Notion - The Pain of Scale

For this season finale, we invited Steve Brown to embark on the journey of what's next.Via his fathers job as a Physics lecturer, Steve was introduced to science and technology at a very early age - and that sense of magic has never left him. After studying how to make a computer, he went on to have a fascinating career with the one and only Intel, avoiding the well trodden traditional career trajectory, opting instead to move through marketing, events, planning and labs, before finally becoming an Intel Futurist. This inspired Steve to become an independent Futurist, helping companies and organisations think through the digital challenges they were facing, and how new and emerging technologies could influence their own futures. As a well respected speakers and author, it's fascinating to hear Steve talk through the technologies he sees making an impact, use cases from companies using them and how emerging technologies could be very disruptive. Now, as a Portland native, he talks through the local investing scene, and what he likes to see in a company before he considers investing. A great listen for those thinking about where to go next in their company and personal journeys.Highlights:- History shows companies that invest in tech will outperform their peers- We're moving from work-life balance to work-life fusion- Industry 5.0 brings the Humans back to life- The six technologies driving Digital Transformation- The role of 5G in enabling IoTNote that this episode was recorded on 27th May 2021.Steve is the co-founder of: https://www.theprovenancechain.comHis book, The Innovation Ultimatum, is available everywhere: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119615429/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=106d04-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1119615429&linkId=00254beb692dde17c29f417cb60b5056 

It's fair to say that Parker Crockford quickly became a citizen of the world; travelling and gathering experiences that have helped shape his career. In this podcast, we explore how Fintech is developing and growing in the US and Europe, and what the breakout segments look like. As ever, regulation is always lagging but can't be ignored in building a startup servicing these new markets. And then there's crypto - can that ever be regulated? Talking via experience, Parker takes us through his thoughts on how to approach Fintech, the impact of Open Banking and the companies that are doing it well. A fascinating listen in these hyper growth times for Fintech.Highlights- Europe has stolen a march on B2C Fintech and created some giants- Fintech is splintering but each splinter is a billion dollar opportunity- Regulation is playing catch-up with market innovation- Stripe found the perfect gap to fill- Can the crypto explosion be regulated?

It's fair to say that Rav has grown up with Customer Success (CS), starting his career in the Unix admin world at Accenture and IBM, before being catapulted into the startup world at the then young company Salesforce. Since then he's gone on to hold senior CS positions at Yammer, Zendesk and Slack, seeing first hand how CS has grown and matured as SaaS has exploded. Rav is probably one of the most experienced CS leaders in UK/EU, and kindly shared much of his thinking on the evolution of CS, what metrics matter, how to align the sellings motions and avoiding the ‘do everything' department. He's now paying his experience forward as an investor and advisor for numerous young companies, helping them think through their business models and approach. A must listen for all founders and leaders as they build their business in the world of continuous selling. Highlights:- The evolution of Customer Support to Customer Success- The role of CS in the flywheel of continuous selling- Correlating your distribution model to your CS model- Avoiding the ‘do everything' CS department- The key metrics of TTV and NRR

It's fair to say that Chris Bruce has had some interesting twists and turns in his career before he met his co-founder and created Thomson Online Benefits. In this podcast, Chris talks through the early days of the business, how they honed the value proposition and why they had to totally rebuild the tech for the next stage of growth. After some huge scaling, Chris describes how and why the business was acquired, and why he felt he had a duty to protect the amazing team he'd built and the culture they'd created. What's impressive is just how many of the alumni have gone on to create the next generation of HR Tech, where Chris and his co-founder now spend their time to invest and nurture these new emerging companies. It's great to hear a founder talk through the entire lifecycle of their company, and then talk about how they pay forward those experiences. A must listen for all Founders!Highlights:- The path for a Founder can take many forms- How to rebuild your tech stack whilst scaling the revenue- Going from the UK, to Europe, to the US to Global Fortune companies- The emotions of selling your company and protecting its culture- The importance of taking a break post company sale- HR Tech and it's move to the humanisation of work 

It is a pleasure to talk with David Quantrell about his road to becoming Chair of a number of tech businesses. After starting in the long project world of defence, and a return to school, David has gone on to two IPO's, four company sales through to running a large division of an IT giant - he's worked with well known names such as Box, McAfee and HP. All of this experience he now uses in his Board and Chair roles with a number of leading European tech companies, helping shape and solve the problems of growth and scale. It's fair to say that David is a well respected figure in European tech, hence wanting to hear the story of how he arrived here, and how he sees the future of European tech. It's a fun and educational listen, especially for founders and leaders trying to evolve and develop their Board as their business grows!Highlights:- Europe has CEO's who want to go the distance- The role of Practitioners on the Board- The Board's evolution with funding rounds and growth- The right time to appoint a Chair- Setting up tech founders/leaders for success

With a non-traditional path into tech, Pat Phelan has been right in the middle of the evolution of the Customer Success function. In this podcast, Pat discusses how Customer Success aligns with the vision of the business, and at the same time, the needs of the customers. How this is reported to the c-suite, and how this contributes to the northstar of growth is a real master class in how to build and lead a Customer Success team. Pat has an obvious passion for leadership, plus growing and developing his people, hence a must listen for the new and growing Customer Success leaders.Highlights:- Pivoting within CS as one motion won't fit all your customers- In CS play the ball in front of you- Defining and measuring the key CS KPI's- Aligning CS with the Northstar of Growth- Creating psychological safe spaces and managing imposter syndrome

Jonathan ‘Jono' Gill has been a student of personal growth and development ever since he held down 4 simultaneous jobs whilst still at university. It was great to sit down and chat with Jono as he talked about how his early career prepared him for the world of sales, and how this combined with the rise of the cyber industry, set him up for his latest challenge as CEO of Panaseer. The pandemic challenged many leaders on how to manage in the new remote world, and Jono talks about what lessons he used in leading a company where he had not even met many of the leadership team or company! The world of cyber is growing fast, but it's also crowded and noisy with many conflicting messages and tools vying for attention. Here we unpick why the new category of CCM (Continuous Controls Monitoring) as pioneered by Panaseer, lifts them out of the noise and delivers demonstrable value. It's fascinating to listen to a CEO plot the course of a rocketship company, delving into not just the sales and product direction, but also how effective leadership has the biggest impact.Highlights:- You're responsible for your personal growth and development - your future is in your hands- Your three motives and how they lead to a CEO path- An organisation doesn't have physical boundaries anymore- Organisations typically have 100's of cyber tools - but SaaS means you need to be a promise maker and a promise keeper- How do you capture and sell the parity wedge- Security incidents were up 400% during the pandemic - how does Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) help manage the threat

John Kreisa has been a marketing leader at a string of data product companies, including Business Objects, Hortonworks, Docker and now Couchbase. In this episode, John breaks down his thinking on why Product Marketing is so central to a Marketing team at data software companies, and how that translates into effective sales motions. He also talks about the future of Martech in the explosive data world, and how the rule of 1's and 3's plays out in revenue growth.This is the episode to unravel how to build your Marketing team around data products, and how to get the Sales motion humming along. Essential listening for anyone working in Marketing and data - there's lots to get right - and lots to get wrong!Highlights:- Product Marketing is central to building a Marketing function - and underserved in UK/EU- The rule of 1's and 3's in scaling your revenue- MarTech has evolved fast aided by the Pandemic- In Product led companies are you Sell-to or Buy-from?- Data creation rates are accelerating- The rise of Marketing Ops 

Dan Hyde co-founded Erevena over 20 years ago, with an initial focus on hiring executives for B2B software companies. In that time he's seen the market change and evolve, with the emergence of EMEA as a startup powerhouse, combined with new fast moving software categories. The war for talent is as strong as ever, with demand at an all time high for scaling and growing startups. In this interview, Dan unpicks how founders should think about who to hire, and in what order, and where things can go wrong.Erevena have helped many of the most recognisable names in Europe Tech hire their leadership teams, and Dan's learnings are invaluable. A must listen for all those who don't want to make the mistakes of founders before them, and end up churning their most expensive and valuable people.Highlights:- Don't scale it until you nail it!- Supply has never been worse and demand has never been higher- Your first 50 deals need a Sales puzzle solver- Selling beyond founder led sales needs strong Product Marketing- Unit economics are wasted without strong Customer Success- CRO's roles are demanding and draining, but has the Pandemic changed that? 

Starting out as a software engineer, Ingrid Burton, CMO, Quantcast, quickly moved into Marketing during her long tenure at Sun Microsystems. Her deep experiences of Sun’s early pioneering move to Open Source key software components has fuelled much of her stellar career as CMO of many leading companies such as Hortonworks and H2O.ai. There aren’t many marketers who’ve had the same hands-on experiences as Ingrid, creating whole new categories and communities around key Open Source technologies.Highlights:-What are the facets of Marketing and how do they relate to OpenSource?- There isn’t a one size fits all Open Source GTM model- How to sell ‘The Squeeze’- Why not to over complicate Category Creation- Effective teaming between Sales and Marketing- When to hire your first Marketing VPAs an accomplished CMO she talks through the relationship between Sales and Marketing, and her thoughts on ‘the squeeze play’. A fascinating listen from one of Silicon Valley’s very best.In conversation with Andy Leaver, and Paul Papadimitriou.

Amandine Le Pape describes how Open Source was pivotal in building Matrix, how the business model and GTM evolved and how they manage their rapid scaling.Highlights:- Open Source and the power of community can solve big problems- Business models for Open Source are evolving quickly- Rapid Scale needs senior people early in the journey- The missing layer of the web is real-time communications- Big visions need to talk to tech and business communitiesStarting initially within the Amdocs business, founder Amandine Le Pape (with her Co-founder Matthew Hodgson) formed the vision for the missing layer of the web and created Matrix. As a decentralised and highly secure open standard, Matrix is now over 30 million users strong and is powering communications at many large public bodies and private companies. Element fuels the growth of the ecosystem by being a core contributor to Matrix and providing apps and services for Matrix. Element is on a path to be world changing and a defining standard, hence needs strategic thinking in the GTM challenges ahead.A discussion with Andy Leaver and Paul Papadimitriou. 

Jason Corsello is a much admired and respected figure in the world of HR Tech, but how did he start as an analyst, become an operator, and then found and manage a dedicated HR Tech fund? In our session we explore how HR Tech has evolved over the years, what trends he sees emerging, and how the pandemic has accelerated changes in the employee experience. The unbundling of HR Tech is upon us, opening up so many opportunities, including the chance to truly promote wellness in the workplace - whether that be the office or home. All this leads to how Jason invests via his fund Acadian, and who the new winners in this fast changing landscape could be.Highlights:- Empowering workers without invading their data privacy- The acceleration of the HR tools through the pandemic- The rise of the extended workforce and the legal implications- Working from home can be complex- Can employee tools measure and promote wellness?- The unbundling of HR Tech through API’s and DataWith Andy Leaver, and Paul Papadimitriou

Growing up via a very diverse cultural journey, Kamal Kirpalani, VP Sales & GM Americas at Mirakl, shares some hard learned and honest lessons around mastering the art and science of Sales.Highlights:- The e from eCommerce is going away - it’s just Commerce- Complex deals need executive team involvement including the CEO- You need to hire a Sales team with diverse superpowers- Measuring the balance of art and science in a Sales teams performance- Arriving prepared to solve your customers hard problemsKamal has an amazing record in sales, and shares his thoughts on how to solve big customer problems, how to get the exec team onboard and finding key superpowers to build your team. Now a senior member of the Mirakl team he shares thoughts on why eCommerce is now just Commerce, what makes a great Marketplace and how the pandemic has accelerated change. Hear who and what he admires, but mostly take away valuable lessons that helped him build the fantastic career he has today.

A very honest conversation about sales with the one and only Jennifer Bers, who lives and breathes sales excellence, and has lost none of her passion and energy around the craft. Her drive and results are incredible.Highlights:- There are four key traits to look out for when Sales hiring: intelligence, integrity, hunger and coachability- In order to structure your team, you need to understand the market you’re going after- Understanding and implementing MEDDPICC when managing a team in order to forecast accuratelyJennifer has had an incredible career in sales, both as an individual contributor and as a leader, in her positions as National Account Executive at Yahoo, UK Sales Director at Bazaarvoice and VP of Sales at Onfido, now taking a temporary break from staring at Zoom for 12 hours a day. In this episode we explore how Jennifer has developed her skills, built teams, grown companies and figured out the GTM formula.Hosted by Andy Leaver, Operating Partner at Notion Capital, and Paul Papadimitriou.Read more about what we talked about: https://notion.vc/resources/the-sales-discipline-and-fintech/

“The Art of Exiteering”, or taking the long term view, in order to maximise the value of an M&A or IPO — building long term readiness to have a significant and positive impact on that outcome.Highlights:- If you are building a great tech company you must have a thorough understanding of the ecosystem you are disrupting- Partnerships are very important in long term value creation for distribution, innovation, and ultimately exit- Creating optionality for stakeholders is critical in the exit processThe companies Notion invest in share much in common: they all want to build businesses that dominate categories, that scale and endure. At some point in their journey, they will want to realise the value of their hard work, allowing themselves as founders, and us as funders, to realise our investments. They may end up listing on the public markets or being acquired – the latter being more likely for European companies.  That exit may well be far in the distance for many founders, even as they achieve significant success. Some people will say, “build a great business and the outcome will take care of itself” and while that is true to an extent, we also believe that long term readiness can have a significant and positive impact on that outcome. We call this “The Art of Exiteering”; taking the long term view, in order to maximise the value of an M&A or IPOStephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou discuss with David Eldridge. David founded Alterian which he led through IPO and subsequent acquisition of four companies; Alterian was then acquired by SDL in 2011. He Chaired Idio, a Notion company for six years which was acquired by Episerver in 2019. David is now the Chair, formerly CEO, and joint founder of 3radical, Chair of Apperio and Non-exec Director at Neighbourly and Precision Point.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/knowing-your-ideal-buyer-profile-is-critical-to-planning-a-great-exit/

Understanding a VC firm's investment strategy - focus, stage, thesis and so on - is critical as a founder develops their investment proposition, but so is understanding the individual strategy of each partner in a firm. This allows a founder to tailor their pitch but more importantly, get the right investor excited and committed as soon as possible.Highlights:- Good PLG businesses have a very short time to value, bringing users to the “aha” moment right from the moment they try the product- Founders should think of fundraising strategically; it is important to define a strategy and a process to close a funding round successfully- Lead with the excitement for your vision, backed by the metrics that bring that to lifeFor product-led founders, looking to raise a funding round, Itxaso Del Palacio is probably their best fit. Itxaso is a Partner at Notion Capital, which specialises in B2B SaaS and Enterprise Tech, investing across Europe at Series A. Itxaso was formerly with M12 (Microsoft’s venture arm) where she led investments in Beamery, Onfido and Unbabel. She has more than a decades experience working in the startup ecosystem building and investing in software companies. Additionally, Itxaso is a Senior Teaching Fellow in entrepreneurship at University College London (UCL) and she has taught entrepreneurship to more than 3,000 students in the last ten years.  In this podcast, Itxaso describes herself to Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou as a ‘product-led’ investor and lays out her thinking on what this means and why she thinks this is so important.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/investing-in-product-led-founders-building-rocketship-businesses/

Within the context of the startup, grow up and scale-up life cycle of a venture backed tech company, the topic of internationalisation soon emerges and typically the focus of the discussion is on the US.  From our personal experience and from discussions with founders we know that a critical success factor is one of the founders, and often a few hand picked employees, moving to the US. This process can be a minefield and requires dedicated time and effort.Highlights:- Doing your research and considering the planning piece is key for combating the global immigration minefield- Building a strong network is vital for expansion- There are three primary visas for the UK: E Visa, L Visa, O1 VisaStephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou discuss this topic with Elizabeth Jamae the founding partner at Corporate Immigration Partners. Elizabeth supports European Notion companies address their immigration challenges getting into the US, and is responsible for immigration strategy and implementation. Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/combating-the-global-immigration-minefield-for-european-startups/

The journey from startup to global category leader is a daunting task, for a million or less in revenues, when we might invest 100 million revenues, or more, in less than ten years. This is what VCs hope to find, and it’s what many founders plan to achieve. There are strategic challenges of balancing short term operational excellence, with long term transformation and category dominance. One of the most enduring frameworks for this is the McKinsey three horizons, which describes optimising for current performance while maximising future opportunity.Highlights:- Three horizons is a powerful way to combine short term execution with long term vision.- Feeling comfortable in the grey area between the present and the future.- There can be such a thing as too much vision!- Getting the right balance of mindset & resources between the three horizons is critical.Chris Tottman is one of the founders of Notion Capital, but also one of the founding members of MessageLabs, a tech company that went from an idea in 2000 to more than 600 people and $150m in recurring revenue in eight years before its acquisition by Symantec. Amongst many other responsibilities at MessageLabs, Chris oversaw nearly every single senior hire, shaping the leadership team and organisational structure.Since then, over the last ten years with Notion Capital, he’s been investing in SaaS founders to help shape their vision, nurture their ambition and, critically, help them hire ever more extraordinary people. An original thinker in a traditional industry, he uses the three horizon framework to help the founders that he invests in build big, beautiful and enduring companies.A conversation with Stephen Millard, and Paul Papadimitriou.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/the-three-horizon-mindset-how-visionary-founders-win-big/

The type of companies that Notion Capital invests in are redefining the rules of an entire industry. They become synonymous with a category which they solve uniquely well.Highlights:- Defining a category is about showing the world:-- What problem you solve-- How you are uniquely positioned to solve that problem and finally,-- Building an ecosystem around you to help really launch a new category.- The best founding teams spend time thinking about the problem they're solving, and then map out the "from tos".- Category design is much more than marketing, it is fundamental for tech companies to dominate new markets.Naomi Allen is the co-founder and CEO of Brightline, which is the world's first technology-enabled behavioural health home for children and families. She's an entrepreneur with 20 years of hands-on experience, developing high growth, health tech companies, as well as a former advisor to our friends at Play Bigger. She's also the mother of three children and ascribes to the philosophy of “radical flexibility”. Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/category-design-shows-the-world-the-problem-you-are-uniquely-positioned-to-solve/

SaaS businesses are ultimately recurring revenue streams, often with significant upfront costs for customer acquisition. Any profit or contribution from an individual customer is only typically generated in the second or third years. In order to be viable they need to have a deep understanding of their business model and, critically, an understanding of the underlying economic viability that allows them to stay on track, make good decisions, manage their costs, manage their cash, and plan for growth. For venture-backed businesses in particular, they ultimately have to unlock capital efficient growth in order to achieve the goals that they've set for themselves and for their stakeholders.Highlights:- In SaaS companies the finance function must be seen as a strategic partner to the business.- Vertical financials looks at P&L and Balance Sheet, while Horizontal Financials look at lifetime value.- Even as you are working to accelerate growth, make sure you’re doing so within a framework that allows you to be capital efficient.In conversation with Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou, our guide to this topic is Carrie Dolan, CFO at Tradeshift, a unicorn in the Notion portfolio. Notion led the Series A in 2009. Carrie has more than 20 years experience as a CFO, in fast growth venture-backed technology companies such as Metromile, Lending Club, and prior to that with Charles Schwab. Read more about this episode: https://notion.vc/resources/saas-cfo-podcast/ 

Pricing and monetisation is a critical topic for any company at any stage but particularly for SaaS, because as recurring revenue businesses the decisions they make on pricing strategy have far reaching consequences. When companies really think about how to maximise growth and net revenue retention, pricing and monetisation is one of the strongest levers they can pull, but very few companies exercise that muscle.Highlights:- The genius of Zoom’s freemium strategy- Three simple rules to find your pricing value drivers- Notion has made a bold move, making their lowest product tier entirely free, playing a long game for market share- Making referrals part of your monetisation strategy.- Skin in the game pricing is on the riseProfitWell are one of the world’s leading SaaS pricing specialists and we have heard from them on this podcast over the years - in fact this is their 4th episode. Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou's guest for this episode is Rob Litterst, Pricing Strategist at ProfitWell. Rob has worked on hundreds of pricing strategies for SaaS companies - large and small - and writes a really interesting weekly newsletter called "good, better, best", which packages up case studies of SaaS companies and other subscription businesses, using real world examples from B2B and B2C to give some really interesting insights. In this episode we dig into innovative and transformational pricing strategies, as well as some of the biggest successes in tech and in SaaS. We're going to be talking about value metrics, strategies to drive network effects and referrals, freemium strategies to drive acquisition and much, much more.

Lean customer development is a topic that people may think relevant only to early stage startups, but in our opinion the imperative of customer development - building products your customers will actually buy - never stops, whether this is at the startup, grow up or scale up stage. Cindy Alvarez discusses this with Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou.Highlights:- Think of customer development as building your buying audience as you are building your product.- Find the problems your customers are impassioned about solving.- Use silence to draw out the answers you really need to hear.Cindy Alvarez is one of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners on this topic. She is the Director of Customer Research at GitHub and was previously a Principal Group Product Manager at Microsoft, where she embedded customer development practices across the organisation. She is also the bestselling author of Lean Customer: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy.

Martina Lauchengco is a Partner at venture capital firm Costanoa Ventures, and also a Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, where she leads on product marketing — a critical function for any high growth SaaS business which she discusses here with Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou.Highlights:- Product marketing is all about strategy, delivering what the company needs to connect their product with their market.- 2021 is the year to double down on positioning.- Listen to your customers and how they talk about you. Learn from what they say and keep your messaging simple using plain languageProduct marketing is a critical function for any high growth SaaS business and not only is this one of the hardest jobs to recruit for, it's also one of the hardest jobs to do really well. Product marketing is central to translating customer insight into messaging that resonates with customers, accelerates the sales cycle and lays the foundation for evangelism. Martina Lauchengco is a Partner at venture capital firm Costanoa Ventures, and also a Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, where she leads on product marketing. She has spent over 25 years as a marketing executive building, branding and launching market-defining software at Microsoft, Netscape, Loudcloud and more. She has served on 12 startup boards and also lectures on marketing and product management at UC Berkeley.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/good-to-great-product-marketing/ 

Andy Leaver, Operating Partner at Notion Capital, on how do we build on the people, processes and tech to get to the next revenue boundary — the 1s and 3s. Interviewed by Paul Papadimitriou and Stephen Millard.Highlights:- Why, as enterprise tech startups grow, they follow the rule of 1s and 3s- An effective rev ops function is essential- The “people, process and tech” that enable a startup achieve a particular revenue boundary are unlikely to deliver on the next- Why pricing is an art and founders need to become masters- Why your customers are your best salespeople  For any enterprise cloud startup the journey to scale is one that is built around inflection points, which are critical to success. You need to find product market fit, moving beyond founder-led sales to go-to-market fit and then onwards; each layer builds on the previous, with new capabilities and often new people, processes and tech. Few people in Europe have as much pedigree in this than Andy Leaver, Operating Partner at Notion Capital. Andy operated at the most senior levels - from Series A / B to IPO - at Hortonworks, Workday, SuccessFactors, Bazaarvoice and Ariba. He's had an amazing career and is now bringing that experience with him to the Notion Family.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/scaling-enterprise-software-startups-a-story-of-1s-and-3s/

Renn Vara, Co-Founder, SNP Communications, interviewed by Paul Papadimitriou and Stephen Millard.Communication is critical in startups, especially as an organisation grows. Ensuring everyone across the business is aligned with the company's vision and values, the behaviors, what matters most, the path to success. The importance of communication is heightened in 2020 as we've all moved to an offline world and now an increasingly on-off world.Highlights:- Communication is now much more personal. We are talking to employees from our homes and in their homes and leaders must embrace that.- We are all now “living our work” and that will have a profound impact on company survival and success.- Embrace Aristotle: “forgive yourself, forgive others and seek understanding.” This underpins great communication. Aristotle again: “speak your truth with clarity.”Renn Vara, Co-Founder of SNP Communications is one of the world’s leading experts and practitioners on communication in startups, working with Founders across the Notion Family and at many of the world’s iconic tech brands. Renn in particular, and SNP Communications as a whole, helps tech founders and brands find their voice, build teams, and create trust and clarity across fast-growing, globally-dispersed companies.  

For any CEO, one of their most important challenges is to hire extraordinary people - Game Changers - to join their senior leadership team. Notion research has shown that one of the most fundamental differences between the most successful tech companies and the rest is largely to do with the quality of the hiring into the senior leadership team. Paul Papadimitriou and Stephen Millard discuss this with Hiroki Takeuchi, Founder and CEO, GoCardlessHighlights:- That one thing that has enabled us to get to where we are today has been thanks to hiring some really fantastically talented people along the way.- If you plan to hire Game Changers onto your leadership team, then you had better get comfortable feeling uncomfortable because they are so much better than you.- I look for five things when hiring a game changer. Of all of these an insatiable hunger to build a massive business is the most important.- Always raise the bar in terms of the quality of people you hire, if not it’s a slippery slope.- In the early days we paid a high price for a lack of diversity and an unwillingness to value experience.- We encourage people from diverse backgrounds to join us and do the best work of their lives.Hiroki Takeuchi is the founder and CEO of GoCardless. GoCardless processes billions in transactions every year and helps tens of thousands of companies around the world take recurring payments using a global direct debit infrastructure. With Paul Papadimitriou and Stephen Millard.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/five-things-saas-founders-should-look-for-when-hiring-game-changers/

Alan Millard explains to Paul Papadimitriou and Stephen Millard the principles of smart and healthy leadership and why smart and healthy companies have more fun and grow faster. Highlights:- Most companies have smarts, but “healthy” is the game changer and is a massive multiplier.- Why be healthy? Have more fun; be more productive; keep your best people.- Vulnerable trust is the foundation for high performing teams, leaders need to be comfortable showing that while they may be 80% brilliant, they are probably 20% rubbish. As we all are.Alan Millard is a Principal Consultant at The Table Group, one of the world's leading authorities on high performance leadership. He works with executives from all over the world (including the Notion Portfolio) applying those very same principles. He's also the chairman of DueDil, a UK based FinTech and one of Notion’s portfolio companies. Prior to The Table Group, he was the COO of Hiscox and Chairman of the UK subsidiary. He also has a constant desire to challenge himself, particularly demonstrated by his experience in mountain climbing; he’s summited Manaslu, Everest, Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, Denali. He’s also a qualified skydiver with more than 30 solo jumps.

Join Paul Papadimitriou and Stephen Millard for an in-depth interview with Hector Garcia, million bestselling author of Ikigai, the Japanese secret to a long and happy life.Highlights:- Ikigai is a clash of ideas from existentialism, to meditation, to flow, to healthy aging.  All these come together to create a powerful meaning for a life well lived and a company that endures.- As a company “tinker and try” until you find your Ikigai. You will know it when you find it.- I would remove the word “perfection” from the dictionary!Hector Garcia is the best selling author of "Ikigai, the Japanese secret to a long and happy life."The book was published in 2016 and has sold more than 1 million copies around the world. Hector also recently launched "The Ikigai Journey, a practical guide to finding meaning".Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/ikigai-the-path-to-purpose-in-life-and-startups/

In the final episode of our “Reimagining” podcast series, Sam Fromson, Co-Founder and COO at yulife, shares his COVID experiences, rescuing, recovering and ultimately reimagining his business and industry.Highlights:- We had planned to 10X our revenue in 2020, but by the end of March, we were at about a 10th of where we'd hoped we would be, but we’ve bounced back fast.- Employers have been so receptive to our offering, based on the importance of both employee and financial well being.- The emphasis on wellbeing and preventative health care by employers is here to stay.- We are experiencing some ‘survivor’s guilt’ as the business is doing so well, but we just have to be thankful.Sam Fromson is the COO of yulife, a lifestyle insurance company that unifies life insurance, wellbeing and rewards, into one simple app. Yulife’s mission is to enable people to live their best lives, by encouraging healthy daily behaviours. With the pandemic casting a spotlight onto company health and insurance policies, employers have further realised the importance of employee wellbeing, placing insurance companies like yulife, at the forefront. 

Nik Whitfield, Founder and CEO at Panaseer, shares his COVID experiences, rescuing, recovering and ultimately reimagining his business and industry.Highlights:-We adopted a three 3 phase process: 1) Get lean; 2) Hibernate & Hustle; 3) Rebound- Our “winning from home” team has been very effective as adapting to the new working practices are not trivial- We are learning to make decisions for the best of the business with far less certainty than before, but it's working well.Nik Whitfield is a serial entrepreneur who founded Panaseer to provide a platform to unify IT and data security data, establishing total visibility and automating reporting processes. Panaseer’s goal is to give enterprise security teams and their stakeholders the insights they need to make risk-informed decisions that will keep their organisation and its data secure. Monitoring security controls during the current crisis has been a huge priority of Panaseer’s customers, putting Panaseer at the forefront. 

Charlie Osmond, Co-Founder and Chief Tease at Triptease, shares his COVID experiences, rescuing, recovering and ultimately reimagining his business and industry, the most heavily impacted by the crisis.Highlights:- Battling uncertainty on two fronts: operating in the industry most heavily impacted by the current crisis - travel and hospitality -  and trying to raise a Series C in a recession.- Enabling hotels to continue marketing themselves in this downturn, without beefing up their third party competitors, for whom they compete with each individual booking online.- Pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over againCharlie Osmond is a serial entrepreneur who founded Triptease to help hotels take back control of their distribution and increase their direct revenue. Triptease’s goal is to identify hotels’ most valuable guests then work across the entire customer journey - from acquisition to conversion - to make sure they book directly at the hotel. Triptease operates at the intersection of travel and hospitality, arguably the industries impacted the most by the current crisis; its customers have been under immense pressure putting Triptease at the forefront.

Marius discusses his vision for transforming the hiring and recruitment industry.Highlights:-‘Auf Sicht fahren’ - driving the company as fast as you can see ahead- Changing tactics and becoming more digitalised, but keeping the overall company strategy in tact- The ambition to become the leading talent platform by 2025Marius Luther is a serial entreprepreneur and the Founder and CEO of HeyJobs, the predictable hiring platform, matching people and employers with their best job at scale. Marius founded the business together with his co-founder, also called Marius, in 2016 and Notion Capital led the Series A in 2018. HeyJobs is at the intersection of employers and employees so it was fascinating to learn from his experience. 

Andreas Brenner, the founder and CEO of Avrios, shares his COVID experiences of making the tough calls to build a better future for the business: this experience entailed a massive mind-shift from "growth at all costs" to "cash runway and certainty is King.” We are now far more focused and as a result we've become tremendously more efficient.Highlights:- I took the philosophical decision early on to act like a more conservative CEO, to protect the long term survival of the business.- We had to build a plan that had sufficient room for mistakes and uncertainty.-Now it’s all about focus and now I recognise that being more focused isn’t just a factor to survive, but potentially a factor for us to win even bigger as we come out of this.-What has definitely happened is that the whole market has aligned in the short term around priorities of cost reduction or efficiency.-But long term there are some very important trends that will be accelerated.Andreas Brenner is the founder of Avrios, the fleet management and automation platform. Andreas founded the business in 2015 and Notion Capital led the Series A in 2017. 

Hannah Dawson, Founder and CEO of Futrli, shares her COVID experiences, rescuing her business and furthering her company’s mission to give small businesses the capability and tools to survive the recession and transform their businesses for the better.Highlights:Identifying key trigger points, to preserve as much cash in the bank as possible for our small business community. Emphasising a customers first, product second approach. Making decisions vs having choices: Empowering our small businesses with the information to understand the choices available to them.Hannah is a serial entrepreneur who founded Futrli to address the endemic lack of advanced financial forecasting software for small businesses. Futrli’s goal is to ultimately reduce the systemic failure rates in small companies and empower them with more and better choices regarding their cash flows and their businesses as a whole. Futrli serves thousands of small businesses, all of whom have been affected by the current crisis, putting Futrli on the front line. 

Mads is the CEO of Dixa, and as a customer services platform it was only natural for them to double down on helping customers work through these challenging times.Highlights:- Finding the right balance of investment in innovation to delight our customers and capital efficient growth is our priority.- We are still growing very fast, but the business is healthier in many ways.- It is no longer acceptable - if it ever was - to grow fast despite the costs and the consequences.Mads Fosselius is the CEO of Dixa, a customer service platform which helps brands build stronger relationships with their customers to deliver a better experience, by unifying all the customer communication channels and data into one platform. Many of their customers have seen a massive increase in customer traffic and, at the same time, all of their customer’s customer services people are working remotely. This combination puts Dixa’s customers under a lot of stress.

COVID is leading to a rapidly accelerated change in our business, our customers and our industry as a whole.Highlights:- The idea of a return to normal is a false and damaging reality.- Adopting a survivor’s winning mentality.- Create psychological safety for your teams and your customers.- Some fitness businesses have seen the digital light and will never go back, some can’t wait to cancel their zoom account and get back in the studio and many more will be a blend of the two.- The biggest change is the shift towards fitness on the customers terms.Conor O’Loughlin, founder and CEO of Glofox, shares his COVID experiences, rescuing, recovering and ultimately reimagining his business and industry. Conor is a professional rugby player, turned tech entrepreneur.

Richard discusses his internal struggles with the changes he had to make, but also why Mews and the Hotel Industry will withstand and indeed benefit from the COVID shock to the system.Highlights:- The importance of acting fast and acting radically, but with decency- Why tech founders can no longer have the luxury of just raising money and growing fast. They must pay attention to the inefficiencies in the business.- Moving to a simpler organisation that could withstand the shock.- Moving from sales led growth to customer-focused product led growth.- The importance of constantly making decisions and moving fast.Richard Valtr is the founder of Mews, now one of the world’s leading hotel property management systems providers, and is a hotelier turned tech founder.

Jennifer describes why category design is so important in our crowded technology markets and why category design goes hand in hand with company strategy.Highlights:- The art of category design is executive alignment.- Category designers are driving change, and their number one job is to get everyone on the same page.- Why Salesforce is probably the greatest example of category design in enterprise software.Jennifer Johnson is a three times CMO and enterprise software category builder. Now CMO of Tenable, JJ is also Category Design Evangelist at Play Bigger. Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/carve-out-your-place-in-the-world-with-category-design/

Pavla explains the importance of investing time in data quality, systems and reporting to give everyone in the business the information they need to make better decisions.Highlights:- Invest in data, finance systems and automation as early as possible.- Managing cash in hypergrowth is tough - gather all your incoming and outgoing cash flows in one place and get as near real-time as possible.- Empower your business with insights on the metrics and measures that matter most to them.Pavla Munzarova is VP Finance, at Mews.  Mews is a Prague based Hotel Property Management System with customers in more than 50 countries.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/nailing-saas-metrics-in-hyper-growth/

Exploring the profound importance of pricing and monetisation strategies for SaaS success.Highlights:- Why failing to invest time and effort in pricing is a wasted opportunity.- Getting the fundamentals right: pricing, packaging, positioning, understanding who your buyers are, and the unit of measurement that grows with your buyer.- Understanding willingness to pay and perceived value.- International pricing localisation is one of the quickest and most powerful pricing strategies.Peter Zotto is General Manager and Co Founder of ProfitWell.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/pricing-the-trickiest-of-subjects-with-peter-zotto/

The best tech companies invest in real product leaders and empower their teams to solve strategic problems.Highlights:- Don’t give product teams a list of features to build, give them a set of problems to solve and business results to be measured against.- The best product companies invest in real leaders for product, design and engineering; proactive people leaders and coaches.- The best product companies empower their product teams.Marty Cagan has held executive positions at eBay, Netscape and HP, and a number of fortune 500 companies. He's the author of the often quoted and much recommended, Inspired, how to create tech products customers love. Marty is a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/what-makes-a-good-product-company-with-marty-cagan/

Melissa shares her thoughts on the importance of professionalism, setting expectations and beating them and why you should never win quietly. Because the sum of every single small success will be huge successes long term.Highlights:- As a startup grows the path to success starts with professionalism.- Success = setting expectations + delivering on them- Introducing the role of the Chief Customer OfficerAs startups grow, we see an interesting layering of capability building from each stage to the next. As they move from founder led sales to team sales, as they find repeatability, as they test and validate different models and sales motions.  Melissa Di Donato is the CEO of SUSE, and Executive in Residence at Notion Capital.Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/winning-loudly-with-melissa-di-donato/

Yvonne describes her experience in building high performing teams, hiring at scale and for culture and managing remote teams.Highlights:- When scaling teams, you have to have a detailed plan, how to interview, how to make hiring decisions, how to onboard, but you have to accept that you will sacrifice some short term productivity as these processes can be time consuming.- You must hire for culture and behaviours, not just for your benefit but also for the candidate- With global and remote teams you must appreciate the different communication styles that predominate around the world.Yvonne Agyei is the Chief People Officer at Gocardless. She was formerly the Chief People Officer of booking .com. Prior to that she spent 12 years at Google, latterly as the VP of global people operations. Yvonne has a Bachelor's in Psychology from Stanford, and a Master's in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern.  Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/building-high-performing-teams-with-yvonne-agyei/

Founders must be prepared to take themselves outside their comfort zone if they want to continue to lead a fast growth business.Highlights:-Build emotional intelligence to get the best from your people.-Find a balance between operational excellence and innovation. You must have both.-Stay uncomfortable. If you want to grow you need to embrace change.Matt Welle is the co-founder of Mews, the Hotel Property Management System company based in Prague. In this interview, recorded shortly before the COVID-19 Crisis, Matt discusses his personal leadership journey. Read the blog post: https://notion.vc/resources/staying-uncomfortable-with-matt-welle-ceo-mews/

Tae Hea describes how startups can unlock growth (find "Go-To-Market Fit") and why that requires executives and founders to unlearn.Highlights:- Why surfing? Unlocking growth feels like the transition from paddling to surfing.- Surfing to growth is a 3 step process: Catching the wave, Riding the wave and Having the right surfboard- Unlearning is critical to executive growth.Tae Hea Nahm is the Managing Director and co-founder of Storm Ventures, investing in B2B SaaS companies in the US and Europe. Tae Hea is also the co author of Survival to Thrival, breaking down the B2B SaaS company building journey. This article is based on an interview that took place in 2019.Read an in-depth report on this episode: https://notion.vc/resources/surfing-to-growth-with-tae-hea-nahm-of-storm-ventures/

Glofox mission is even bigger, Improving health and wellbeing on a global basis. That is something really worth doing.Highlights:- Building exceptional teams and an exceptional company in three different timezones is the big challenge.- The big question is “how do avoid getting so obsessed on the here and now that we miss where our industry is going?”- A business built on impact, purpose and pride.

Despite massive tech advances, 50% of small businesses fail, says Hannah Dawson. We want to play our part in helping those companies fulfill their potential.Highlights:- As a former small business owner, I know hard it can be when you are all alone.- We want to create a network effect of small businesses helping each other to succeed through our platform and community.- The one thing Europe desperately needs is a new generation of tech growth experts, if not we will all cannibilise ourselves. 

Michael Grupp, Founder and CEO of Byter, the no-code automation platform shares his hopes, fears and desires for this new decadeHighlights:- As a lawyer I was scared of the future and sold the status quo. Now as a tech entrepreneur I’m living in status quo and selling the future- We want Bryter to become the de facto file standard for lawyers around the world- My greatest wish is for Europe to realise that the future can happen here. But to do that we need more tech in our blood.

David Williams, founder of Arqit - the quantum encryption companyHighlights:- Creating global scale, making a tonne of money and having a lot of fun doing it.- My biggest challenge? Hiring the very best and smartest people.- Building sovereign capabilities to solve strategic issues for the UK

Chris Tottman discusses his hopes and fears for the next ten yearsHighlights:- A new category of venture capital. It’s got to be so much more than just a fund.- For me, calmness is success and it’s changing the way I operate.- Spinning the flywheel of success ever faster.

Build a business to be proud of, with Catherine Birkett, CFO, Gocardless. The path to achieving a successful exit is to build a business to be proud of, while keeping an eye on the end game. Highlights: Achieving an exit starts with building a business to be proud of Think about how the business will endure and scale past the exit or IPO Get your house in order and use failed sales attempts to prepare yourselves