In this one-off podcast series, “Going to the moon”, we are releasing 15 short episodes in which our founders share their hopes and dreams for the next ten years.

Almost universally we overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what we can achieve in ten (sometimes referred to as Gates’ Law). This does not mean engaging in endless hyperbole or pointless forecasting, rather focusing on what we can achieve if we think big and take a long-term perspective while maintaining a near term focus on operational excellence and execution.

2019 marked the 10th anniversary of Notion and, of course, the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, and we were inspired by recordings of JFK’s famous speech (slightly paraphrased):

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”

At the annual Notion Retreat in October 2019 we challenged ourselves and our 50+ founders to consider the enormity of what we and they could achieve in the coming decade.

We asked four questions:-

1. What is your ambition for the coming decade?
2. What do you consider your biggest challenges?
3. What is success?
4. What is your greatest wish for the European tech ecosystem?

We will be releasing two episodes each week and you can listen to the first one with Chris Tottman from Notion Capital today, with the rest to follow in short order:

1. Chris Tottman, Notion Capital
2. David Williams, Arqit - quantum encryption platform
3. Michael Bues, Bryter - no code automation for knowledge workers
4. Hannah Dawson, Futrli - business intelligence for small business owners
5. Conor O’Loughlin and Oliver Meyrick, Glofox - the operating system for fitness studios
6. Hirok Takeuchi, GoCardless - the global bank to bank network for recurring payments
7. Harry Keen, Hazy - synthetic data provider
8. Marius Luther and Marius Jeuck, HeyJobs - the predictable hiring platform
9. Matt Welle and Tyler Golden, Mews Systems - property management platform for hotels
10. Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Page, New Vector, decentralised and secure communication protocol and platform
11. Christian Owens and Harrison Rose, Paddle - unified payments, subscription and billing management for software companies
12. Gert Sylvest, Tradeshift - global supply chain platform
13. Vasco Pedro, Joao and Wolf Allisat, Unbabel - the translation layer for the internet
14. Sam Fromson, Yulife - the insurance company inspiring customers to build a better life
15. Jos White Notion Capital

While the ambition for each business is different there are common themes that emerge, not least the biggest challenge being to hire and empower extraordinary people and the desire for the European tech ecosystem to emerge as a global powerhouse, driven by repeat success.

We hope you enjoy reading and listening to these as much as we did recording them.