Notion Capital

Playing long games for big stakes in the public and private markets with Rich Goold, Partner and Head of Tech Law at EY Highlights: Map out your long term value journey Think about why the people founders surround themselves with is critical for long term success Think about your advisers - legal, financial, etc - as being partners, not cost centres Build your universe of buyers and establish long term relationships Over the next five years we expect the M&A market for European tech to be very healthy Why public markets need to evolve to meet the needs of tech businesses What trips people up on the path to a successful acquisition Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/playing-a-long-game-for-big-stakes/ And: https://notion.vc/resources/helping-tech-founders-finding-their-way-through-the-public-and-private-markets/

Raising venture capital with Jos White, General Partner at Notion. Jos shares the lessons he’s learned as a founder and investor from thousands of investment pitches. He believes founders are no.1, but there’s much more to consider, why he passed on some opportunities, and what he's looking into for future investments. Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/raising-venture-capital-with-jos-white/ And: https://notion.vc/resources/fundraising-at-series-a/ And: https://notion.vc/resources/fund-raising-why-i-sometimes-pass-on-great-opportunities/

Vasco Pedro is the CEO of Unbabel. He tackles the challenge of internationalisation, critical to any ambitious European technology company - if they want to build a category defining company thinking about when and how to internationalise is a critical decision and has profound implications on the business from an organisational, commercial and technological perspective. Vasco also argues that there is little time for founders to learn on the job and one of the most important challenges is for founders to bury any hubris or entitlement and to hire game changers with proven experience alongside or even above themselves if they want to achieve their potential. More: https://notion.vc/resources/accelerating-the-shift-to-a-world-without-language-barriers-with-vasco-pedro-ceo-unbabel/

Lilly Bacher is Global Head of Pricing at ProfitWell and works with tech founders and product teams around the world to conceptualise, effectuate, and realise pricing strategies with new products, legacy products, perpetual to SaaS, and so on. Key points: Please talk to your customers and understand, at a granular level, their willingness to pay. Don’t overlook the impact that pricing has on monetisation – more so even than just selling to new customers. Don’t just set and forget. C, commit to an ongoing strategy to optimise your pricing. Learn much more: https://notion.vc/resources/pricing-please-dont-set-it-and-forget-it/

Lea Hickman is a Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group (svpg.com), a firm dedicated to helping technology companies on product vision, strategy, discovery, design and development process through advisory, consulting and training services. Key points discussed: Why mindset is the biggest difference between best tech companies and the rest Why product managers in startups need to be gritty and scrappy Why founders need to avoid falling in love with their ideas In-depth read: https://notion.vc/resources/building-tech-products-loved-by-millions/

Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, the category defining and leading customer success company for SaaS businesses around the world. Nick kindly joined Notion to take part in our Pain of Scale podcast to discuss why customer success is so critical to success in recurring revenue businesses. Key points: CSM is about way more than churn, it’s about deep and intimate customer understanding. Why a customer success manager should be one of your first five hires. How customer success is evolving and driving convergence between customer success and product development. Why in today’s economy companies must deliver shared success. Read the full story: https://notion.vc/resources/why-customer-success-is-a-values-driven-movement/

Brynne Kennedy, founder of Topia, the leader in the emerging category of Global Talent Mobility, discusses her first hand experience in designing a category from initial market insights, to the importance of building and aligning communities to help customers move to the future of work. Why categories really matter is that all homo sapiens want to be part of something bigger than themselves. Category design, when done well, can create enormous amounts of discretionary effort. Why building a category is a team sport. We wrote even more here: https://notion.vc/resources/why-building-a-category-is-a-multiyear-endeavour/

This podcast explores the growing pains every startup will face as they succeed. Step one is to recognise the stage you are at and recognise the transformations the leadership and the business will need to deliver in order to maintain constant 2-3 X annual growth, adding $10’s in millions in revenues and potentially growing an organisation from 50 to 250 people in a very short period of time. Empowerment and delegation are a force multiplier for any leader, but especially the CEO. Separate yourself from your business and look down on it with an impassionate eye. Identify your skills gaps and bring in “Pillar People” In-depth article: https://notion.vc/resources/the-tell-tale-signs-a-start-up-is-ready-to-grow-up/

Dennis Fois, CEO, NewVoiceMedia, reflects on the challenges of leading a scale up through fast growth, the importance of vulnerability and permission to fail and why radical simplification and execution are the difference between winning and losing at scale. Highlights: Why CEO’s must abstract themselves from the problems they are trying to solve If you build a great team, you must let them shape the vision On bastardising McKinsey’s Three Horizons! Stand back from your ideas - the moment you find yourself defending an idea too hard start to question yourself. In a world of no absolutes it is vital people can develop ideas without fear of failure. Why Dennis learned to love the SFD - the shitty first draft! Why radical simplification and execution are the differences between winning and losing at scale. In-depth article: http://notion.vc/resources/radical-simplification-and-the-beauty-of-execution-with-dennis-fois/

In discussion with Stephen Chandler, Managing Partner at Notion we reflect on on the biggest lessons he’s learned through the start up, grow up and scale up journey, as a co-founder at MessageLabs and as an investor in more than 50 B2B SaaS companies. Batch 2, episode 0. Why the start-up founder is part Pathfinder, part Viking. Using time and capital efficiently are the most important factors in the early stages. Why and how capabilities and leadership teams change as the business moves from startup to grow up. Why the grow up phase is the real hard yards. Why founders need self awareness to grow and evolve The founder journey - from viking to company builder to conductor. A great and inspirational team, addressing a large and exciting market opportunity, this is what I look for in my investments. More: http://notion.vc/resources/the-entrepreneurial-journey-from-inception-to-real-scale/

Stephen and Paul discuss the road taken and the major lessons learnt with the first batch of guests on the Pain of Scale podcast. How do we build iconic companies? More: http://notion.vc/resources/the-pain-of-scale-2018-retrospective/

The art and science of exiteering, or the exit built from the start as a mindset, to prepare for it and to avoid its pitfalls, with Ian Mibourn, General Partner and CFO at Notion. Hosted by Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou for Notion. More: http://notion.vc/resources/playing-the-long-game/

How fundraising changes through the life and expansion of a startup, what stays the same, what differs significantly, with Bethany Ayers, Founder at Multiply Group and Chief Revenue Officer at Peak. Hosted by Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou for Notion. More on the blog post: https://notion.vc/insights/raising-venture-capital-to-grow-your-saas-machine/

Being both quick and patient when expanding into Asia, with Susie Hugues, Director of Communications APAC at Appier and former Allison+Partners Vice President in Singapore, London and San Francisco. Hosted by Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou. Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/asia-fast-moving-exciting-and-beguiling-and-possibly-the-next-big-destination-for-european-tech-founders/

How price should be the exchange rate of your value, with Patrick Campbell, CEO of ProfitWell (formerly Price Intelligently). Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/exploring-pricing-as-the-exchange-rate-for-value-with-patrick-campbell/

Ramping up the Product Machine over the growth and scale of a startup, with Carlos Gonzales-Cadenas, Chief Product and Technology Officer at GoCardless. Hosted by Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou for Notion. Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/building-the-product-machine-with-carlos-gonzalez-cadenas/

Building a growth engine with high performing teams, with Jacco Van der Koolj. Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/talking-revenue-growth-and-the-science-of-sales-with-jacco-vanderkooj-of-winning-by-design/

Category leading thinking and execution, the essence of successful companies, with Dave Peterson, co-founder at PlayBigger. Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/category-thinking-with-dave-peterson-author-of-play-bigger/

The people challenge of scale, how to build high performing teams when growing fast, the key challenge that startups face, with Maureen Taylor. Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/building-tech-companies-when-artists-meet-operators/

Growing healthy leaders and health as the competitive advantage for organizations, with Mike Snelling. Read the related blog post, with more information: https://notion.vc/insights/growing-companies-with-mike-snelling/