#244 – Building Gradually to Grow Suddenly with Shahed Khan of Hyper

What It Covers

Shahed Khan, cofounder of Loom and now running Hyper accelerator, shares how Loom pivoted twice before reaching 14 million users and his approach to building a $60 million fund competing with Y Combinator.

Key Questions Answered

• •Early pivoting strategy: Loom went through two major pivots over nine months, surviving on a $10,000 loan before discovering their product when a Harvard researcher unexpectedly used their user testing tool for general video communication instead of its intended purpose.
• •Product launch velocity: After pivoting to OpenVid and launching on Product Hunt in June 2016, Loom gained 3,000 downloads in 24 hours and 6,000 by week's end, providing enough traction to finally raise their first real capital of $200,000 from their fourth investor.
• •Accelerator differentiation model: Hyper runs four intimate cohorts yearly with $300,000 for 5% equity, focusing on three scarce resources that matter more than abundant capital: product development, distribution access through Product Hunt's network, and recruiting support for remote-first companies globally.
• •Founder selection criteria: Invest in founders who will succeed regardless of your help—those determined enough to build solutions for millions of people. Venture capital should accelerate learnings they would gain in one to two years into the first few months of operation.