What Do We Do With the Gumroad Money?
Last year you voted to renounce my Gumroad investment. Vote 175 closed 57% Yes. The reasoning was about values, not returns: Sahil Lavingia's work with DOGE and the cuts aimed at the VA sat wrong with me as a veteran, and you agreed I should sever ties.
I tried. At the time Sahil told me there was no mechanism to give back a 2021 Crowd SAFE. So the vote passed and then nothing happened. Technically a success that did not feel like one.
That changed this week. On May 27, Sahil emailed to say there is now a formal way to unwind the SAFE. I sign a Mutual Rescission and Release Agreement, the original $350 comes back to me as a return of capital, and I am off the cap table for good.
One thing in his email is worth correcting. He framed this as a path for "investors who no longer wish to be associated with the company." That is not what this was. I have no quarrel with Gumroad the product or the people who use it. The thing I no longer wished to be associated with is him. We voted on the man and his choices, not the cap table line item.
So the $350 is coming home. Since you directed the renouncement, you get to direct what the money does next.
OPTIONS
A. Buy back K5M shares. Put the $350 to work in the company. Bring the money home to the cap table you actually believe in.
B. Donate it. Send the $350 out the door to a good cause. We can run a follow-up vote to pick where.
C. Keep it. Return of capital, nothing more. It lands in the treasury and we move on.
D. Do something dumb and fun. Hand me $350 and I'll think of something. :)
14
25 users voted with 1667 shares
Wish there was a "invest in something else more aligned with your values", but I guess that's basically D...
Ha, that didn't even occur to me. But we did just approve the DIT investment.
It's $350 bruh
@Nick - that is why we included option D :)
I think the "invest in something else more aligned with your values" option is B. It's framed as "Donation", but done thoughtfully it's an investment with expectation of a non-financial return that accrues to someone else. That's the essence of altruistic investment.
Because it's only $350, just keep it.
If it was $3,500 then do a buy back. But it's not worth the effort for an amount of money that my family of 8 spends on 1 sushi dinner out.