20VC: Loom Founder Joe Thomas on Whether To Take Multi-Stage Money at Seed, How Early Stage Founders Should Select Their VC, How Sequoia Won The Loom Deal & The 3 Rules To Operate Remote Teams Successfully
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2020
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Thomas is the Founder & CEO @ Loom, the startup that helps you get your message across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. To date, Joe has raised over $68M from some of the valley's leading firms including Sequoia, Kleiner and Coatue as well as individuals such as Mathilde @ Front, Kevin & Mike @ Instagram and Dylan Field @ Figma to name a few. Prior to founding Loom, Joe was in LA as Director of Product at MyLife.com and before that Director of Operations at MediaPass. Due to Loom's success, Joe has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Enterprise Tech.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Joe made his way from the mid-West to the valley and came to found one of the hottest startups today in Loom?
2.) What does Joe believe are 3 rules to operate remote teams successfully? Why does Joe believe in remote + HQ as a model so much? How do the tools and culture need to change with this as a new format for work? How do leaders now need to learn to write more than ever before?
3.) How has fundraising fundamentally change in the world of COVID? What are the benefits? What can founders do and tools can they use to increase their chances of getting funded in a COVID world? What did Coatue do to build rapport and trust without meeting in person?
4.) What advice would Joe give to founders on how to pick their early VCs? How does Joe advise founders when it comes to accepting multi-stage money at seed? Why does Joe believe you need to be upfront with your VCs about their ability to build future ownership?
5.) Sequoia and Coatue led the Series B, how did the round go down many months before Joe and Loom planned to raise it? What did Sequoia do to win and close the deal? How did that as a founder make Joe feel? How does Joe advise VCs on what it takes to win the most competitive of deals?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Joe’s Fave Book: Enders Game, Think On These Things
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Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the 20 minute VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and my word, I'm so excited for the show |
| 0:03.8 | today. I'm probably the biggest fanboy of this product in the ecosystem. I use it 10 plus |
| 0:08.2 | times a day, and it's just incredible, and so I'm so delighted to welcome the founder behind |
| 0:12.4 | the magic product, Joe Thomas, found and CEO at Lume, the startup that helps you get your message |
| 0:17.6 | across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. To date, |
| 0:21.7 | Joe's raised over $68 million with Lume from some of the Valley's leading firms, including |
| 0:25.8 | Sequoia, Kleiner and Co2, as well as individuals such as Matilde Collin at front, Kevin and Mike |
| 0:31.2 | at Instagram, and Dylan Field at Figma. And prior to founding Loom, Joe was in LA as director of product |
| 0:36.2 | at MyLife.com and before that, |
| 0:38.1 | director of operations at MediaPass. And this schedule was such a team effort and so a huge |
| 0:42.6 | thanks to Shahid Khan, Ilya Fushman, Monica Desai, Ben Shelf and Christoph Yans for some fantastic |
| 0:47.7 | questions suggestions today. I really do so appreciate that. But before we move into the show today, |
| 0:52.4 | I'm sure you've heard about it, but my word, |
| 0:59.0 | there is a product that I love, Carter. Carter simplifies how startups and investors manage their equity, track camp tables and get valuations. Go to carter.com forward slash 20VC to get 10% off. |
| 1:05.9 | More than 800,000 employees and shareholders. Use Carter to manage hundreds of billions of |
| 1:10.4 | dollars in equity, |
| 1:11.3 | and Carter now offers fund administration so you can see real-time data in the Carter platform |
| 1:16.2 | and work with Carter's team of experienced fund accountants. Again, that's go to carter.com |
| 1:20.7 | forward slash 20 VC to get 10% off. And speaking of amazing products, if you've been listening |
| 1:25.6 | to 20 VC before, you've probably heard of Brex, the first corporate card for startups, with no personal guarantee or credit check, |
| 1:32.6 | up to 20 times higher credit limits than traditional cards, plus rewards like 3x on eligible |
| 1:37.3 | Apple products, so helpful for me with the rate I go through AirPods, and 7x points on tools |
... |
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