The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Notion's Fundraise with Index: The Most Anticipated Deal in The Valley: How It Came To Be | The Future of Remote Work |How Notion Approach The Balance of Growth and Profitability

Apr 17, 2020

Sarah Cannon, a Partner at Index Ventures, and Akshay Kothari, COO of Notion, discuss Notion's recent $50M fundraising round, boosting its valuation to $2Bn. They explore the future of remote work and the competitive landscape of collaboration tools, debating whether we’re witnessing bundling or unbundling. Akshay shares insights on balancing rapid growth with profitability, while Sarah reflects on her journey from the White House to venture capital. Their conversation highlights the evolving dynamics in work environments and the importance of innovative solutions.

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ANECDOTE

Persistent Pursuit

Sarah Cannon pursued Notion relentlessly, even visiting their office unannounced with a gallery invitation for Ivan Zhao.
Though Zhao didn't attend, Cannon's persistence and personalized follow-up eventually led to a partnership.

INSIGHT

Early Fundraise

Notion prioritized raising capital earlier than planned due to the rapidly changing market caused by the pandemic.
This decision provided an insurance policy, hiring power, and signaled long-term stability to customers and employees.

INSIGHT

Rebundling Trend

The market is witnessing the rise of best-in-class products unbundling existing suites like Microsoft Office and Adobe.
Consolidation is expected, with leaders emerging in each category, followed by rebundling, potentially led by companies like Notion.

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Sarah Cannon is a Partner @ Index Ventures, one of the world’s leading venture funds with a portfolio including the likes of Dropbox, Skype, Figma, Bird, Slack and many more incredible companies. As for Sarah, at Index, she works with groundbreaking companies including Notion, Slack, Pitch, Quill and Instabase. Prior to Index Sarah spent time at CapitalG, Warburg Pincus and even worked in The White House as Policy Advisor for the National Economic Council.

Akshay Kothari is the COO @ Notion, the company that has taken the modern working world by storm as the all-in-one workspace to write, plan, collaborate and get organised. Just last week Notion raised a $50M round led by Index at a reported $2Bn valuation. Prior to Notion, Akshay spent 5 years at LinkedIn following his prior company, Pulse News, being acquired by LinkedIn in 2013.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How did Sarah make her way into the world of venture from The White House and come to be a Partner @ Index today? How did Akshay parlay his angel investment into Notion into joining as COO the company 5 years later?

2.) With such a proliferation of collaboration tools today, how does Sarah see the remote work/collaboration tools landscape playing out? Are wein a phase of bundling or unbundling? Will we enter a phase of heavy consolidation? How does Notion think about the transition from an application to a platform? What are the challenges in doing so?

3.) What have been some of Akshay's core observations and learnings from watching the world move to remote work overnight? What behaviours will remain post COVID? What behaviours will not? What sectors will be forever changed due to the crisis? What opportunities does that bring about?

4.) Why did Notion decide to keep the team so small for so long? What are the advantages? How does Notion think about maintaining quality when hiring for scale now? What have been some of Akshay's biggest learnings in what it takes to attract A* talent to Notion?

5.) Why did Notion choose the route of profitability over the more conventional early path of the VC treadmill? How does one's mindset change when suddenly raising a large round of new financing? What becomes possible? What guard rails still need to be set?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

Akshay’s Fave Book: Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities

Sarah's Fave Book: Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years

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