Co-founder & COO of Notion: Akshay Kothari Shares Productivity Software Journey

As the co-founder and COO of Notion, I'm Akshay Kothari, passionate about enabling ubiquitous software tool making and solving real-world problems through technology.

1. Akshay Kothari is the co-founder and COO of Notion, a productivity software company that provides a single medium for users to do all their work.
2. Before Notion, Akshay was at LinkedIn, after they acquired his previous startup Pulse.
3. He has a background in electrical engineering and studied it in the US.
4. Akshay discovered he was more interested in product and business than engineering during his time at LinkedIn.
5. After his bachelor's and master's degrees, he spent a year in venture capital, where he met many entrepreneurs and became inspired to start his own company.
6. This led him to Stanford, where he tried to start several companies, eventually succeeding with Pulse.
7. While at Stanford, Akshay co-founded Pulse, a news application for the iPad, which quickly gained popularity after its release in 2010.
8. The success of Pulse taught Akshay the importance of taking action and releasing products quickly to receive feedback.
9. He also learned that solving real problems is crucial for building successful products.
10. After selling Pulse to LinkedIn, he invested in Notion, which was started by a previous colleague named Ivan.
11. Ivan had a passion for making computing devices accessible for creation, not just consumption, which resonated with Akshay.
12. Notion's initial version was a web page builder that evolved into a web app builder.
13. The company faced challenges in the first few years, including having to rewrite their software due to instability.
14. Akshay joined Notion as COO in 2018 after meeting with Ivan and discussing the potential of the platform.
15. Notion's user community has played a significant role in its global success.
16. The company focuses on solving problems, building modular products, and using marketing and community to create specific use cases.
17. Notion AI, which uses artificial intelligence to assist users, is one of the company's recent introductions.
18. Notion has four values: being mission-driven, pacesetting, truth-seeking, and kind and direct.
19. These values help guide hiring decisions, decision-making processes, and maintaining a positive work environment at the company.
20. The long-term mission of Notion is to enable ubiquitous software tool making, creating a world where knowledge workers have the power to modify or create their own software.

Source: EO via YouTube

❓ What do you think? What are your thoughts on the ideas shared in this video? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!