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.

Vinay Hiremath, the Indian-origin co-founder of Loom who sold his company to Atlassian for $975 million in 2023, recently opened up about the insecurities he’s experienced since achieving immense wealth.

In a blog post titled “I am rich and I have no idea what to do with my life,” Mr Hiremath reflected on his struggle to find purpose after selling his company. He wrote, “Life has been a haze this last year. 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 don’t have the same base desires driving me to make money or gain status.” He added that, despite having unlimited freedom, he feels uncertain about how to use it. “And, honestly, I’m not the most optimistic about life,” he admitted.

I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life.

Where I talk about leaving Loom, giving up $60m, larping as Elon, breaking up with my girlfriend, insecurities, a brief stint at DOGE, and how I’m now in Hawaii self-studying physics.https://t.co/cMgAsXq3St

— Vinay Hiremath (@vhmth) January 2, 2025

Mr Hiremath revisited key phases in his life where he tried to create meaning. He revealed that he broke up with his girlfriend of two years due to his own insecurities, describing the experience as “extremely painful” but ultimately the right decision. He also issued an apology to her without naming her: “If my ex is reading this: Thank you for everything. I am sorry I couldn’t be what you needed me to be.”

The co-founder of Loom shared how he grappled with staying at the company that acquired Loom, where he was offered a potential $60 million package as CTO. Struggling with the decision, he retreated to “the redwoods” to process his confusion and eventually decided to leave, saying, “to do something. Anything. To be alive again.”

Mr Hiremath explored other ventures, including meeting with investors and robotics experts to pursue the idea of giving computers “arms and legs,” but he soon realized it wasn’t his true passion. “It started to dawn on me that what I actually wanted was to look like Elon [Musk], and that is incredibly cringe,” he wrote. “It hurts to even type this out.”

He then embarked on a trek in the Himalayas with no prior experience, which ended with him falling ill and needing to be rappelled down a mountain “while tripping out of my mind.” After recovering, friends encouraged him to reach out to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy at DOGE. He managed to land a job but quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit.  

“After 4 intense and intoxicating weeks, I called off my plans to move to Washington, D.C., and embark on a journey to save our government with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” he wrote. “And I booked a 1-way ticket to Hawaii.”

Now, at 33, Mr Hiremath is learning physics with the goal of starting a company that manufactures tangible, real-world products. He concluded by saying he’s content with the idea that the new venture doesn’t need to reach the same success as Loom did.