In 2017, we rebranded from our original name Opentest — to Loom.
A name we thought was original, resembled what we were doing ('weaving' conversations), and hoped to turn into a verb (send me a 'loom').
Oct 14, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Healthy runway is typically 16+ months.
12-16 months is where I've seen most financings occur. There are of course, anomalies to this, but it seems to be a pattern.
[9-11 months]
This is the point where you should be 1) cutting easy costs wherever possible, and 2) focusing on bringing in additional capital ASAP:
Oct 12, 2022 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
Most productivity "hacks" on Twitter are completely useless.
That said, there's a simple tactic that most smart founders I know use to get better at new skills quickly. It's actually useful.
It'll cost around $100—this is how it's done:
First, start out with something you want to get better at.
For example:
"Launching a product that creates virality amongst developers"
Sep 27, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
There’s a lot of advice on how much founders should be paying themselves.
A lot of it is misleading and tends to overcomplicate the problem.
Here’s how we paid ourselves at Loom:
Let’s get the obvious out of the way:
No smart founder starts a company w/ the intent to pay themselves a huge salary out of the gate. If that’s you, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.
Now, how should founders pay themselves? This is best split between pre- and post-Series A:
Sep 14, 2022 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
How 9 months of building without success, 2 pivots, and 100s of rejections resulted in Loom:
In reflecting back on the last 7 years, I've become convinced that most founders place too much emphasis on finding the 'perfect' startup idea.
This thread covers the story of Loom—and why you'll probably have to start with an imperfect idea before landing on your winner:
Aug 12, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The structure of a startup’s founding team is a *serious* indicator on how likely it is to succeed.
How to understand the different types of founder roles:
Every founding team can be boiled down to three types of founder roles:
Generalist: Jack of all trades, master of none.
Specialist: Very talented at one specific thing.
Hybrid: ≥1 specialities. This is rare.
Jul 20, 2022 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
Most fast-growing startups acquire the majority of their customers from a 'single' acquisition channel.
Here’s how to find the right channel for your startup:
For context––last week, I hosted the second episode in a Twitter Spaces series for founders.
We covered how to grow a startup in today's market, with an emphasis on organic distribution.
Below, the highlights from that conversation:
Jul 13, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
"The average hiring mistake costs a company $1.5M+ per year"
How we iterated our interview process @loom early on to avoid mistakes & hire the right people:
@loom First, we recognized that most hiring systems just don't work.
When hiring, people naturally:
- Go with their gut
- Ask leading questions
- Don't dive deep enough
Relying on first impressions and basic answers causes mistakes. So we tried something different:
Jul 1, 2022 • 14 tweets • 10 min read
6 things you should know if you're raising a pre, seed, or Series A round in today's market:
There are enough doom-and-gloom takes about fundraising right now—and not enough perspective from founders who are currently going through this process today.
Jun 30, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
How to write a blurb for your startup:
[with real examples from @loom]
@loom A great blurb gets people excited about your startup in just a few seconds.
It's succinct and easily modifiable for different purposes:
Here's an example of what I used at Loom, specifically for recruiting:
Feb 17, 2022 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
We constantly talk about the benefits of remote work—but tend to overshadow the difficult realities of it...
Here's a list of some "hard truths" of remote work that people have shared with me:
Increased housework
We went from spending 4-8 waking hours at home to 14-16.
Resulting in generating much more trash and spending that much more time being aggravated by the mess.
Jan 25, 2022 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Big update today...
We're launching Prologue, which is a new type of tech holding company.
As part of this—we closed $23M in funding from @a16z and @sequoia.
Our two starting brands include @ProductHunt and @hyper_, with plans for more in the future.
As a sign of big things to come, this the first time @a16z and @sequoia have come to together to co-invest in a structure like this.
Nov 10, 2021 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Everyone talks about the challenges of Imposter Syndrome...
But what if I told you Imposter Syndrome might be your greatest advantage?
This requires “upside-down” reframing:
Never good enough = never done learning
• A negative way of looking at Imposter Syndrome is, “I am less than.”
• A positive way of looking at Imposter Syndrome is, “Tomorrow I’ll be better than I am today.”
Jul 30, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
How we hired a world-class team at @loom (as a pre-seed company):
This will be a multi-part Twitter thread on all-the-things we did to bring on exceptional people when the company had:
- No brand
- a pre-seed round
- & a product w/ early users (pre PM-fit)
In this thread we'll focus on our "process".
Jul 14, 2021 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
7 learnings from my first year investing in startups:
Context for this thread:
1) I invest my own capital.
2) My investments range from $5-$15k per deal. $10k being most common.
3) All investments have been inbound (through one of my investors or a good friend)
Apr 1, 2021 • 13 tweets • 3 min read
"Investor updates" but for your network/close friends:
Great startup founders know when and how to leverage their investors.
One of the most common ways is to send out a monthly or quarterly investor update.
Mar 23, 2021 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
If you’re building a startup, be frugal and raise less money:
It’s YC Demo Day today.
For years, companies have flourished in a matter of weeks and the “best” ones get their initial rounds pre-empted.
