Vinay Hiremath

Some Lesser Known Facts About Vinay Hiremath

• Vinay Hiremath was born and raised in a middle-class Indian-American family in Illinois, USA.

• Vinay received his primary education at a local school in his hometown in Illinois.

• He was inclined towards Computers at a young age and decided to pursue his graduation in Computer Science. During his college days, he won the  Young Alumni Achievement Award.

• In an interview, he revealed that after two years of regular study at the University of Illinois, he realized that to experience the real world of technology, he should go to Silicon Valley, where he could learn more than what a degree could offer. So, he took a bold step: he skipped college and moved to Palo Alto, California, to get more knowledge and a deeper understanding of the world of technology.

• He began his career as a Software Engineering intern at the Facebook office in California. He worked there for four months and primarily worked on optimizing the mobile web composer, the tool that allows someone to post a status update to their timeline.

• In August 2012, Vinay joined a startup company called Backplane (which built online communities) as an engineer. In an interview, he revealed that he had learned hacking in that company. He also met Shahed Khan, one of the co-founders of Loom, at Backplane.

• After spending over a year there, in September 2013, Vinay Hiremath joined another startup called Upthere (a cloud storage company), where he enhanced his technical skills and knowledge.

• In 2015, Vinay co-founded Loom, a video messaging platform, with Shahed Khan and Joe Thomas. He was the head of engineering at his startup for over four years and was promoted to chief technology officer in April 2020.

• Under the leadership of Vinay as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Loom raised $200 million in funding, grew to over 30 million users worldwide, and expanded to a team of 250 people.

• In 2023, Loom was acquired by the Australian software company Atlassian for $975 million. It was one of the biggest startup exits in the past few years.
• Atlassian offered him a $60 million retention package. However, he worked there only for a few months. In an interview, he mentioned that he turned down the offer as he wanted to explore new interests rather than remain in the corporate world.

• In an interview, he shared that after selling Loom, the first thing he did was send $1.7 million to his parents as a gesture of gratitude for all of their support and efforts in his upbringing.

• Vinay Hiremath called himself an investor, as he was always willing to help young founders for free.

• In an interview, Vinay once revealed that he was a big fan of capitalism.

• In 2024, Vinay left Silicon Valley and moved to Hawaii, where he focused on personal growth, investing, and adventure.

• After moving from Loom, Vinay started learning physics on his own. In an interview, he mentioned he used to spend eight hours a day studying physics. He had also applied for mechanical engineering internships to learn about robotics science.

• In an interview, Vinay mentioned that he wanted to start a robotics company and wanted to be like Elon Musk. He also worked with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), USA, for four weeks.

• In an interview, Vinay once revealed that he traveled a lot with his fiancée in search of something fresh to do. However, their relationship did not last long as they split up after “two years due to his insecurities. In an interview, he also apologized to his ex publicly.

• He also took online sessions discussing concepts of engineering with younger enthusiasts in Discord groups.

• In an interview, Vinay revealed that he did a lot of cold plunges, sauna therapies and meditation every day.

• In November 2024, Vinay did an untrained Himalayan climb that made him very ill, and he needed to be rescued.

  

• Vinay is a fitness enthusiast and does regular gymming, boxing, and weight lifting to stay fit and active.

  

• He loves hanging out with his friends, throwing parties, and meeting people from all walks of life.

• Vinay is an avid dog lover.