Why do you recommend charging money right away instead of giving people a free trial at launch to acquire more users? 44:45 Do you recommend people run advertisements or do you recommend organic marketing in the initial stages? 47:50 How Harsh started using Gumroad and turned LifeMathMoney from a hobby to a business (Plus a discussion on reinvesting in your business) 50:32 Do startups need VC money anymore if your business model involves charging money from day 1? (Plus a discussion on software companies vs hardware companies) 55:03 Was Gumroad your first weekend project? Or did you have other weekend projects before this? 58:30 What do you think of building clones with extra features of products that already exist? What are your thoughts on Peter Thiel's Zero to One way of thinking? 01:03:49 What are your book recommendations? 01:06:39 Will Cancel Culture affect Sahil and the creator market? 01:07:14 What kind of products work best on Gumroad? Which products do you think sell most? If someone is a creator already, he has a product listed, what factors do you think play a role in increasing his sales? 01:14:04 Parting words / final advice from Sahil to listeners ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wQxCPI3S0I

If you think people are smart Remember that scammers still spend money to send emails about "Nigerian prince giving you money" If they're still spending money on this, it means something is still falling for it. Many people are that dumb. #getthingsdone #winnercity #seizetheday #doer #theshit #successandnothingless #winorlose #tweets #relatabletweets #tweetsfromtwitter #tweetsavages #tweetstagram #indiantweets #mindsetshift #mindsetcreator #boldanddetermined #mindsetofgreatness #mindsets #mindsets #mindsetiskey #mindsetchange #mindsetmastery #mindsetofexcellence #mindsetofachampion #money? #moneymoneymoney #lifeadvice #goodadvice #adviceforlife #lifemathmoney ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzgKJZjCuK4