Loom is a video messaging startup valued at more than $325 million today. In 2015 it was a usability testing app with no traction. This is a story about taking a company through a dark period and teammates sticking together.

Co-founder Vinay Hiremath describes Loom’s early days as “simultaneously the greatest source of joy and crushing anxiety” of his life:

• Opentest, their original product, wasn’t working
• The founders maxed out their credit cards
• They pivoted 4–5 times in 7 months

Loom started as a different product Co-founders

, , and jumped into the domain of user testing after a 30 minute meeting. They called it Opentest. It started as a network of their “expert” friends giving companies product feedback.

The team used their own money to fund the company But it wasn’t catching on. Opentest’s customers didn’t want feedback from the founders’ friends. The founders maxed out credit cards to keep the company alive. They were 2 weeks away from giving up and looking for new jobs.

But Vinay had thick skin and a chip on his shoulder from childhood He grew up in an Illinois farmtown. People flew Confederate flags on their trucks. They told him that “brown people need to stay in their place.” He didn’t give up.

The team stuck together because of trust and an equal commitment to success They worked 16 hours a day (Vinay does *not* recommend this as blanket advice!) They had weekly venting sessions. They said what they didn’t like about each other. They celebrated wins.

They pivoted the company 4–5 times instead of quitting One of the pivots? An extension that helped people record feedback videos showing their screen and face. They called it Openvid.

They thought they were onto something A user sent in a video screaming at his screen. He said it was a “perfect way to express disappointment” with a co-worker Internet speeds were increasing around the world They thought work would become more distributed This was in 2016.

They launched Openvid on

. They grew from 0 to 10,000+ users in 3 months. and the team at invested in the company, now called Loom.

The process of building anything new is scary. But like Vinay said to

, “You have to do the thing that scares the shit out of you for the upside. There might be a downside before the upside. And you have to be okay with that.”