"I am rich and I have no idea what to do with my life," posts Loom founder

Vinay Hiremath, the co-founder of Loom, shared his mixed emotions and confusion following the $975 million sale of his startup in 2023

In 2023, Vinay Hiremath, co-founder of the startup 'Loom,' sold his company to Atlassian for $975 million. Since then, he has been grappling with a sense of cluelessness and lost purpose. He detailed his hardships in a blog post titled “I Am Rich and Have No Idea What to Do With My Life,” which included turning down a $ 60 million position, breaking up with someone, and failing at robotics and government reform.

 

Mr. Hiremath, now 33, is studying physics in Hawaii with the goal of starting a new business. Although he acknowledges that his next efforts need not be as successful as Loom's, he still thinks it will be rewarding. 

 

"After selling my company, I find myself in the totally un-relatable position of never having to work again. Everything feels like a side quest, but not in an inspiring way. I have infinite freedom, yet I don’t know what to do with it. The point of this post isn’t to brag or gain sympathy," he stated.   

Who is Vinay Hiremath?

Vinay Hiremath was born in 1991, left the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign two years into the course. To follow his passion for startups, he moved to Palo Alto, California. He was included in Forbes' 30 under 30 list in 2018.

 

Working as a software engineer at Backplane, a well-funded Silicon Valley startup that specialized in building online communities, was his first notable position. Shahed Khan, who later co-founded Loom with Vinay Hiremath, first met him during their time at Backplane. Additionally, Vinay Hiremath has invested in startups like Enterpret Company.

 

In the early 2010s, he joined Joe Thomas and Shahed Khan in co-founding Loom. Loom is a video-sharing platform that enables users to create and share short-form videos. According to Forbes, it presently serves 2 lakh businesses and more than 14 million users.  

When Loom first started out, it was only two weeks away from going bankrupt. To keep the business afloat, Hiremath maxed out his credit cards. He scaled the team from 0 to 250 workers, helped secure $200 million in funding, and expanded the user base to over 30 million globally in his role as co-founder and former CTO of Loom. In 2023, Atlassian paid $975 million to acquire Loom.

Vinay Hiremath apology to ex girlfriend

Hiremath disclosed that he traveled with his fiancée in search of something fresh to do, but their relationship did not survive long as they split up after "two years of unconditional love" due to his insecurities. He apologized to his ex and held himself responsible for the breakup. He said, "If my ex is reading this. Thank you for everything. I am sorry I couldn’t be what you needed me to be." 

 

The Loom co-founder further talked about how he struggled to make the decision even though he was offered a handsome $60 million compensation package as the CTO at the firm that acquired Loom. 

When Vinay Hiremath tried to become Elon Musk

He planned to launch a robotics business, but it did not inspire him, so he spent the next two weeks meeting with dozens of investors and robotics specialists. "It started to dawn on me that what I actually wanted was to look like Elon, and that is incredibly cringe. It hurts to even type this out," he remarked. For four weeks, he worked with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk at DOGE. Describing the experience as incredible, he highlighted collaborating with and recruiting some of the smartest people he’s ever met. "It was a blast," he added. 

Vinay Hiremath on Himalayas and Hawaii

After attempting an untrained Himalayan climb, the 33-year-old became ill and needed to be rescued. "So now I’m in Hawaii. I’m learning physics. Why? The reason I tell myself is to build up my first principles foundation so I can start a company that manufactures real world things," he wrote at the end of the post.