Who's the 'villain' in your Startup's Story? ft. Loom and Basecamp

Everyone knows how Steve Jobs occasionally created villains to win the war of narratives and make people believe they stood for something. He was against companies that?accepted mediocrity?instead of striving for greatness.

Like, IBM was the?cold, corporate, uninspired tech industry?that lacked creativity, and Microsoft (especially in the early years) was?functional but had uninspired products.

But that's history.

Let's talk about the products we already use. Loom and Basecamp have built their marketing narratives around a common enemy:?Meetings.

Meetings, you know??the productivity killers that waste time, disrupt deep work, and force people into unnecessary conversations.

Loom - meetings you didn’t have

Loom’s core promise is simple:?sending a video kills unnecessary meetings.

Instead of forcing everyone into the same place (physical or virtual), Loom lets people watch updates, explanations, or feedback on their own time. And they make it measurable.

It?tracks the number of meetings you didn’t have?because you used Loom instead.

By showing a tangible?“meetings avoided” metric,?Loom turns its users into productivity 'champions'. Every Loom recorded is not just a video,?it’s a meeting that never had to happen.

That’s a powerful psychological shift. Instead of long Zoom calls, people start thinking:?Can this meeting be a Loom? (and most people want to sound smart)

Now, let's understand the Basecamp.

They're like one of the WhatsApp statuses, NO CALLS, ONLY TEXTs.

Instead of just replacing meetings with video, they suggest?eliminating most verbal communication entirely?and relying on written text. So, what's their argument?

1. Most people are bad at explaining things verbally.
2. Meetings are inefficient as they pull multiple people away from work at the same time, create pressure for immediate responses, and often result in vague next steps.
3. Writing is permanent as the documents serve as references that can be improved, amended, and followed in the future.

They wrote a whole big-ass?article?about it.?

Basecamp isn’t just saying, “Meetings are bad.” They’re pushing the idea that?verbal communication is an unreliable, wasteful way to work.

Now, I'm not saying that's all true. I'm just saying they stand with this narrative. People who already believe in such things as would totally buy this option and make everyone on the team use such tools.

I'm more of a fan of talks. It's human, let's both parties brainstorm and really connect.

However, both Loom and Basecamp have identified a common villain:?the meeting culture, which slows people down, disrupts focus, and prioritizes talking over doing.

So, my question to all of you is.

Who's the 'villain' in your Startup's Story?