Each year, we host the Notion Founder Retreat and have been doing so since 2016 (with the exception of 2020 of course!). This was my sixth year organising the event and every year I think it won’t live up to the last… but yet, thanks to our wonderful founders, team and partners, it keeps surpassing itself. This year’s event was held in early October and we were joined by Founders and CEOs from across our European portfolio for two days of discussions, workshops, and networking. 

While the retreat is undoubtedly the highlight of our events calendar, it’s hard to encapsulate that atmosphere and magic in a short blog post - regardless I have attempted to do so below!  However, alongside this, we’ve put together a testimonial video, so you can hear directly from our founders about their experiences. 

Hopefully the video and the overview below will give some insight into the content and discussions that unfolded, and what makes the Notion Founder Retreat so special. 
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An action-packed agenda

When crafting the Notion retreat agenda, we prioritise creating ample space and time between sessions to encourage genuine connection and organic relationship-building. Each year I am slightly apprehensive about including too much free time,but yet it always proves invaluable. So much so, there’s often a need for even more free time and, tellingly, the informal group walk is one of our best-rated sessions every year. 

For the session content itself, we focus on timely topics, expert insights, and, most importantly, we ask our Founders in advance what they want to discuss and what’s most important to them. The following two paragraphs provide a brief overview of what was covered, but I am happy to share more details on any of the sessions:

This year we kicked off with "Adventure Capital" by Tom Caulfield and James Whittle of The Tempest Two, encouraging founders to adopt an adventurer’s mindset for resilience. This was followed by a market update from Notion’s Jos White on the future of software. We wrapped the day with a fireside chat (which unfortunately ended up not being by the firepit due to the weather!) on Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition featuring Marty Korman, and ended with an 80s alpine-themed dinner complete with a George Michael tribute - prompting a marmite reaction from across the room. A bit of Notion silliness always plays a key role in our agenda… 

On day two, plenaries continued with Winning by Design’s Jacco van der Kooij’s keynote, "The AI-Driven GTM," on aligning technology with go-to-market strategies. Afternoon fireside chats included sessions with Matt Welle, CEO of Mews, who discussed his learnings from Mews’ journey to date, and Onfido’s Husayn Kassai on navigating AI and market challenges. Breakouts and roundtables throughout the two days covered growth efficiency, branding, high-performing teams, exit strategies, fundraising and more. To close, Vasco Pedro of Unbabel introduced Halo, spotlighting AI’s transformative impact, followed by a ‘Celebration of European tech’ themed dinner followed by Notion’s Kamil Mieczakowski hitting the decks as ‘DJ Kamski’.

After the event, we asked our Founders to share their most important takeaways or inspirational moments from the event. These varied greatly depending on each individual's experience, so I’ll attempt to summarise the key areas  into 3 bullet points: 

• Connecting with peers and other founders is invaluable, especially in an unstructured format, and hearing success stories and mishaps is both impactful and reassuring
• The talks were both powerful and inspirational, with many of those who spoke having a true passion for what they’re building
• Learning more about the pivotal role AI is already playing and is going to continue to play from real experts
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So what makes it so special?

We often get asked why we host the retreat each year and what makes it so special. We believe it offers a truly unique opportunity to bring our founders (most of whom are geographically dispersed) together in one place, and provides an organic forum for building meaningful relationships. We strive for a relaxed and informal setting, where everyone feels more comfortable opening up, leading to richer discussions and deeper connections. While most of our founders follow structured daily routines and are laser-focused on building world-class businesses, the retreat provides a space to step back, think about the bigger picture, and gain insights from one another. And (arguably most importantly) it's an awful lot of fun - we want our founders to enjoy the experience as much as they learn from it!

Organising and hosting the annual Notion retreat, alongside Stephen Millard and the rest of the Notion team, has genuinely become a highlight of my year. It’s an exciting blend of collaboration, learning, and networking that brings together an exceptional community of founders, CEOs, as well as world-class experts and speakers. Each retreat is an opportunity to make valuable new connections, share insights, and deepen our understanding of the ever-evolving entrepreneurial landscape. The experience is both a privilege and rewarding, especially seeing how much our founders gain from it. I am excited for 2025 already!

And finally, the retreat wouldn’t be possible without the support of our wonderful sponsors. This year’s included: Founders Keepers, Google Cloud, HSBC Innovation Banking, Snowflake, Wilson Sonsini.

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