Vinay Hiremath, co-founder of Loom, reveals he’s now looking for internships
Vinay Hiremath, co-founder of video messaging platform Loom, has revealed that he currently has no income and is actively searching for internships. This comes after Loom was acquired by Atlassian for $975 million in 2023—a deal that reportedly earned him between $50 to $70 million.
Appearing on the Moneywise podcast, Hiremath shared that he walked away from a $60 million retention package that would have kept him financially secure for over four years.
“Well, I left $60 million on the table. I have no income. Right now, I’m looking for internships,” he admitted.
Pursuing a new passion in physics and robotics
Since selling Loom, Hiremath has spent five to eight hours a day studying physics and engaging in online discussions with young enthusiasts. He now hopes to land an internship at a robotics company as a mechanical engineer.
“I’ve been doing a bunch of physics. Hopefully, I’ll be interviewing at a few startups—maybe robotics companies—to intern as a mechanical engineer,” he shared on the podcast.
Why he walked away from millions
Hiremath also opened up about his views on work, success, and why he chose to leave behind a massive sum of money. He explained that he no longer wanted to spend his life “swapping values and databases across different financial systems.”
Before selling his company, he believed in grand missions, but over time, he realized that true fulfillment came from inspiring excitement in those around him.
“I think life is about creating,” he said.
Reflecting on Loom’s journey, he admitted that the startup’s original mission was over-glorified and, at its core, it was just a simple screen recorder connected to the cloud.
“The raw truth of what we were building at Loom was not an ‘asynchronous video messaging platform’—this bullsht that we told ourselves. We built a f***ng screen recorder that was hooked up to the cloud,” he remarked.
Finding purpose after wealth
In a January blog post titled “I am rich and I have no idea what to do with my life,” Hiremath reflected on his struggle to find purpose after selling Loom. He described the period as a haze, admitting that while he now has the freedom to never work again, it hasn’t been as fulfilling as expected.
Without the drive to earn money or gain status, “everything feels like a side quest—but not in an inspiring way,” he wrote.