Notion Podcast

26 Episodes

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First Block: Interview with Ivan Zhao and Simon Last, Co-Founders of Notion

2024-03-2049:44

Full video episode here: https://youtu.be/ZMrjvxCIPpY To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/rmCdsK First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. In this episode, Akshay sits down with Notion co-founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last to talk about everything Notion — where we started, how we got where we are now, and where we’re headed. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:06 The Founding Story 04:55 The Early Days 11:43 Reaching Product-Market-Fit 17:53 Building a Lean Team 19:58 Building for All: The Tradeoffs 27:09 Creating a Global Community 30:19 Scaling Company Culture 37:13 The Future of AI 44:32 A Day in the Life of Ivan Zhao and Simon Last

First Block: Interview with Adeyemi Ajao, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners

2024-02-2244:35

First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/tts9Uf In this episode, we have Adeyemi Ajao, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the automation of the real economy. In this episode, we delve into his early days as a serial entrepreneur, experiences as an immigrant in Silicon Valley, his transition to becoming an investor, and much more. For videos, transcripts, and custom Notion Base10 templates, please visit: ⁠⁠https://ntn.so/Hv0nRi⁠ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:32 Becoming an Entrepreneur 05:13 Co-Founder Relationships 08:58 Growing the Team 13:53 Building an Authentic Community 19:57 Learning to Be a CEO 22:18 Being an Immigrant 25:09 The Positivity of Silicon Valley 28:06 The Life after Acquisition 32:04 Becoming an Investor 35:40 Base10 38:55 The Ultimate Diversity 41:48 A Day in the Life of Ade Ajao

First Block: Interview with Vlad Magdalin, Co-Founder and CEO of Webflow

2024-01-1046:50

First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: ⁠https://ntn.so/56lXGm In this episode, we have Vlad Magdalin, Co-Founder and CEO of Webflow, the leading visual development platform for building powerful websites without writing code. In this episode, we do a deep-dive into the early days of Webflow and its journey to sustainable growth and financing, their hiring principles, the importance of user feedback, the "no-code" revolution, and much more. For video, transcripts, and custom Notion Webflow templates, please visit: ⁠⁠https://ntn.so/QFJPUA⁠⁠ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:22 Co-Founder Complimentary Skillset 07:26 Early Attempts at Webflow 12:21 Perseverance Despite the Challenges 17:49 Reaching Product-Market Fit 21:49 Fundraising 25:21 Hiring Principles 29:42 Building in Public & User Feedback 33:39 First Enterprise Customer 39:44 No-Code Revolution 42:44 A Day in the Life of Vlad Magdalin 47:02 Notion for Startups Special Offer (https://ntn.so/n0Iy5d)

First Block: Interview with Daniela Amodei, Co-founder of Anthropic

2023-12-1940:16

First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder & COO Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. In this episode, we have Daniela Amodei, Co-Founder & President at Anthropic. Anthropic is the AI safety and research company behind Claude — the frontier model used by millions of businesses and consumers for its emphasis on safety and performance. She discusses how to build a strong team of founders, how to navigate role changes, and how feedback is essential to scaling a company. For an audio-only podcast, transcripts, and custom Notion Anthropic templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/CHl2rT To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/HHuDPC

First Block: Interview with Mathilde Collin, Co-Founder & CEO of Front

2023-12-0646:44

First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder & COO Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. In this episode, we have Mathilde Collin, Co-Founder & CEO of Front, a customer operations and communications platform. She discusses how to hire your first ten employees and the importance of radical transparency. For an audio-only podcast, transcripts, and custom Notion Front templates, please visit: ⁠https://ntn.so/TuLOgg To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: ⁠https://ntn.so/hvXpHh

First Block: Interview with Christina Cacioppo, Co-Founder & CEO of Vanta

2023-11-1642:16

First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder & COO Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. In this episode, we have Christina Cacioppo, Co-Founder and CEO of Vanta, discussing her transition from VC to operator and how she has built Vanta into the leading trust management platform. For an audio-only podcast, transcripts, and custom Notion Vanta templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/TQf6LA To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/2f5lfV

First Block: Interview with Julianna Lamb, Co-Founder & CTO of Stytch

2023-11-1442:07

First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder & COO Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. In partnership with Index Ventures, this episode features Julianna Lamb, Co-Founder & CTO of Stytch. Stytch helps developers secure and scale their applications with authentication and fraud prevention. Akshay sits down with Julianna to discuss the founding story of Stytch, how her role as CTO has evolved over time, the early days of finding product-market-fit, building out their engineering team, and much more. For more episodes of the First Block series including custom Notion templates, video, and transcripts, please visit: https://ntn.so/pIvAbt For more startup resources and to learn more about the Notion for Startups program, please visit: https://ntn.so/AZhAX8

First Block: Interview with Parker Conrad, Co-Founder & CEO of Rippling

2023-10-1739:29

First Block is a Notion series hosted by Notion's Co-Founder & COO Akshay Kothari, where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience. This episode features Parker Conrad, Co-Founder and CEO of Rippling, discussing the ins and outs of his entrepreneurial journey and what he’s learned along the way. Rippling lets you easily manage your employees’ payroll, benefits, expenses, devices, apps & more — in one place. For more episodes of the First Block series including custom Notion templates, audio-only podcasts, and transcripts, please visit: https://ntn.so/5uecCU For more startup resources and to learn more about the Notion for Startups program, please visit: https://ntn.so/JSIG0M

Pioneers: Michael Nielsen

2022-11-0101:35:10

Michael Nielsen is a quantum physicist, science writer, computer programming researcher, and modern polymath working on tools to expand human capacity to think and create. He’s previously authored pioneering quantum computing books, propelled forward the open science movement, and published research on artificial intelligence. He now researches meta-science at the Astera Institute, while writing about his many interests online. See www.notion.so/blog/michael-nielsen for episode transcript. Hosted by Devon Zuegel Edited by Anson Yu Audio by The Land Films

Pioneers: Andy Matuschak on physically-informed digital interface design

2022-05-1201:01:571

Andy is a software engineer, designer, and researcher working on technologies that expand what people can think and do. In past lives he helped build iOS at Apple and led R&D at Khan Academy. Now as an independent researcher, his methods bridge the gap between academia and Silicon Valley.

Pioneers: Char Stiles explores tools for expression and experience

2022-03-3101:16:56

Char Stiles is an artist, educator and programmer whose work uses emerging technologies to bring to light how computers work. Char works and collaborates across mediums such as interactive installation, video, performance and web. She is a part of the Livecode.nyc collective, where she organizes shows, and livecodes music and visuals and has given talks and led workshops at Carnegie Mellon University, Duke University, University of Limerick, MIT and NYU. She is currently at an NEA-funded artist residency at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University to develop an open-source toolkit for artists.

Pioneers: Suzanne Ciani explains the composition of her sensory career

2022-02-1701:01:081

Suzanne Ciani is a five-time Grammy award-nominated musician, composer, sound designer, and record label executive whose work helped define the sound of electronic music in the 1970s and left a lasting impression on the genre as a whole. She has released over 20 solo albums including "Seven Waves," and "The Velocity of Love," and was inducted into the first class of Keyboard Magazine's Hall of Fame. She is best known for sound designing commercials like the famous Coke noise, appearing on the David Letterman show, and for her explorations in quadraphonic sound.

Pioneers: Loretta Staples' journey through digital and cultural interfaces

2022-01-2741:52

Loretta Staples is a prolific designer and educator whose work designing graphical user interfaces such as those seen on the Macintosh Classic in the 1980s and 1990s helped shape personal computing as we know it today. Before becoming interested in software design, Loretta was a graphic designer for The Understanding Business, exhibit developer for The Burdick Group, and textile curator for the Yale University Art Gallery. Her essays and lectures on design criticism such as "The New Design Basics," in Steven Heller's book, “The Education of a Graphic Designer,” have defined the disciplines’ vocabulary and conception of itself. She now works as a therapist at Cityblock in Waterbury, and in private practice in New Haven.

Pioneers: Danielle Baskin gives words to her many wondrous worlds

2022-01-0401:17:50

Danielle Baskin is a product designer, situation designer, visual artist, and the founder of numerous small businesses such as Branded Fruit, the first company to print logos on avocados and clementines, Dialup, a voice-based social network that connects friends serendipitously in phone calls, Maskalike, a service that prints your own face realistically on your mask, and many others. She has been featured in The New York Times, Mashable, Vice, Fast Company, Business Insider, Engadget, The Verge, CNET, Oprah, MacWorld, and many others. In her free time she enjoys playing video games, creating Internet pranks, exploring abandoned buildings, and talking on the phone, a lot.

Pioneers: Gretchen McCulloch talks about why we talk the way we do online

2021-12-0901:13:241

Gretchen McCulloch is an internet linguist — an analyst of the language of the internet, for the people of the internet. She's the author of the New York Times bestselling Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, a Resident Linguist at WIRED, and was formerly the Resident Linguist at The Toast. She also co-hosts a podcast called Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics.

Pioneers: Omar Rizwan on shaping computers into friendlier forms

2021-11-1150:05

Omar Rizwan is a researcher and developer interested in new computer interfaces and new ways of programming. He previously worked at Stripe, Khan Academy, and Dynamicland, where he worked on projects such as Geokit. He’s also a prolific creator of paradigm-challenging projects such as Screenotate, Horrifying PDF experiments, Hijack Your Feed, and many others.

Pioneers: Howard Rheingold on the past and present of virtual communities

2021-10-1458:19

Howard Rheingold is a writer known for his specialty covering the development of virtual communities. He was one of the first authors, critics, and teachers to treat the internet as a social and cultural environment and pioneered new ways of talking about social media in his book The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. He went on to write numerous books about the power of the human mind and social media that pulled from his experiences being involved in one of the first virtual communities called the WELL, being the executive editor of Wired Magazine’s HotWired, and founding Electric Minds, another prominent early virtual community. He's also known for his spectacular painted shoes.

Pioneers: Alan Kay on the context and catalysts of personal computing

2021-09-1650:35

Alan Kay is a prolific computer scientist known by many as the “father of personal computers." He's best known for his work on object-oriented programming languages, windowing graphical user interface design (also known as GUIs) and for leading the team that developed Smalltalk.

Pioneers: Jonathan Blow talks good design — for video games, team structure, and beyond

2021-08-0301:06:42

Jonathan Blow is an independent video game designer and programmer. He created Braid (2008) and The Witness (2016) — two puzzle games that, when released, received widespread acclaim. Jonathan also created a new programming language called Jai, intended specifically for game development.

Pioneers: May-Li Khoe on pulling inspiration from the physical world in digital design

2021-05-2053:05

May-Li Khoe is a designer, dancer, engineer, and DJ — an interdisciplinary artist-designer who’s spent her career at Apple, Khan Academy, and more. She invents new ways for to humans to interact with machines by blending prototyping with cultural practices, bright colors, and glitter.

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