Dec 25, 2020 · 21m · top-founders
How GoSun Sold 50,000 Units, $4m Revenue, 250k Community, Software Next?
Patrick Sherwin · 11m spoken Nathan Latka · 7m spoken Eric Yuan · 4s spoken Frank Bien · 4s spoken Vivek Bhaskaran · 2s spoken
0:00 / 0:00
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this interview with Nathan Latka, GoSun founder Patrick Sherwin details how his clean-tech company bootstrapped over $4 million in crowdfunding revenue, amassed a 250,000-subscriber community, and expanded from portable solar cookers into smart off-grid tiny homes.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 37% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Nathan as informed peer 5.4 Guest teaching 1.3 Guest disagreement 0.3 Nathan pushing back 1.3
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:05 Patrick clarifies hardware cost realities
Patrick firmly rejects Nathan's software-centric financial math, noting that tooling and transoceanic shipping materially reduce gross margins.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 9:58 Nathan questions equity dilution over customer pre-salesNathan challenges Patrick's decision to dilute equity when customer pre-orders were already generating hundreds of thousands in non-dilutive capital.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:05 Patrick breaks down physical hardware overheadPatrick educates Nathan on the hidden cost centers of hardware manufacturing, including overseas transit, customer returns, and physical tooling costs absent in SaaS.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:54 Nathan identifies the tiny home showroom business modelNathan demonstrates sharp commercial instincts by articulating how the tiny homes replace traditional retail distribution channels to upsell appliances at high margins.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introducing Patrick Sherwin and GoSun Sport's Origins | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Nathan methodically drills down on foundational timeline numbers, asking about Kickstarter revenues, delivery logistics, and break-even timelines. Patrick willingly supplies detailed financial milestones without friction. | |
| Crowdfunding Track Record and Product Line Expansion | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Nathan pulls up the live Kickstarter campaign page and analyzes GoSun's marketing execution, highlighting how technical schematics are translated into accessible customer benefits. Patrick elaborates on margin targets and discount structures. | |
| List Building, Event Hustle, and Brand Loyalty | 5 | 6 | 1 | 3 | Nathan calculates residual cash assuming software-like gross margins, prompting Patrick to correct him by detailing overseas freight, tool manufacturing, and logistical expenses inherent to physical hardware. Nathan also questions why Patrick raised equity crowdfunding after successful pre-sales. | |
| The Vision Behind the GoSun Tiny House | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Nathan formulates a high-level strategic thesis for the tiny home pivot, reframing the house as an experiential retail showroom designed to upsell solar appliances rather than paying for retail shelf space. Patrick fully validates the insight. | |
| Tiny House Presales, Community Channels, and Upsell Model | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Nathan pushes Patrick on competitor differentiation when Getaway is brought up, pointing out they lack solar integration. They break down unit deposit volumes and the modest unit margins on tiny homes. | |
| Smart Home Ecosystem and Customer Interaction | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Nathan outlines the 'atoms vs bits' strategic advantage GoSun holds over pure software booking platforms and offers to collaborate or invest. Patrick discusses customer feedback loops and smart app integrations. | |
| Social Enterprise and Global Clean Cooking Initiatives | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Patrick discusses the social mission in emerging markets before Nathan transitions smoothly through the rapid-fire Famous Five closing questions. |
Statements from this episode (14)
GoSun raised $213,000 in seven weeks during its initial Kickstarter campaign
“Yeah, it was a 213 K over seven weeks.”
GoSun founder Patrick Sherwin took no salary for his first four years
“I didn't pay myself until 2017. So it was about four years after the first launch.”
GoSun averaged $400,000 in presales across nine separate crowdfunding launches
“Oh, nine. And we've done most of them on crowdfunding, Indiegogo, and Kickstarter. And they've all been successful. The average is somewhere around 400,000 dollars in, in pre-sales.”
Successful Kickstarter campaigns require offering a 40% discount off MSRP
“The key to Kickstarter is that you want to provide like a 40% discount off of your intended MSRP.”
GoSun reached 50,000 customers and 250,000 email subscribers
“We have about we have about 50,000 customers and our emails are, you know, a couple, about a quarter million. Our sort of social following is about a quarter million.”
GoSun gathered 100,000 email addresses by attending two trade shows per month
“I mean, we went to like two trade shows a month there for a while, and we always focused on, hey, please give us your email. You'd have an iPad or something to sign up, drop your business card in, whatever. We got, you know, we must have got a 100,000 emails t…”
GoSun expanded its product line into manufacturing 22-foot solar-powered tiny homes
“We recently launched a tiny house. Which is literally, you know, an entire home on wheels, 22 foot long, and it generated a huge amount of interest, and we're getting into manufacturing tiny houses now.”
GoSun raised $1.5 million across two equity crowdfunding rounds
“And then we've done two equity crowd fund raises as well. And those have brought in about one and a half million in capital.”
Most tiny houses on the market are inefficient and not environmentally green
“We were watching the tiny house trend just continue to ratchet up, but nobody was really addressing it from an efficiency standpoint. The houses are cute, but they're not very green. They use a ton of propane or electricity to stay warm and cool depending on t…”
GoSun secured over ten $500 deposits for its 2021 tiny houses
“We're well over 10 and we're, you know, we're definitely on our way to our first 10 units in production. For 21.”
GoSun accepts 10% margins on $100,000 tiny homes to drive solar adoption
“We're not going to have a great margin on the tiny home, you know, 10 or 15% on something that's a hundred grand, that's 10 grand great. But it's really about, you know, getting people into using our products and relating to our products in these different way…”
Building physical hardware is inherently harder and more valuable than software
“You've built the harder part, which is the physical brick and mortar, like the atoms. They've sort of built the bits, right? It's easy for you to add bits. It's probably harder for them to add the hardware, so you're probably more valuable than them”