Vinay Hiremath's story is one of remarkable entrepreneurial success followed by an unexpected crisis of purpose. The co-founder of Loom, a video-sharing platform that was sold to Atlassian for a whopping $975 million in 2023, recently opened up about his struggle to find direction after his company's sale.

In a candid blog titled "I Am Rich and Have No Idea What to Do With My Life," Hiremath shares how, despite achieving major financial success, he's faced with a sense of aimlessness.

What's next after a $975 million exit

Now 33, Hiremath reflects on the challenges that have followed the monumental sale of Loom. His journey from Silicon Valley startup success to personal uncertainty is filled with highs and lows. After the deal, Hiremath turned down a $60 million job offer, ended a relationship, and encountered setbacks in attempts to enter the fields of robotics and government reform.

Although he is financially rich, Hiremath confesses a sense of futility in his life, which he describes as even more difficult than he had thought. "I am rich and have no idea what to do with my life," he confesses in his blog. 

But Hiremath isn't ready to let go of his ambitions. Currently, in Hawaii, he is studying Physics, hoping that this new chapter will lead him to build another successful company—though he emphasizes that this new venture doesn't need to replicate the success of Loom. Rather, he seeks fulfillment in his next project.

Who is Vinay Hiremath

Vinay Hiremath, born in 1991, had a nonconventional journey to success. Just two years into his course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he decided to drop out to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. This took him from a small college town to the startup hotbed of Palo Alto, California, where he immersed himself in the world of technology and innovation.

His first major role was as a software engineer at Backplane, a Silicon Valley startup building online communities. There, he met Shahed Khan, who would later be his co-founder at Loom.

In the early 2010s, Hiremath, Khan, and Joe Thomas founded Loom, a video-sharing platform meant to assist users in creating and sharing short-form videos. Today, Loom serves more than 14 million users and 200,000 businesses worldwide, according to Forbes.

From struggling startup to $975 million sale

Loom's early days were far from smooth sailing. At one point, the company was just two weeks away from running out of funds. Desperate not to let it fail, Hiremath maxed out his credit cards to keep the business afloat.

 Loom grew rapidly, raising $200 million in funding and increasing its team from just a few people to over 250 employees. By the time Loom was acquired by Atlassian for $975 million in 2023, the company had more than 30 million users around the world.

In 2018, Hiremath was also named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Though the money from Loom's sale was a great windfall, Hiremath is now more interested in finding purpose. After studying physics and deciding what's next for him, it is clear that his journey is far from over. His next venture may not be as financially lucrative, but he hopes it will provide the purpose and meaning he's currently seeking.