Hey folks —
It’s 2025, and async work is somehow both the norm and still misunderstood.
We’ve replaced meetings with recordings, but no one’s figured out how to watch them.
That’s what today’s story is about.
In 2016, screen recording was utility software.
You used it to:
Show off a product feature
Record an internal how-to
File a bug report for engineering
Maybe explain a complex thing to avoid a meeting
But no one thought it was how teams should actually communicate.
Loom flipped that.
Instead of pitching itself as a tool for marketers or creators, it framed async video as a faster, cleaner way to work.
Not for content—for context.
Suddenly, a 2-minute Loom replaced a 30-minute meeting.
And just like that, screen recording became… communication.
From side tool to default behavior inside companies. Here’s how Loom grew into a $975M business.
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1. Loom worked because it solved a problem people didn’t know they had
You could already share your screen.
You could already record video.
You could already send messages.
But each of those came with friction—manual uploads, clunky file sizes, no context, bad UX.
Loom solved all of that in one shot. It became the fastest way to communicate something you would’ve said out loud—but didn’t want to schedule a meeting for.
That shift in behavior was subtle, but sticky:
It made async video feel like part of your job
It created a sense of urgency (“just Loom me”)
It built a muscle inside orgs (“I’ll record a quick Loom”)
That’s how habits form.
2. The core loop: create → share → onboard → repeat
Loom’s growth engine wasn’t built on invites. It was built on usefulness that required someone else.
Every video sent was:
A new distribution point
A mini onboarding moment for the receiver
A social proof asset (“this is how we do updates here”)
It looked like this:
I record a Loom
I send it to 3 teammates
1 signs up
They send Looms to others
Repeat
Over time, these internal loops snowballed.
3. Retention wasn’t just individual—it was organizational
Most SaaS products focus on individual retention. If one user keeps coming back, that’s a win.
The more videos you received
The more useful it became
The harder it was to switch back
This is what I call
4. COVID didn’t create Loom’s growth—it accelerated a behavior already happening
During COVID, async tools exploded. But Loom was already on its way.
Live calls became exhausting
People worked across time zones
Managers wanted context without meetings
Loom was in the right place with the right default.
Massive usage spikes (recordings, shares, signups)
Embedded use inside product and remote orgs
Organic expansion without paid acquisition
But COVID also set up the ceiling…
5. The ceiling: Loom became the behavior, not the platform
For all its usage, Loom had limits:
People used it occasionally, not hourly
There was no built-in system of record
No multiplayer editing, comments, workflows, etc.
Once you recorded and sent the video, it was done. There wasn’t a deeper layer.
6. Atlassian’s acquisition makes sense
Loom’s superpower—low-friction async video—makes perfect sense inside tools like Jira, Confluence, and Trello.
An embedded behavior
A known brand among technical teams
A layer of human context for cold product workflows
Loom might not have had a massive standalone path, but inside a suite? It’s a killer feature.
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