Vinay Hiremath: Indian-Origin Entrepreneur Who Sold $975 Million Firm

Vinay Hiremath, the co-founder of Loom, sold his startup to Atlassian for $975 million in 2023. Since then, he has found himself grappling with a lack of purpose. In a blog titled "I Am Rich and Have No Idea What to Do With My Life," he shared his struggles, including declining a $60 million role, ending a relationship, and failed ventures in robotics and government reform.

Now 33, Mr Hiremath is in Hawaii studying Physics, aiming to build a new company. He admits his next venture doesn't need to match Loom's success but hopes it is fulfilling.

Who is Vinay Hiremath?

Born in 1991, Vinay Hiremath dropped out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign two years into the course. He transitioned from a small college town in Illinois to Palo Alto, California, to pursue his passion for startups.

His first significant role was as a Software Engineer at Backplane, a well-funded Silicon Valley startup that focused on creating online communities. At Backplane, Mr Hiremath met Shahed Khan, an intern who later became his co-founder at Loom.

Vinay Hiremath has funded startups, including Enterpret Company.

He co-founded Loom with Shahed Khan and Joe Thomas in the early 2010s. Loom is a video-sharing platform that enables users to create and share short-form videos. It currently serves over 14 million users and 2 lakh businesses, according to Forbes.

In its early days, Loom was just two weeks away from running out of funds. Mr Hiremath maxed out his credit cards to keep the company afloat. As the co-founder and former CTO of Loom, he helped raise $200 million in funding, scaled the team from 0 to 250 employees, and grew the user base to over 30 million worldwide. Loom was acquired by Atlassian for $975 million in 2023.

In 2018, he was named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list.