Corporate Development Strategy: Notion's M&A Approach with Hilary Shirazi

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Sep 30, 2025

Hilary Shirazi, Head of Corporate Development at Notion, offers insights from her impressive M&A background at LinkedIn and Pinterest. She details her deal thesis methodology, emphasizing clarity before targeting acquisitions. Hilary introduces the 'Four T's' framework—Talent, Tech, Traction, and Terrain—to refine acquisition strategies. She advocates for integrating processes more fluidly, arguing that a CorpDev-led approach enhances agility. Hilary also discusses leveraging AI in M&A and building community support for corporate development.

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ADVICE

Start With A Deal Thesis

Create a deal thesis before chasing targets to define the problem, priority, investment size, and success metrics.
Use the thesis to drive market mapping and avoid back-solving from an attractive target.

ADVICE

Make Sponsors Answer Key Questions

Require sponsors to answer specific questions: roadmap fit, why now, investment size, build path, and success in 6–24 months.
Use these answers to scope target size and determine whether to build or buy.

ADVICE

Do Integration Thinking Before LOI

Front-load vision alignment by pitching your plan and asking founders to pitch back a 0–12 month roadmap before LOI.
Use that pre-LOI alignment to shape confirmatory diligence and integration focus.

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Hilary Shirazi - Head of Corporate Development at Notion

Hilary Shirazi, Head of Corporate Development at Notion, brings over a decade of M&A experience from LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Zendesk to discuss building corporate development strategy at high-growth tech companies. She shares her proven deal thesis methodology, the "Four T's" framework for categorizing acquisitions, and why integration without an IMO might be the better approach for agile teams.

Things you will learn:

The Deal Thesis Framework – How to crystallize strategy before identifying targets using Hilary's proven document template
The Four T's of M&A – Talent, Tech, Traction, and Terrain categories that determine your acquisition approach and integration strategy
Integration Without IMO – Why embedding integration throughout the process beats traditional handoff models for most deals

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The Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is back.The virtual event built for dealmakers who want to eliminate chaos and take control from sourcing through integration. 📅 October 30, 2025 🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET 💻 Free & Virtual Learn from leaders who’ve built scalable, repeatable strategies that keep deals on track - Register now.

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Join us for the 3rd M&A Science Fair IN PERSON

Get pure, off-the-record collaboration between corporate development, private equity, and integration leaders. Instead of passive listening, you’ll be sharing real frameworks, trading ideas, and testing what actually works in modern deal execution. Everything’s practitioner-led, and every topic is surfaced by the attendees themselves.

October 16th — NYC 8AM-7:30PM Request an invite here: https://luma.com/khkuh6yw

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Episode Chapters

[00:02:00] Hilary's career evolution and why in-house M&A beats advisory work

[00:05:00] Building M&A Best Practices – Why starting at a mature organization teaches critical fundamentals before going solo

[00:08:30] Getting to know executives' M&A fears and biases before sourcing deals

[00:11:00] The Deal Thesis Methodology – Creating strategy documents before naming targets to avoid "solution shopping"

[00:16:00] Deal Sponsor Selection

[00:20:00] Front-Loading Vision Alignment

[00:30:00] The Four T's Framework – Categorizing acquisitions as Talent, Tech, Traction, or Terrain deals

[00:35:00] Integration Without IMO – Why Corp Dev should own integration instead of handing off to separate teams

[00:42:00] Using Notion for M&A

[00:51:00] AI in Corporate Development Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.