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Atlassian Acquires Loom

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Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#361

Post by y_gy »

claytonjy wrote: post #254
y_gy wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment misunderstands how liq pref works. Liq pref is about the amount of money invested ($175M), not about the valuation. At a $975M exit and a par-for-the-course liq pref of 1.0, it is very likely that all shareholders will have made money on the exit.

Shareholders who got in before that last round, that is. Employees who joined in the last few years will likely have underwater options unless Loom internally repriced already-granted options.

As I mentioned in another comment -- no, their options will not be underwater, because the strike on their options is set by the 409A value, which will have been far less than 1.5B. It wouldn't be unusual to see a company that's got its preferred stock valued at 1.5B and its 409A at 400M.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#362

Post by misschresser »

malfist wrote: post #347
HL33tibCe7 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe in a big company, but actually I completely disagree with this in the context of a small startup. In that context, having a tight team of people who are highly passionate about the product is _essential_.

I think you can be highly passionate about solving complex problems without being highly passionate about the product

The only real complex problem a start-up has to solve is making the product successful. Engineers that love "complex problems" with no love for the product / space it's in is usually a recipe for disaster.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#363

Post by aeyes »

jguimont wrote: post #318
aeyes wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I already have Slack and it has the same feature, I don't even have to send a link. Just hit record and send the video. I guess I don't get it.

but you cannot link those into jira tickets!

I understand that your response is sarcasm but: You can link to Slack messages.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#364

Post by birken »

lmeyerov wrote: post #339
birken wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might not be a 90% discount but it still will be a >50% discount

for companies raising 9 figure later-stage rounds? that's not obvious to me and relevant to this case, often the investor will do a higher valuation (artificially minting a unicorn etc) for optics/vanity reasons, which eats an additional 1+ years of future growth, eliminating the relevance of a discount here and for folks who many not have followed terms above: investors get preferred shares, with rights over these d…

The people who come up with 409a prices have every incentive to make it as low as possible provided it is somewhat defensible to the IRS.

I assure you they can get more creative than saying that the last preferred price was at $X, therefore our hands are tied and the common must be close to that. They can take into consideration the preferred preferences, the current state of the business, the time since the last round, etc. For example, the 409a value can keep going down and down if the value of the business is (defensibly) going down and down, regardless of the last fundraising round.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#365

Post by jazzyjackson »

carstenhag wrote: post #314
Spivak wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Click button, record video, "file" appears in the bottom corner of the screen, drag that into Slack or the Github editor, done. I would be worried about the links expiring, is Loom really hosting arbitrary unlimited sized video content forever for $12/mo? Damn, it's a good thing they got bought.

With loom you can edit it quite easily. I currently use Kap (on MacOS). Tool quality it not as good as Loom. Needs more maintainers I guess. For me, something like Loom without the online-first approach would be nice. It doesn't exist. I searched. Screenshot tools are a solved problem, screen capturing isn't.

After a screengrab with quicktime you just > edit > trim and then save as. Transcripting audio and summarizing would be nice creature comforts but I'm in the "billion dollars for what now?" camp.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#366

Post by andyjsong »

tempsy wrote: post #232
habosa wrote: post #122

Loom is probably the simplest billion-dollar piece of software, but it's also excellent software and I am happy they're getting paid. Screen recording before Loom was a pain. You had to open up some program, start it, save the file, upload the file somewhere, and share it. And if you had to edit the recording at all ... probably start over. With Loom it's all one click and it's ready to share the instant you hit the…

They raised $200M and last raised at $1.5B. Depending on liquidation preference clauses I don't think any employee outside the founders will make much from this sale.

Maybe: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/philhaslett_tendies-activity-...

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#367

Post by modusops123 »

kbos87 wrote: post #304
jschumacher wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you host your videos with Loom and link them everywhere, the moat ain’t that small anymore. Also, their AI features are excellent. But certainly agree that more competition entered the space in the last couple of years.

The brand also becomes a reinforcing moat in an interesting way when you become a household name. When your employees think to themselves "I want to send a quick video update to team X" and they instantly default to downloading Loom, IT's decision for which vendor to buy a solution like this from is practically made for them.

yeah ppl nowadays say "send me a Loom". It's a billion-dollar brand.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#368

Post by CitrusFruits »

neilv wrote: post #351
cj wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how do I do that? The only good answer to this is 1) don't raise more VC money than you really need, and 2) don’t raise money at a valuation way above what your company is actually worth. The problem in the scenario here is that they sold for below the valuation of their last funding round, and the size of their last funding round was ginormous. When you raise hundreds of millions at a $1.5b valuation, you’re expec…

Can I still attract VC, if I'm arguing for more modest valuations than competing lottery-ticket startups are? Or do I have to look like much more a traditional fundamentals investment, than a semirandom lottery ticket (or growth scam to exit)?

Not an expert here, but I have worked at a couple startups. The answer I would give is probably not: VCs basically work on a premise like this: 1 in 25 investments will return 100x, 5 in 25 will make they're money back, and the rest are just a wash. The only way the make money is if the company is mega successful, so they're not really interested if that's not a possibility. That being said, not every person at a VC is going to be super greedy or anything like that, it's just the nature of the business model for venture capital.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#369

Post by pixelmonkey »

neilv wrote: post #331
gangstead wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The startup system is pretty rigged against accidentally making anyone rich who is a mere employee. That money is for the investors, not the working class. The days of the office assistant making millions on stock are long gone. There's options with huge tax implications, long vesting periods, the investors get preferred stock, they get guaranteed multiples, if there's a down round there's a carve-out that you won't…

If I want to found a VC-funded startup for which a successful exit is much more fair to the employees, how do I do that? Will the investors insist that it all come out of the founders' percentage of the pie, or can I argue that the better-incentived employees mean a bigger and more likely pie, so VC terms shoudl be less grabby? Will VCs react negatively to "being soft on" employees, even if it all comes out of founde…

Pragmatically, read "Venture Deals" and "Founder vs Investor" before you start your company. Then hire a reputable law firm and imagine you're an employee rather than a founder, and setup the initial structure in an employee friendly way. When raising your first round, have some non-negotiables that carry the structure forward. You can DM me on Twitter/X if you want more specifics based on my experience.

Successful startup companies can and should compensate employees well with both cash and stock. It's only incompetence and greed that endangers this outcome. VC expectations are a red herring, only bad VCs are so short-sighted as to deprive a founder of one of the major tools of team-building (truly valuable company equity).

As a founder, there are forces you have to fight against from first principles using your moral compass via a thoughtful fundraising strategy, but it can be done.

Re: Atlassian Acquires Loom

#370

Post by junofan »

neilv wrote: post #331
gangstead wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The startup system is pretty rigged against accidentally making anyone rich who is a mere employee. That money is for the investors, not the working class. The days of the office assistant making millions on stock are long gone. There's options with huge tax implications, long vesting periods, the investors get preferred stock, they get guaranteed multiples, if there's a down round there's a carve-out that you won't…

If I want to found a VC-funded startup for which a successful exit is much more fair to the employees, how do I do that? Will the investors insist that it all come out of the founders' percentage of the pie, or can I argue that the better-incentived employees mean a bigger and more likely pie, so VC terms shoudl be less grabby? Will VCs react negatively to "being soft on" employees, even if it all comes out of founde…

Let your lawyers deal with it.
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