Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

They tried to convince me that my time was worth more than trying to keep a small business like Gumroad afloat, and I should try to build another billion-dollar company armed with all of my learnings–and their money. In June 2015, a few months before our layoffs, our financials looked like this:
Revenue: $89,000 for the month
Gross profit: $17,000
Operating expenses: $364,000
Net profit: -$351,000

A year later, in June 2016, our monthly numbers looked like this:
Revenue: $176,000 for the month
Gross profit: $42,000
Operating expenses: $32,000
Net profit: +$10,000

It hurt, but it meant creators would keep getting paid, and that we were in control of our own destiny. Every year before 2016, there was an improvement in my expectations–in the team, the product, or the company–and this was the first time in my life when the present year felt worse than the last.

Source: medium.com