Sahil Lavingia founded Gumroad and wrote the book The Minimalist Entrepreneur. This is his playbook, turned into ten skills for Claude. A skill is a set of steps Claude follows for one job. You tell it what you sell. It plans who to pitch this week, your first price and a weekly goal, and your cold email.
For anyone who sells something, or wants to start. A cake, a course, a service, an app. It plans and it writes. The selling is still yours.
Made by Sahil Lavingia, the founder of Gumroad. Free and public on GitHub as slavingia/skills. I'm not the author: I installed it and tested it.
On your phone? The setup is easier on a computer. Open federicodonatone.com/playbook there, or .
One seat per customer. The skill plans who fills the first ones: people you know, then your community, then strangers.
My example: birthday cakes from home in Austin, $45 a cake. It's not my business. I installed the ten skills on my Mac and sent one message to /first-customers. The answer came in 41 seconds. The lines in quotes are its own.
/first-customers I bake custom birthday cakes from home in Austin, $45 a cake. I just started.
“I don't know your people, so here are the slots to fill.”
Then 10 places in your community: your Nextdoor neighborhood, Austin parent Facebook groups, your kid's PTA, daycare directors, kids' party venues, and more.
“$45 is low for Austin.”
“aim for 3 paid cakes a week for the first month, then 5 a week. At 4 a week on average, you'll reach 100 customers in about 6 months.”
SubjectBirthday cakes for the [Company] team
Hi [Name],
I saw [Company] posted their team birthday celebration.
I'm a home baker making custom birthday cakes for $45.
Happy to drop off a few slices for your team to try this week, no strings.
Whose birthday is next?
Its words, cut to fit here. Nothing added.
The skill builds on the email Sahil sent to strangers, thousands of times, to grow Gumroad: “I built a service called Gumroad which basically automates all of this.”
From the text of the skill/first-customersHow I ran it: Claude Code 2.1.280 with Opus 5.5, in a test folder on my Mac. One message, one answer, 41 seconds. The skill also wrote a pitch to send to friends, a tracking sheet and a note on Texas rules for home bakers.
They follow the book in order: find your people, test the idea, build small, sell, set the price, grow. Start with the one that fits where you are today.
Lists the groups you already belong to and the problems people there keep having. You leave with 1 to 3 communities to serve.
You want a business idea.
Asks who has the problem, what they use today and whether they would pay. Then a verdict: go, test more, or change it.
You have an idea and nothing built.
Cuts your first product to one thing you can ship in a weekend, with a price from day one.
You are ready to build.
Turns your idea into a service you deliver by hand, written step by step on one page. Plus 3 people to try it this week.
You want to sell before you write code.
10 people you know, 10 in your community, a cold email, a first price and a weekly goal.
You have something to sell.
Picks a way to price and a first price, then the math: how many customers you need to live on it.
You don't know what to charge.
A content plan with no ads: one platform, a posting rhythm, ideas to post and an email list.
You have about 100 customers.
Checks a decision on money, hiring or fundraising: does it keep you profitable, and can you undo it?
You are about to spend or hire.
Drafts 3 to 5 company values with stories, and how they show in hiring and in daily work.
You are about to hire.
A gut check on any plan: do it, don't, or make it simpler. Plus one thing to try this week.
You are stuck between options.
A product, a service, a shop, a course. You want the next customers, one by one.
No idea yet, or an idea and no customers. It starts from the groups you already belong to.
Now you grow with content, and you spend less than you make.
Public on GitHub. You don't need a GitHub account, and there is nothing to buy.
Claude Code needs a Pro, Max or higher plan. Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month paid yearly, before tax. The free Claude plan doesn't include it. Developers can also use prepaid credits from the Claude Console.
In the app, plugins need a paid plan too. On the free plan you can upload one skill at a time, by hand: six of the ten fit the rules as they are. The guide shows both ways.
What you need: a computer for the setup, with Mac, Windows or Linux. Prices in US dollars from Anthropic's pricing page, read on 3 Nov 2026. They can change.
/first-customers. The steps for the Claude app come from Anthropic's help pages: I did not click them./first-customers, ready to fill in: what you sell, who buys it, the price, since when.The link, then two lines in the Terminal for Claude Code, or a few clicks in the Claude app. Then one check that all ten are there.
Locked. The link, the two lines with copy buttons, what you should see, the clicks in the Claude app, the way for the free plan and the check.
Open it with your emailA message to fill in with four answers, what comes back, and what to ask next in the same chat.
Locked. The message with your four answers, what you get back, and three messages to send after it.
Open it with your emailThe book's path, one step at a time, with a first message for each skill. You don't need all ten.
Locked. The ten in the book's order, when to use each one, and a message to start it.
Open it with your emailTwo lines to update, one to remove, and the same in the Claude app.
Locked. The lines to update or remove the skills, what you should see, and the same in the Claude app.
Open it with your email