The Remarkable Rise of Notion: How One Company is Redefining Productivity

Video Summary

In this video, Akshay Kothari, the co-founder and COO of Notion, shares the remarkable story behind the company's rise to success. Key highlights include:

Main Points

1. Kothari's background in electrical engineering and his transition to product and business roles
2. The initial failure of Notion's first concept as a web app builder platform
3. The pivotal moment when Notion shifted focus to become a general productivity and collaboration tool

Insightful Ideas

1. The importance of shipping a product quickly and getting user feedback, even if it's not perfect
2. The realization that people don't actually want to build software, but rather accomplish specific tasks
3. Notion's strategy of providing building blocks for users to customize, rather than building rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions

Actionable Advice

Kothari emphasizes the importance of being mission-driven, moving fast, rigorously thinking through decisions, and fostering a culture of kindness and directness - values that have been instrumental in Notion's rapid growth.

The 9-Year Hustle Behind Notion's Rise to Success

Akshay Kothari, the co-founder and COO of Notion, has had an impressive entrepreneurial journey that has spanned nearly a decade. From his early days studying electrical engineering to his time at LinkedIn and as a venture capitalist, Kothari's path ultimately led him to co-founding one of the most innovative productivity software companies in the world.

Kothari's interest in technology and product development was evident from a young age. While studying electrical engineering, he found himself drawn more to the product and business side of things, rather than the nitty-gritty of coding. After a brief stint in venture capital, where he was exposed to many startup pitches, Kothari realized his true calling was on the entrepreneurial side.

This realization led him to Stanford, where he and his co-founder Ivan Zhao set out to build their first product, Pulse - a news curation app for the iPad. The early success of Pulse, which unexpectedly shot to the top of the App Store after just a few weeks, taught Kothari some valuable lessons about the importance of shipping a product quickly and getting it in front of users, even if it's not perfectly polished.

However, Kothari's next venture, Notion, didn't find that same early success. The initial concept of Notion was to create a platform where users could build their own software applications without coding. But as Kothari and Zhao soon discovered, "people don't wake up wanting to build software." The team had to go back to the drawing board and rethink their approach.

The turning point came when Notion shifted its focus from being a general app-building platform to a more targeted productivity and collaboration tool. By providing users with pre-built templates and features to help them accomplish specific tasks, Notion was able to find its true product-market fit. Kothari credits this pivot as a key moment in the company's journey, allowing it to truly take off.

Today, Notion boasts a valuation of over $10 billion and a rapidly growing user base. Much of this success can be attributed to the company's strong culture and values, which Kothari has helped instill. Notion's four core values - being mission-driven, pacesetters, truth-seekers, and kind yet direct - have guided the company's decisions and hiring, ensuring they stay true to their vision.

That vision, as Kothari explains, is to create "ubiquitous software tool making" - the idea that every knowledge worker should have the power to customize and create their own productivity tools, rather than being confined to rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions. With the recent addition of Notion AI, the company is taking another step towards realizing this ambitious goal.

Akshay Kothari's journey from electrical engineering student to successful startup founder is a testament to the power of perseverance, adaptability, and a deep understanding of user needs. As Notion continues to grow and evolve, Kothari and his team are poised to redefine the way we think about productivity and collaboration in the digital age.