• Notion Platform: the operational, high impact support we are known for, working with every company from the first investment to exit.
• The Platform Collective: a mechanism for our founders to pool contributions so that we can invest in and address common challenges.
• Beyond Platform: we go far beyond typical venture platform offerings, building capabilities and driving change across our portfolio through transformational engagements.

Over the last 10 years, since we launched Notion Platform, we have seen a huge increase in the number of firms with platform functions and platform people. 

It makes sense, every VC needs a point of difference. If we want to do great deals with exceptional founders we need to be clear on our promise - why choose us - and our ability to deliver on that promise. At Notion Capital, our promise is simple: choose us and you gain access to deep operational expertise in building SaaS companies, delivered in a highly impactful and empathetic way.

The most important question a founder should ask themself when considering taking VC money is: does our business have a credible pathway to $100m revenue in less than ten years? We have invested in well over 100 companies over the last 15 years and each is different - some have hit $100m revenue and some still will, but most will not. Over the years we have come to appreciate the commonalities - good and bad - that correlate with success and failure: this is encapsulated in our Start-Build-Scale framework. You can read more about these commonalities, as well as the principles that align with success and the mistakes to avoid. 

This framework is based on our belief that startup growth is a step function, not a continuum.

As both our team and portfolio have grown, we have evolved to a very different model from the one we started with in 2015.  You can visit our platform page here to learn more. 

The Notion Platform
‍
‍We onboard every investment, providing individual proactive support through the first 18-24 months to build the ‘psychological safety’ that Seth Phillips, Founder of Bound, describes here. 

We support our companies on their $1m to $100m revenue journey within the context of our Start-Build-Scale framework, helping them look out for the signals that the business needs to change and indeed what has made them successful to date will lead directly to their failure. This is not just about revenue, but critically about how people and organisations adapt and change, led by Michelle Cheng.

We provide a rich programme of expert-led learning and events, led by Claire Walker, that any and all of our founders, leaders and team members can dive into. And we commit to working with our founders all the way to the exit. Full life cycle value - from the first cheque to ringing the bell. That’s our vision and to be the most impactful investor for every one of our companies on that journey. 

This is what we think of as “The Notion Platform”, full life cycle operational impact. Extensive, comprehensive, free.

The Platform Collective‍

Along the way we have also come to appreciate the importance of deep domain expertise across multiple topics - from storytelling to customer success, covering product and pricing, people and organisational challenges in all their guises, RevOps, GTM from many different angles. This is why we’re launching The Collective - many of us at Notion can cover these topics at a high level - but we recognise the importance of deep domain knowledge. Our expert network is not vast, but it is exceptional. We have a high bar.

We also realise that sometimes advice and support is not enough. As our companies hit inflection points - most critically at $3m to $10m and $10m to $30m revenue - they need dedicated transformational support. 

In addition we often find the need to go deep into these topics, providing dedicated expert-led coaching programmes such as Product Marketing and Management Masterclasses, Management Training, Growth, Success and People Summits. 

Many of our portfolio companies choose to co-fund The Platform Collective and direct its investment into programmes and expertise. Opt-in and opt out at any time.
‍
Beyond Platform
‍
‍Four years ago we met the most extraordinary person - Andy Leaver - a serial scaler - from Series A to NASDAQ or NYSE listing, leading go-to-market at Hortonworks, Workday, Success Factors, Bazaarvoice and Ariba. We created a new Operating Partner role specifically for Andy that allows him to focus his considerable expertise into supporting companies through transformational engagements, advisory work and investing. The transformational engagements Andy has undertaken have been, well, transformational. At Panaseer he led their commercial function through a major growth phase and supported the then CEO in the transition to Chairman, with a new incoming CEO. At Upvest, post Series B, he was personally involved in landing deals with Revolut, Raising and N26, at Element he oversaw growth from less than $1m ARR to close to $10m ARR. Andy takes our companies through major inflection points and then replaces himself with a permanent executive to take the company forward.

Two years ago we added Andreas Panayiotou to the team, a pricing expert, now Operating Director, Strategy and Monetization. Andreas operates in a similar way, providing a combination of dedicated operational support for individual companies as well as advisory support for the whole portfolio.

Dr. George Windsor joined the team in 2023, as Director of Research and Intelligence, from Tech Nation where he built their research function from the ground up. George also splits his time between operational work for our companies, helping them build research and intelligence functions as well thought leadership, research and intelligence for Notion Capital.

This is a model we’re doubling down on. We are using our ability to attract world class talent to Notion Capital, filling specific capability gaps as they grow, and doing so at a fraction of the cost they would pay to employ these people (or outside agencies). A win win.

We call this Beyond Platform. Because, well, it’s beyond a typical platform function.

‍In conclusion

We see these two initiatives The Platform Collective and Beyond Platform as natural evolutions of our capabilities, giving us the ability to communicate our proposition and value more clearly. And most importantly, helping founders considering taking our money to appreciate why they should choose us (or not) and what to expect when they do.