Launching Loom (then OpenVid) in 2015, our aspirations for what it could become were ambitious. But even we couldn't have predicted the breadth and creativity of use cases we've seen from customers over the past 6+ years.
Today, more than 14 million users at 200,000 organizations are using Loom. We've seen global teams up-level collaboration, communication, and connection using async video. The originality in net-new use cases continues to surprise (and delight) me — from 15-part Twitter masterclasses in storytelling to fodder for workplace remixes, houseplant tours, and everything in between.
One of the spaces I've been particularly impressed to see lean hard into Loom over the past year is fundraising. Capturing VC attention, making a meaningful impression, and successfully selling your vision is difficult enough. And doing this in a remote setting is even more so. Seeing the ways in which async video — and Loom specifically — have changed the way founders communicate and connect with investors has been fascinating to witness.
Loom and Fundraising
In early 2021 I was speaking with one of our board members, Ilya Fushman. Ilya is a partner at Kleiner Perkins and led our Series A in 2019. As one of the first to really believe in our platform's potential, Ilya was eager to share how Loom's adoption in the investor world was starting to take off. More and more founders and leadership teams were sharing Loom walkthroughs of fundraising materials as the first step in the process. Ilya even shared the catchy phrase circulating to describe the new trend: "Loom, Zoom, Room."
Here's how it works: (1) Loom: founders send an async video walking investors through their fundraising materials (2) Zoom: if the firm's interested, step two is a live Zoom meeting to talk through specific questions and (3) Room: if they're still interested in pursuing the opportunity further, it's time to meet in person.
In a work world where we’re inundated with notifications, messages, and meetings, prioritizing the highest impact use of your time is difficult. This is something I contend with myself, and it's a challenge Ilya encounters as well. But by utilizing the Loom, Zoom, Room process, Ilya shared how much more efficient and flexible his team is able to be. By cutting down on the live time required to evaluate a team's materials, they can prioritize and reallocate that time into more effective live interaction with founders.
But even after this endorsement from Ilya, I didn’t fully appreciate Loom’s impact in the fundraising world until I saw Rippling's announcement.
Rippling: raising $250M with async video
Rippling is a platform that makes running global workforces— from Payroll and Benefits to HR and IT—unified and effortless. The team is co-founded by Parker Conrad, one of a leading group of entrepreneurs who have led multiple billion-dollar unicorns.
Last fall, Parker and Rippling's team used Loom as part of their recent fundraising efforts, resulting s $250 million raise at a $6.5 billion valuation. Protocol broke down the process in an article aptly titled "Loom, Zoom, boom: How Rippling raised $250 million with a demo video and a memo." The piece details how Parker used a 13-page memo and a 39-minute product walkthrough recorded on Loom to seal the deal.
As Protocol Biz Carson described it, Loom gave Rippling "the added bonus of being a way to control how your startup’s story is told." Parker, however, put it best with this quote: "[A slide deck is] like sending someone a song and some of the tracks of music are missing. Any slide that you put together is meant to be accompanied by your voice track. And so if you’re sending slides without that, it’s a terrible way to convey information.”
Six years ago, I don't think I would have believed it if someone told me Loom would be described as "the founder’s tool of choice for pitching venture capitalists." Seeing the impact of our vision for Loom on something as critical as funding is humbling, and we're honored to play even a small role in our customers' journeys.
If you’re fundraising (or are soon to be), check out how Rippling found success. And consider Looming before you Zoom. Tell your company's story the way you want it to be told.