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Over this past weekend I had the idea to build a sort of link shortener but with a payment system built-in. There have been many times in the past where I wante

Over this past weekend I had the idea to build a sort of link shortener but with a payment system built-in. There have been many times in the past where I wanted to share a link - on Twitter or just through IM with a few friends - but did not want to go through the overhead of setting up a whole store. So I built Gumroad. I coded/designed from 12PM -> 11PM on Saturday and 8AM -> 11PM on Sunday. There are still tons of features missing (I'm working on AJAX file uploading next!) but I think it's reached that - buzzword alert! - MVP stage where I want to see if anyone's actually going to use the darn thing (I'm thinking about taking a 30% cut). Here's an example Gumroad link: http://www.gumroad.com/l/hjbaod http://www.gumroad.com/l/hjbaod - I use Stripe for payments. Here are some screenshots I took while making it: http://letscrate.com/gumroad/gumroad-progress http://letscrate.com/gumroad/gumroad-progress - I didn't use Photoshop so no crazy time-lapses! I think it has some potential. What do you guys think?

duck 16y ago
What does Stripe's fee structure look like?
- bmelton 16y ago
  Stripe reps have stated repeatedly that whatever their fee structure looks like right now, it's not representative of what it will look like when they come out of beta. The only thing that I've seen that was commented on, but not objected to, is that it's 'similar to' PayPal fee structures. But even that's up to being refuted.
phoboslab 16y ago
I love the idea! This makes it really easy to sell scripts (e.g. your own jQuery plugins or whatever) for $5 where it would normally be too much work to set up some payment processing. The 30% cut is way too high though. Especially for higher priced links - I wouldn't want to sell my $99 game engine[1] through your service. I think something like "5%, but at least $0.30" would make more sense. But maybe having such "highly" priced links wasn't your intention in the first place? [1] http://impactjs.com/ http://impactjs.com/ (Can't mention it often enough :))
- JoachimSchipper 16y ago
  Paypal already takes $0.30 plus a small percentage. I think the service is a neat idea, but microtransactions are not a solved problem.
  - phoboslab 16y ago
    Thinking about it, Gumroad is the perfect application for Bitcoins: http://www.bitcoin.org/ http://www.bitcoin.org/
    - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
      No, it isn't. Bitcoins are clever and all, but how many people would be willing to set it up just to see a link?
      - phoboslab 16y ago
        Sure, at the moment only nerds use Bitcoins, but this _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today. But yes, it probably doesn't make much (commercial) sense right now.
        JoachimSchipper 16y ago
        > Bitcoins [...] _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today Putting aside numerous other issues, bitcoin.org states "The total eventual circulation will be 21 million bitcoins". [EDIT: DanI-S pointed out that bitcoins can already be subdivided. So this was switched from "there are too few bitcoins to support even American e-commerce" to "bitcoins are not valuable enough to support even American e-commerce". The number of fractional bitcoins is still an issue, but less immediately.] At the current ~$0.70 / bitcoin, this means that every American will be able to have ~$0.05 in his or her electronic wallet, once all bitcoins are generated. Assuming that the rest of the world does not participate at all and that bitcoins are evenly distributed. Sure, you could imagine an instant dollar-to-bitcoin-to-dollar conversion at the point of payment. Or you could imagine a bitcoin2.org that generates more coins. Or you could hope for a massive surge in the value of the bitcoin. I'd put my money on Paypal sticking around, though.
slouch 16y ago
how are you using stripe already?
- sahillavingia 16y ago
  I'm friends with one of the founders + I asked repeatedly.
louismg 16y ago
I've tried it and purchased on my own link. 1) How soon until the money reaches PayPal? 2) There are no assurances that the CC data is safe. It looks to be sent over HTTPS, but you're assumed to be trusted.
- sahillavingia 16y ago
  Awesome! I'm doing Net 60 as that's what Stripe does. The CC data is safe, but of course there's no reinforcement on-site. I'll add something.
  - louismg 16y ago
    Net 60 days? I would assume that users expect near real-time if PayPal is the back end. 60 days sounds way too long.
    - ericd 16y ago
      I'd assume it's at least partly to deal with fraud.
  - louismg 16y ago
    Posted on it as well. http://blog.louisgray.com/2011/04/gumroad-launches-to-sell-digital-goods.html http://blog.louisgray.com/2011/04/gumroad-launches-to-sell-d...
    - rexreed 16y ago
      Wow - that's fast feedback! On a separate side-note would you be interested in early access to apps for similar sort of reviews / blog postings, or is that inappropriate to ask?
      - louismg 16y ago
        That's not inappropriate to ask at all. It's a fun hobby. Look through my site and you'll see I've done this a long time and have some big wins that launched first with me. (TweetDeck, Beluga two examples)
golgo13 16y ago
Cool idea! One quick thing: I would change the "(Minus our cut)" wording to something a little more friendly. Maybe transaction fee or something along those lines.
pageman 16y ago
where's the password recovery? logged in, posted a link, logged out - I can't log back again - emailed you at hi@gumroad.com
InfinityX0 16y ago
I would include a sample URL or two on the homepage - I was confused as to how I would get people to buy/what the sales page would look like - but thanks for clarifying with the attached URL.
caffeine 16y ago
Suggestion: you should now build a second app which generates a stream of single-use urls that are invalidated as soon as they are accessed, and which proxy through to an original base url. Then hook the two apps together and profit.
thorax 16y ago
Love the idea! I'd also love a thumbnail/pic for each link, though. Something that might give them a little more evidence of what they're getting into.
brooksbp 16y ago
That's one hell of a cut.
ElbertF 16y ago
Could you add the option to let the payee set the price? That would be great for donations and pay-what-it's-worth-to-you transactions. :)

duck 16y ago

What does Stripe's fee structure look like?

bmelton 16y ago
Stripe reps have stated repeatedly that whatever their fee structure looks like right now, it's not representative of what it will look like when they come out of beta. The only thing that I've seen that was commented on, but not objected to, is that it's 'similar to' PayPal fee structures. But even that's up to being refuted.

phoboslab 16y ago

I love the idea! This makes it really easy to sell scripts (e.g. your own jQuery plugins or whatever) for $5 where it would normally be too much work to set up some payment processing. The 30% cut is way too high though. Especially for higher priced links - I wouldn't want to sell my $99 game engine[1] through your service. I think something like "5%, but at least $0.30" would make more sense. But maybe having such "highly" priced links wasn't your intention in the first place? [1] http://impactjs.com/ http://impactjs.com/ (Can't mention it often enough :))

JoachimSchipper 16y ago
Paypal already takes $0.30 plus a small percentage. I think the service is a neat idea, but microtransactions are not a solved problem.
- phoboslab 16y ago
  Thinking about it, Gumroad is the perfect application for Bitcoins: http://www.bitcoin.org/ http://www.bitcoin.org/
  - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
    No, it isn't. Bitcoins are clever and all, but how many people would be willing to set it up just to see a link?
    - phoboslab 16y ago
      Sure, at the moment only nerds use Bitcoins, but this _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today. But yes, it probably doesn't make much (commercial) sense right now.
      - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
        > Bitcoins [...] _could_ become as universal as PayPal is today Putting aside numerous other issues, bitcoin.org states "The total eventual circulation will be 21 million bitcoins". [EDIT: DanI-S pointed out that bitcoins can already be subdivided. So this was switched from "there are too few bitcoins to support even American e-commerce" to "bitcoins are not valuable enough to support even American e-commerce". The number of fractional bitcoins is still an issue, but less immediately.] At the current ~$0.70 / bitcoin, this means that every American will be able to have ~$0.05 in his or her electronic wallet, once all bitcoins are generated. Assuming that the rest of the world does not participate at all and that bitcoins are evenly distributed. Sure, you could imagine an instant dollar-to-bitcoin-to-dollar conversion at the point of payment. Or you could imagine a bitcoin2.org that generates more coins. Or you could hope for a massive surge in the value of the bitcoin. I'd put my money on Paypal sticking around, though.

slouch 16y ago

how are you using stripe already?

sahillavingia 16y ago
I'm friends with one of the founders + I asked repeatedly.

louismg 16y ago

I've tried it and purchased on my own link. 1) How soon until the money reaches PayPal? 2) There are no assurances that the CC data is safe. It looks to be sent over HTTPS, but you're assumed to be trusted.

sahillavingia 16y ago
Awesome! I'm doing Net 60 as that's what Stripe does. The CC data is safe, but of course there's no reinforcement on-site. I'll add something.
- louismg 16y ago
  Net 60 days? I would assume that users expect near real-time if PayPal is the back end. 60 days sounds way too long.
  - ericd 16y ago
    I'd assume it's at least partly to deal with fraud.
- louismg 16y ago
  Posted on it as well. http://blog.louisgray.com/2011/04/gumroad-launches-to-sell-digital-goods.html http://blog.louisgray.com/2011/04/gumroad-launches-to-sell-d...
  - rexreed 16y ago
    Wow - that's fast feedback! On a separate side-note would you be interested in early access to apps for similar sort of reviews / blog postings, or is that inappropriate to ask?
    - louismg 16y ago
      That's not inappropriate to ask at all. It's a fun hobby. Look through my site and you'll see I've done this a long time and have some big wins that launched first with me. (TweetDeck, Beluga two examples)

golgo13 16y ago

Cool idea! One quick thing: I would change the "(Minus our cut)" wording to something a little more friendly. Maybe transaction fee or something along those lines.

pageman 16y ago

where's the password recovery? logged in, posted a link, logged out - I can't log back again - emailed you at hi@gumroad.com

InfinityX0 16y ago

I would include a sample URL or two on the homepage - I was confused as to how I would get people to buy/what the sales page would look like - but thanks for clarifying with the attached URL.

caffeine 16y ago

Suggestion: you should now build a second app which generates a stream of single-use urls that are invalidated as soon as they are accessed, and which proxy through to an original base url. Then hook the two apps together and profit.

thorax 16y ago

Love the idea! I'd also love a thumbnail/pic for each link, though. Something that might give them a little more evidence of what they're getting into.

brooksbp 16y ago

That's one hell of a cut.

ElbertF 16y ago

Could you add the option to let the payee set the price? That would be great for donations and pay-what-it's-worth-to-you transactions. :)