Is there a better way than

:component-did-mount
       (fn [this]
         (reset! elem (reagent/dom-node this)))

@timothypratley that seems pretty reasonable to me. But want to note dom-node may not be future proof bc react.js could be doing away with their .findDOMNode. https://github.com/reagent-project/reagent/issues/251

@timothypratley: you can use a ref fn: https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/more-about-refs.html

for usage with reagent see https://gist.github.com/pesterhazy/4d9df2edc303e5706d547aeabe0e17e1

aha, interesting. thanks pesterhazy and gadfly361