Akshay Kothari, Co-Founder @Notion: How Notion Has More Money Than Ever Before & Why The Way Startups Fundraise is Broken 

Akshay Kothari is Co-Founder at Notion, one of the fastest-growing companies of the last decade. Akshay has run every function in the company from sales, to marketing to finance and even led their fundraising efforts raising $340M+ from Sequoia, Index and Coatue with the latest round pricing them at $10BN. Before Notion, Akshay was VP Product at Linkedin for 5+ years, leading all of their content efforts. He joined LinkedIn when his previous company, Pulse, was acquired by LinkedIn in 2013.

In Today’s Episode with Akshay Kothari We Discuss:

1. Founder Mode, Veto Powers and Focus:

• Does Akshay agree with “founder mode”? What are the biggest downsides to founder mode that not enough people are discussing?

• Why does Akshay believe that the single greatest power of a founder is their “veto power”?

• What is the biggest opportunity that Notion jumped on that they should not have done?

• What is the biggest opportunity that Notion did not jump on that they should have jumped on?

2. Raising $50M @ $2BN Valuation:

• Why did Ivan and Akshay decide to do this raise when they did not even need the money?

• How did the fundraising process for this round go? Why did they choose Coatue and Index?

• Why did Sequoia say no to this round?

• With the benefit of hindsight, what does Akshay wish that they had done differently?

3. Raising $270M @ $10BN Valuation:

• How did Sequoia come back into the frame with this round? Why did they say yes here when they did not before?

• Why does Akshay believe that of all the investor brands, Sequoia is the most powerful? In what way does having Sequoia as an investor change the trajectory of the company?

• Is Akshay concerned about how he will be able to scale into the $10BN valuation?

• How does Akshay address the challenge of bringing new team members in with stock options priced at $10BN? How much of a blocker is that?

4. Boards and Social Media are F*******:

• How is the way in which boards are constructed broken?

• How does Akshay believe that boards should be constructed?

• What roles should founders hire for in their board members?

• Why is Akshay most concerned about the “Tiktokification of everything”?

• Why does Akshay believe that social media has never been more concerning?