Grit

#213 CEO & Co-Founder Loom Joe Thomas w/ Ilya Fushman: After the Exit


Listen Later

Guests: Joe Thomas, CEO and co-founder of Loom; and Ilya Fushman, partner at Kleiner Perkins

Loom CEO Joe Thomas had a lot of things to think about before he sold his company to Atlassian for $975 million: The impact an acquisition might have on the product, how to keep the Loom brand alive, the risk of remaining independent... but it wasn’t until after the deal was announced that he really understood what it meant for his team. 

“I didn't know how emotional it'd be for me,” Joe says. “All of the Loom employees, current and former, that reached out when this was announced, they did their calculation and they're like, ‘Oh my God.’ That, to me, was the most emotionally transformative part of the process. I didn't fully recognize what that would be like, on the individual front.”

Chapters:

  • (01:34) - The Atlassian acquisition
  • (05:25) - The bittersweet moment
  • (08:15) - Transforming Loom
  • (13:30) - Ilya’s perspective
  • (18:04) - Life-changing
  • (22:55) - Doing it again
  • (25:00) - Loom’s early days
  • (28:26) - The Series A
  • (32:33) - Turning on monetization
  • (35:37) - The Series B
  • (37:05) - Loom AI
  • (43:13) - Revenue orientation
  • (48:18) - The acquisition landscape
  • (52:27) - Working inside Atlassian
  • (54:04) - Atlanta tech
  • (55:00) - Who Atlassian is hiring
  • (55:24) - What “grit” means to Joe

  • Mentioned in this episode: Wilson Sonsini, Vinay Hiremath, Andrew Reed and Sequoia Capital, Zoom, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Shahed Khan, COTU Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Scott Farquhar, the Lindy Effect, SVB, Google Chrome, Dropbox, Slack, Snapchat, HubSpot, the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter, Dylan Field and Figma, Atlassian Rovo, Palo Alto Networks, Salesforce, and Garrett Langley and Flock Safety.


    Links:

    Connect with Joe

    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter

    Connect with Ilya

    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn

    Connect with Joubin


    Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

    This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    GritBy Kleiner Perkins

    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9

    4.9

    183 ratings


    More shows like Grit

    View all
    This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

    This Week in Startups

    1,270 Listeners

    a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

    a16z Podcast

    1,027 Listeners

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch by Harry Stebbings

    The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

    514 Listeners

    The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

    The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

    173 Listeners

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

    Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

    2,301 Listeners

    All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

    All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

    9,047 Listeners

    Business Breakdowns by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

    Business Breakdowns

    343 Listeners

    The Logan Bartlett Show by by Redpoint Ventures

    The Logan Bartlett Show

    187 Listeners

    Revenue Builders by Force Management

    Revenue Builders

    147 Listeners

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

    No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

    121 Listeners

    The Social Radars by Jessica Livingston

    The Social Radars

    99 Listeners

    Crucible Moments by Sequoia Capital

    Crucible Moments

    91 Listeners

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

    BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

    455 Listeners

    AI + a16z by a16z

    AI + a16z

    30 Listeners

    Training Data by Sequoia Capital

    Training Data

    41 Listeners