CEO Loom, Joe Thomas: Communication, the Mother of All Skills

When Rippling CEO Parker Conrad was raising a massive $250 million round last year, he didn’t start by presenting his deck to venture capitalists in person. Instead, he sent a 39-minute demo of his product, recorded on the video app Loom. And, Loom’s CEO Joe Thomas says, “That was the most pleasant surprise.”

In this episode, Joe and Joubin discuss how Loom “stands on the shoulders of giants” like Google, Instagram, and Snap; Joe’s preparations to become a father for the first time; Loom’s overnight success and why the first six months after its Series A were the hardest; what Joe has learned about recruiting and building teams that can trust each other; and how Loom markets and recruits — including how it uses its own product internally.

In this episode, we cover:

• Joe’s grandfather Wally — a proud business owner, a “man of the people,” and his personal hero (03:17)
• How Snap, the first company to validate Silicon Beach as a real hub for tech innovation, pushed the boundaries of design and subconsciously influenced Loom (05:29)
• The consumerization of enterprise and why Loom has experienced such rapid growth (13:30)
• Why starting a company is just like having a kid: “You’re never really ready for either” (18:45)
• The stock market downturn, managing risk, and the most important thing founders can do in the face of uncertainty (25:57)
• The first indications that Loom was going to be huge, and its humble origins as a Google Chrome extension (32:45)
• Why the time AFTER Loom’s Series A fundraise was the “hardest window” of Joe’s CEO career, and a discussion about the people who helped him survive it (39:43)
• How to recruit people to do jobs you can’t do yourself, and the core characteristics that make for good startup employees (48:10)
• Why working remotely won’t kill company culture (53:00)
• Paid user acquisition and how Joe thinks about go to market strategy (01:03:43)
• How Loom uses its own product internally as a creative resource for recruitment (01:07:34)
• The other CEOs Joe admires most, what Grit means to him, and the key roles he’s hiring for right now (01:10:32)

Links:

• Connect with Joe
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: joe@loom.com
• Connect with Joubin
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
• Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
• This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm