Sahil Lavingia
About Sahil Lavingia
Sahil Lavingia founded Gumroad in 2011. Before that he was a designer at Turntable.fm, and other profiles describe him as an early Pinterest designer and engineer. Gumroad is an online platform that lets creators sell products directly to their audience. It raised about $8 million in its first rounds, and early backers included Kleiner Perkins, First Round, Naval Ravikant and Chris Sacca.
Gumroad later cut its team sharply and moved to a lean model. He has described moving from San Francisco to Provo, Utah, partly because it was cheaper. Gumroad now runs mostly with contractors and no full-time employees. Wikipedia lists Ershad Kunnakkadan as its current CEO.
He wrote The Minimalist Entrepreneur, published in 2021 by Portfolio.
In his own bio, Lavingia says he took a break from angel investing from 2012 to 2016 to focus on Gumroad. He lists investments in about 30 startups including Clubhouse, Lambda School, Figma, Notion, Vercel, HelloSign and Movable Ink. Databases show different deal counts, such as 32 on CB Insights and 43 on Crunchbase. The counts differ because each database tracks different deals.
In August 2020 he launched a $5 million rolling fund with AngelList, writing $100,000 to $250,000 checks. Limited partners included Arlan Hamilton and Josh Kopelman. The fund appears under the name SHL Capital.
Recent investments with an AI or hard-tech angle include Monumental Labs, which is building AI-enabled robotic stone carving factories. Crunchbase and NFX list a seed round in September 2023 and another in July 2025. Databases also list him in Kick (seed, October 2024), Puter (pre-seed, May 2023) and PierSight (seed, May 2025). PierSight is building a satellite radar network for maritime monitoring. In one interview he said he is drawn to ambitious, hard-tech companies that tackle difficult human problems.
Mercury's investor database lists his stages as pre-seed and seed, with a check range of $100K to $250K. VC Sheet lists pre-seed through Series A in the USA. In 2020 he said his interest was B2B, SaaS, future of work, video and developer tools. In an interview with Mercury he said that founders are typically technical. He also said he prefers investors with direct exposure to a company over syndicate members. He is a solo investor and does not publish a formal application process.
- Monumental Labs: AI-enabled robotic stone carving; seed rounds in September 2023 and July 2025.
- Kick: seed round, October 2024.
- PierSight Space: satellite radar for maritime monitoring; seed, May 2025.
- Puter: pre-seed, May 2023.
- Capsule: seed, early 2023.
- ValueBase: pre-seed, February 2023.
- QA Wolf: round in September 2022.
- Notion, Figma, Vercel, Clubhouse, Lambda School: listed in his own bio as angel investments.
- vcsheet.com/who/sahil-lavingia
- mercury.com/investor-database/sahil-lavingia
- techcrunch.com/2020/08/05/gumroad-founder-sahil-lavingia-launches-new-
- mercury.com/blog/sahil-lavingia
- signal.nfx.com/investors/sahil-lavingia
- crunchbase.com/person/sahil-lavingia
- cbinsights.com/investor/sahil-lavingia
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumroad
Investing activity
Sahil Lavingia is listed on Lounge as an angel investor based in Provo, UT. The deals desk records Series A and later AI rounds and seeds over $10M, so smaller checks may not show here yet.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Sahil Lavingia
Does Sahil Lavingia invest in AI startups?
Yes. He backs AI-related companies such as Monumental Labs and has also invested in Kick and Puter. His focus is broader than AI and includes software and hard tech.
What check size does Sahil Lavingia write?
Mercury's database and his 2020 rolling fund announcement both give a range of $100,000 to $250,000. No other figure is confirmed.
What stage does Sahil Lavingia invest in?
Mercury's database lists pre-seed and seed, and VC Sheet lists pre-seed through Series A.
What does Sahil Lavingia look for in founders?
He has said founders are typically technical and proficient at building. He also prefers investors who put in their own money and hold the company directly over syndicate members.
How can founders contact Sahil Lavingia?
His public channels are his personal site, sahillavingia.com, X at @shl and LinkedIn. He has no formal pitch process that we could confirm.
What is Sahil Lavingia best known for?
He founded Gumroad in 2011 and wrote The Minimalist Entrepreneur. He is also an angel investor in companies including Figma, Notion and Vercel.
Is Sahil Lavingia an angel investor?
Yes. Sahil Lavingia invests personally as an angel.
Where is Sahil Lavingia based?
Sahil Lavingia is based in Provo, UT.
How can founders reach Sahil Lavingia?
Founders on Lounge can see Sahil Lavingia's contact details in AI Investor Contacts (paid plans), check for a warm introduction through members who worked with them under Warm Paths, and add Sahil Lavingia to their Investor Pipeline to track the conversation.