Akshay Kothari

Recently got into Hindustani classical music and I’m really enjoying this playlist. It’s a great introduction to both the legends and some contemporary artists. open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9d…

Sarah, the Anna Wintour of AI models, and myself, Nigel, deciding whether Opus 4.7 will make it to @NotionHQ’s spring/summer collection. Taste, at its finest. Perfectly captured by @colossusmag.

Come see where we are headed 🤌 This isn’t about SaaS CRUD API wrappers (though we’ve improved those too!). It’s about completely new ways to extend, customize, and orchestrate tools for your team.

"Ron discovered how to be the investor of the future by accident. He didn't foresee the future of startup investing, realize it would pay to be upstanding, and force himself to behave that way. It would feel unnatural to him to behave any other way." paulgraham.com/ronco.html

Once again, I write my heart out and @tryramp steals the show with the ad.

Applecart’ing is Notion’s term for tearing it all down and starting again. “Get it just about perfect, then throw it in the trash.” --Abhishek Modi

In a recent (upcoming) interview, a guest of mine shared that great leaders are uncompromising on vision, but not stubborn on strategy. That feels like a good way to describe the through line running through this excellent @colossusmag profile on @NotionHQ’s reinvention as an AI company, and @ivanhzhao, @simonlast, and @akothari's orientation to stay flexible and nimble in the face of incredible change. Some favorite bits: "We did eventually find our way to a document titled “2026 Roadmap,” but it did not contain the list of things to ship we expected. Instead, it simply said: The thing to do is to be undeterred by trivial things, have conviction in our world view, and simultaneously be nimble enough to react to important changes around us." "Ivan’s often seen walking the halls, stopping to look over people’s shoulders and offer them thoughts on whatever’s on their screen. He only wants to work with the person making the thing, not their manager or their manager’s manager. Over the years, many Notion managers have objected to this way of working; they are, respectfully, no longer with the company. Everyone we spoke to had their own story of working with Ivan directly…that week." "'Get it just about perfect, then throw it in the trash,' says Modi, with a wide grin and no hint of nihilism. 'Simon has thrown away everything he’s ever built.' They say it with so much respect, it’s like there’s some kind of prize for discards. It’s not uncommon for teams to find a 30,000-line PR on Monday morning when Simon turns his attention to something not working quite right." "Whether the models shift in a direction that undermines what they’ve built, whether the Fortune 5 Million ever arrives, whether jazz can really scale to the next thousand people—in other words, whether Notion wins from here—is unknowable. But as we watch people argue passionately about a sidebar, program joke-telling agents, and build automation “castles” for customers, it feels less like a company pivoting, and more like a group of people relieved to finally have the right tools to build the thing they already believed in."

Notion is singular in the way that Apple was singular. What a beautiful read. 🖤

Over the past year, many founders have asked me how @NotionHQ became AI-native and how they can do the same. Here’s a deep dive into how we evolved our mission, product, tech, people, and culture. Huge thanks to @zebriez and @camillericketts for writing it. colossus.com/article/inside…

They say you can’t go home again. Pretty true, but not entirely. It was fascinating to return to @NotionHQ to find many of the same hearts & minds at work (@ivanhzhao @akothari @simonlast & @davidtibbies among them) - but in entirely new ways for the AI era. Thrilled to document this shift alongside the magical @zebriez for @colossusmag.

@nathanclark_ @NotionHQ Would you prefer Notion-core to become the centralized agent, or would you prefer more custom things in different apps?

I feel like a lot of the AI/agentic experience and benefits of the separate apps are starting to accrue to Notion itself instead of within them. Is this a trend and should we expect some of the separate apps to dissolve or will we see some of those workflows show up in the other apps where you are already performing these workflows in the context of, e.g., calendar management or email?

My @notionhq Wishlist Status Report 90 Days Later Notion ✅ Ship Custom Agents ✅ Custom AI Meeting summary formats ❌Speaker + Timestamps for Transcripts ✅ Direct attach md files from agent UI + obviously a ton more. Notion Calendar ❌ Deal with event proposals much better ❌ Work on Scheduling UI/UX ❌ Link name vs Event title is a mess ❌ Natural language event creation Notion Mail ✅* Workflows - eg. pre-draft replies for me ❌ Much smarter tagging ❌ iCloud support ❌ Fix the mobile app. Performance is horrendous. + Need to add unified inbox badly *actually in Notion app.

Get started early:

Join us for @NotionHQ’s very first developer day. Save the date: May 13th! ntn.so/developers

I love what @tarakeeney is building and really enjoyed meeting her by chance (open DMs ftw!) in Miami a few weeks ago. Tara is going to inspire a new generation of builders around the world, and I’m glad I got to contribute a tiny bit towards that mission.

Meeting Paul last year reminded me of meeting @ivanhzhao 15 years ago. Incredible taste, boundless optimism, and a clear, specific point of view about the future. We’re lucky to be living alongside dreamers like them.

@Jackyhuang @paulscherer @hardlaunching @eigenhq Y’all killed it!

There were many points over the past four weeks where I thought this launch wouldn't happen across the site, video, events & more @paulscherer willed it to & the @hardlaunching team and I are grateful to have played a role in helping him share @eigenhq with you all <3

say hello to momo!

AI has sparked an explosion of ideas (and disruption) in B2B, but consumer apps still feel stuck in the last decade. I’m especially excited about a new company launching tomorrow. It’s one of the most fun ideas I’ve had the chance to back. Watch this space 👀

Opus 4.7, Anthropic's most intelligent model, is now in Notion! It’s a real step up from Opus 4.6 for multi-step workflows. It uses fewer tokens. About 3× fewer tool errors. And it can troubleshoot weird mid-workflow issues like a real teammate.

@Naa_Cheese Looks beautiful. Congrats!

Come stay so we can hang and I can cook good khaana for you. airbnb.co.uk/rooms/88230302…

My little home in Dehradun has been featured in Condé Nast Traveller’s list of the 30 best homestays in India to visit this summer. I always imagined it as a place of warmth, slow mornings, mountain views, & bhadiya khaana. cntraveller.in/story/homestay…