Gumroad’s CEO on the company’s first 10 years, competitors like Patreon and Substack, the rise of the creator economy, and how app store “taxes” stifle growth (Gumroad Ceo Patreon Substackkonstantinovic)

Gumroad Ceo Patreon Substackkonstantinovic: Gumroad is celebrating its first decade in business with a major announcement: the company has raised $35 million in Series B funding, led by Foundry Group.

This is an exciting time for Gumroad—in the last few years we’ve been able to improve our features and become a source of serious reliable income for creators of all types. But it means that, like most other companies, we need more capital to grow quickly enough to stay current. We’re not a charity—we have to make money, pay taxes, and build profitable features for our customers.

This is the most important time in Gumroad’s 10-year history. It will be a top priority to make sure that we continue investing in our customers, while making sure they can also invest back into their businesses by buying our products (or others’) with a 15% affiliate commission.

We’ll also be working hard to take Gumroad from simple to the most advanced tool for creators and publishers on the platform, so that we can continue to provide a hassle-free, dependable platform for our customers.

The customer comes first at Gumroad:

As a creator, you’re probably more interested in the upgrade path than your early access discount. It’s true: you cannot compare Gumroad’s customer support and reliability with other online businesses–whether that means prompt responses to questions or paying bills on time.

We continue to invest in upgrading the platform, and improving the reliability of our payment system. Most recently we launched a new Digital Asset Tool that helps creators track and manage the money they make through Gumroad. And there are many more exciting enhancements in store for our customers.

Gumroad is already established as a serious competitor in the marketplace:

The numbers are clear: Gumroad’s sales outpace those of competitors like Patreon, which is one of our best metrics indicating that we’re doing something right.

We can’t continue to coast on the reputation we’ve built over the last 10 years. We need to work hard to keep up with service-focused competitors like Patreon and Subbable, as well as newer, disruptive platforms such as Launchrock.

Gumroad is changing the direct sales nature of creative industries:

Many of our customers are new—and some are builders. We’ve seen a big shift in our product since the last time we raised money. With this round, we’re getting our hands back into the big pool of customers who can’t rely on property owners to sell their work.

We’ll be working hard to provide creators with a path to generating revenue from Gumroad in unique ways, especially for those creators that are trying to make money on Gumroad without promoting their own products.