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:

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:

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:

It looked like this:

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.

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.

Loom was in the right place with the right default.

But COVID also set up the ceiling…

5. The ceiling: Loom became the behavior, not the platform

For all its usage, Loom had limits:

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.

Loom might not have had a massive standalone path, but inside a suite? It’s a killer feature.

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