Notion's Akshay Kothari on productivity and embracing AI

Notion's Akshay Kothari on productivity and embracing AI

Author: Unusual Ventures February 11, 2024 Duration: 41:39

Notion is a productivity platform that blends all your workplace apps into a single platform, including team projects, wikis, and docs. Last valued at $10bn, Notion’s customers include teams at Amazon, Nike, Uber, Figma, Deel, and more!

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Akshay Kothari, co-founder and COO of Notion.

Join us as we discuss: 

00:00 Preview: Building Notion 1.0

03:32 How Akshay met Ivan Zhao and invested in Notion

5:21 Lessons from the Pulse Journey

8:09 Building Notion’s first templates

12:43 Why Akshay joined Notion full-time

16:26 Akshay’s first few months at Notion

21:59 Evolution of Notion’s GTM strategy and Enterprise vs SMB

26:13 Akshay’s GTM learnings and challenges 

34:37 Launching AI Features in Notion

38:44 Customer Feedback and Future of Notion AI

Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and 

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Akshay Kothari is the co-founder and COO of Notion. 

Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.


Behind every so-called overnight success in software, there's a long, often messy journey of finding exactly what customers need and how to deliver it. That's the central theme explored in Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast. This series is built for those in the trenches of early-stage software companies, from founders just starting out to leaders tasked with building something from nothing. Each episode moves beyond theory, offering grounded conversations with people who have actually navigated these challenges. You'll hear them unpack the real work of identifying a true market need, the nuances of early hiring decisions, and the practical steps of crafting a go-to-market strategy. Fundraising, often a opaque process, gets broken down into more understandable components. The focus remains consistently on the actionable and the specific, providing a kind of audio manual for the foundational phase of a business. Tune in for a candid look at the less-glamorous, critical work that separates an idea from a viable company, all brought to you by Unusual Ventures. This podcast serves as a resource for turning those initial concepts into a sustainable operation, one hard-won lesson at a time.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 53

Startup Field Guide by Unusual Ventures: The Product Market Fit Podcast
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