Notion is a productivity platform that blends all your workplace apps into a single platform, including team projects, wikis, and docs. Last valued at $10bn, Notion’s customers include teams at Amazon, Nike, Uber, Figma, Deel, and more! In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Akshay Kothari, co-founder and COO of Notion. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Preview: Building Notion 1.0 03:32 How Akshay met Ivan Zhao and invested in Notion 5:21 Lessons from the Pulse Journey 8:09 Building Notion’s first templates 12:43 Why Akshay joined Notion full-time 16:26 Akshay’s first few months at Notion 21:59 Evolution of Notion’s GTM strategy and Enterprise vs SMB 26:13 Akshay’s GTM learnings and challenges  34:37 Launching AI Features in Notion 38:44 Customer Feedback and Future of Notion AI Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Akshay Kothari is the co-founder and COO of Notion.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Domino Data Lab was founded in 2013 and was one of the early innovators in the space known as MLOps. It delivers a unified platform for enterprises to build, deploy, and manage machine learning workloads and provides access to data, tools, compute, models across any environment. Domino enables ML and data teams to collaborate, ensure governance, and reduce costs at scale. In this episode, Wei Lien Dang chats with Chris Yang, co-founder and CTO of Domino Data. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Introduction to Domino Data Lab 02:04 The Origin Story of Domino Data Lab 06:58 Balancing Authenticity and Customer Feedback 10:52  Open Communication and Collaboration Among Co-founders 14:24 The Importance of Engaging with Users 16:19  Building the First Feature: Enabling Compute Workloads in the Cloud 22:42 Discovering Unexpected Use Cases and Features 33:20 The Importance of Choosing a Target Market 35:44 The Evolution of MLOps and the Current AI Wave  Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected]. Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool.  Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. He can be reached at [email protected]. Chris Yang is the co-founder and CTO of Domino Data.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Julianna Lamb, co-founder and CTO of Stytch. Stytch is a comprehensive tool for identity management. Its auth and fraud prevention capabilities improve both security and user experience. Last valued at $1.0B, the company now works with over 1000 customers. Join us as we discuss:  00:00 Preview: early product surprises for the Stytch team 01:53 Introduction to Stytch and identity management 05:15 The founding insight for Stytch 10:27 Validating the idea and Minimum Viable Product 12:27 Choosing a customer segment and MVP 14:33 Surprises and patterns in early customers 17:57 Lessons from Plaid and building a flexible solution 19:46 Approach to developer marketing 22:20 Approach to developer awareness and hiring 26:32 Starting a company in an unusual environment 30:53 Impact of AI on authentication and fraud prevention 34:25 Advice for developers starting a company Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Julianna Lamb is the co-founder and CTO of Stytch.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Andy Byrne, co-founder and CEO of Clari. Clari was started in 2012 and last valued at $2.6B. Its revenue platform has been helping enterprise sales teams create visibility and predictability within their organization for over a decade. It helps over 1,500 companies including Cisco and Databricks improve their entire revenue process. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Gen AI’s impact on revenue ops 1:40 Origin Story and pain points 3:27 Early challenges and customer feedback 6:00 Surprises and feedback from design partners 10:01 Building for multiple stakeholders 13:16 Go-to-Market strategy 14:56 Identifying adjacent opportunities 18:00 Clari’s AI strategy 20:52 The future of sales and revenue 26:44 The evolution of CRM providers 28:34 Crowded sales tech landscape 32:59 Advice for new founders in GTM Tech Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Andy Byrne is the co-founder and CEO of Clari. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Coming up with a founding insight What are design partners?

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde and Wei Lien Dang chat about everything that happened in the world of AI Startups in 2023. 2023 was very much an Act 2 for Generative AI as GPT became a household name. We had a long Act 1 during Covid ending with some incredible launches in the second half of 2022 including Stable Diffusion and of course ChatGPT. We take a closer look at what the pivotal moments have been this year and more importantly what they mean for the startups ecosystem. Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Strategy to defeat incumbent software companies 3:39 January 2023 — ChatGPT's Success and Consumer Adoption 7:16 February 2023 — Controversies and Legal Issues 12:09 March 2023 — GPT-4 Launch and Multimodal AI 16:04 April and May 2023 — Large infrastructure providers’ AI strategy 20:04 June 2023 — GPU Shortage and Infrastructure Challenges 22:41 July and August 2023 — Fine-Tuning and New Modalities 29:46 September 2023 — Governance and Safety Concerns 32:06 October 2023 — Revenue Generation and Open Source 33:18 November 2023 — OpenAI Leadership Changes 37:17 December 2023 — Google's Gemini and Future Predictions Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool. Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Whose responsibility is responsible AI? How do you navigate AI security in an evolving landscape? Autonomous AI agents could change the world, but what do they actually do well?

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Shishir Mehrotra, CEO and co-founder of Coda. Coda is a collaborative workspace that brings together teams and tools to create organized workflows in docs. Started in 2014, Coda serves over 80% of the Fortune 100. Last valued at $1.4B,  Coda is used by over 25,000 teams including ones at Figma, The New York Times, Square, Doordash, and Toast.  00:00 Preview: Coming up with product insights 01:38 Shishir’s experience at YouTube 03:32 YoutTube Shorts versus Tiktok 06:03 Product-market fit is not a binary 08:04 The founding insight behind Coda 11:16 Positioning Coda against incumbent products 18:05 Coda’s alpha launch 24:36 PMF scores versus disappointment scores 29:53 Shishir’s approach to product rituals 38:05 The launch of Coda 4.0 43:50 Advice for new founders in enterprise productivity Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  Twitter  LinkedIn  Shishir Mehrotra is the CEO and co-founder of Coda. Prior to Coda, Shishir was the Vice President of Product, Engineering, and UX at YouTube.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Coming up with a founding insight What are design partners? How to find product-market fit

MosaicML is the developer of open source infrastructure for training LLMs. The company was acquired by Databricks for $1.3 billion in July 2023. and has gone from 0 to over $30M in revenue this year in just 6 months. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde and Wei Lien Dang chat with Naveen Rao, co-founder of MosaicML and now the head of Generative AI at Databricks Join us as we discuss: 00:00 Preview: Future of foundation model companies 2:16 How Naveen’s previous experiences led to MosaicML 7:29 The core insight behind the founding of MosaicML 9:52 MosaicML’s approach to building an end-to-end platform 12:09 Why MosaicML focused on open models and LLMs 14:25 Why most foundation model companies will fail 15:52 How MosaicML found early adopters 18:14 Early use cases for MosaicML’s product 21:27 Impact of early feedback on MosaicML’s product roadmap 25:21 Why Naveen decided to move ahead with the Databricks acquisition 31:44 How Naveen sees the AI ecosystem evolving 34:08 Regulation of AI and the importance of open source 41:15 Advice for founding building AI infrastructure Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. Wei Lien Dang is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures and leads investments in infrastructure software, security, and developer tool.  Wei was a co-founder of StackRox, a cloud-native security company prior to its acquisition by Red Hat. Naveen Rao is the co-founder of MosaicML (now a Databricks company) and currently the head of Generative AI at Databricks Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Starting an open source company Open source customer development 

Full episode transcript here: www.unusual.vc/post/sprigs-product-market-fit-journey Sprig is an AI-powered product feedback platform; it helps teams run in-product surveys and session replays with AI native analysis to help them build better products. Last valued at $330M, Sprig has hundreds of the largest and fastest growing tech companies as customers, including Notion, Figma, PayPal, Webflow, and Dropbox. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Ryan Glasgow, the founder and CEO of Sprig.  Join us as we discuss: 01:13 Sprig’s origin story 05:26 Evolution of user feedback platforms 09:26 Building Sprig’s early team 12:37 Validating Sprig’s product hypothesis 15:37 Building relationships with early design partners 19:15 Iterating to MVP 23:19 Ryan’s approach to founder selling 29:11 Sprig’s early AI strategy 33:36 Sprig AI strategy post-ChatGPT 35:37 Ryan’s evolution as CEO Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  Twitter/X LinkedIn Ryan Glasgow  is the founder and CEO of Sprig.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Defining your ideal customer profile (ICP) Working with design partners Validating your early product hypothesis

Solo is an open-source developer platform designed to connect applications with service meshes across any software infrastructure. Their core promise to their customer is to help them migrate from 10/20 year old legacy monolithic applications to new cloud native architectures with APIs and microservices.  Last valued at $1Bn, Solo has hundreds of enterprise customers including enterprises like TMobile, American Express, SAP, Sumo Logic, and more. In this episode, Sandhya Hegde chats with Idit Levine, the founder and CEO of Solo.  Join us as we discuss: 1:13 Solo’s origin story 6:04 Early fundraising challenges 13:45 The technical insight that led to Solo 15:00 Studying the market to refine Solo’s product vision 16:49 API Gateway as a stepping stone for service mesh 21:58 Early customer acquisition efforts 24:33 Idit’s conviction in the API Gateway approach 25:26 How Solo found its first paying customers 29:25 Idit’s approach to founder selling  31:17 Idit’s evolution as CEO 36:50 Solo’s approach to open source community-building 40:50 Advice for founders building open source projects Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  LinkedIn Twitter/X Idit Levine is the founder and CEO of Solo.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/. Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Starting an open source company Hiring for an open source company Building open source GTM

Full episode transcript: https://www.unusual.vc/post/writers-product-market-fit-journey Started in 2020, Writer is an enterprise-grade generative AI platform for larger, security-conscious companies. Writer has over 150 customers, including teams at UnitedHealthcare, Uber and Accenture. Last valued at over $500M, Writer makes it easy for enterprises to build internal apps that generate a variety of content from sales enablement to blog posts.  In this episode, Sandhya Hegde joins Writer’s co-founder and CEO May Habib to discuss the company’s path to product-market fit. Join us as we discuss: 1: 30 The origin story behind the founding of Writer 5:11 The early product vision for Writer 10:02 The transformation of the enterprise AI buyer 14:49 Security and compliance in AI models 17:27 Writer’s approach to addressing hallucinations  21:35 Why May and the Writer team had deep conviction in Enterprise AI 24:43 The next big horizon for Gen AI and Writer 27:50 May Habib’s journey as a CEO 29:18 Building a culture of curiosity at Writer Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at [email protected] and  May Habib is the CEO and co-founder of Writer, a generative AI platform for the enterprise. Before Writer, she co-founded Qordoba.  Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood, and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.Further reading from Unusual Ventures: Build conviction in an early stage startup Understanding the enterprise buyer LLMs in security