You're asking me to pay $5 for a one-page PDF that's the first chapter of what sounds, in the absence of any information about it other than "I'm writing a book about my startup", suspiciously like an advertisement. After spending a few minutes clicking on links I was finally able to figure out what it is that Gumroad actually does, but neither your blog post or the purchase page gave the barest bit of information about the startup you're writing about.

I'm interested in what you're doing and would love to hear what you have to say, but it doesn't seem to me like you're doing a good job selling the book concept to someone who isn't already familiar with you or your work.

This is a cool project, but the title of the book is very mis-leading ("Building a billion-dollar company").

Without knowing the author, people might presume that this book is written by someone who has built a billion dollar company before, and thus hand over $5 only to be disappointed (since they can't preview chapters). Not to mention it's a little link-baity.

Why not just call it "Gumroad"?

Why don't you first make a success out of gumroad before telling us about how you made a great success out of gumroad?

At this price I'd consider the ebook by Mark Cuban (who is a billionaire), selling at $2.50 on amazon.

Sahil, I support a lot of your stuff and I'm a fan, but I'm not paying $5 for something that I'm not sure is good. I definitely would support the done ebook at the end (although it might take a while).

You should post a few sample pages so people can get an idea of whether the book is interesting to them.

This is a cool idea, Sahil, and I'd love for more entrepreneurs to publish their experiences and thoughts transparently during the process of building their companies (as opposed to retroactively writing it with perfect hindsight).

If others do this, setting up a live chat with potential readers in a Google Hangout-style way where you can talk about what you have done live with potential readers would be valuable. Also an obvious idea is allowing an explanatory video to be posted, but that may also clutter Gumroad.

I actually love the idea, but a 1-page PDF (as it is described when you click through to the Gumroad link) for $5 seems a bit steep in terms of pricing to me.

Someone's been hanging out with direct marketers:) But remember, direct marketers get your attention with the headline and then back it up...often using dozens of pages. A 100 word blog post won't make the sale.

It seems like you are selling page one of your sales pitch--not even the book.

umm how about you finish the book, then we pay for it. its also confusing if we are paying a page or the entire book..

undefined

May I ask if Gumroad is still running on App Engine?