20VC: Notion's Founder on "Founder Mode": When it Works & When it Doesn't | Why The Way Startups Fundraise & Construct Boards is Broken | Raising at a $10BN Valuation in Peak Bubble Times and How Notion Has More Money Than Ever Before with Akshay Kothari
Update: 2024-09-18
Description
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?
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