First Block: Interview with Ant Wilson, Co-Founder and CTO of Supabase
Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders from the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey—and what they learned from that experience.In this episode, we spoke with Ant Wilson, Co-Founder and CTO of Supabase. Supabase is the Postgres development platform that has become one of the world’s fastest growing open source communities.Ant shares his journey about previous founder experiences, the power of solving your own problem, and why building authentic relationships with your community matters.Chapters:00:00 Intro02:56 Supabase Explained07:04 The Positioning Shift09:25 Memes & Marketing13:08 Scaling the Community15:09 Winning Enterprises17:09 Remote-First Culture22:49 AI in Action26:10 Advice BlockFor video, transcripts, and custom Notion Mercor templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/aow225To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/cwep6x
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First Block: Interview with Brendan Foody, Co-Founder & CEO of Mercor
Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders from the world's leading companies tell us about the many "firsts" of their startup journeys. We explore the ups and downs that founders face as they build, and what they've learned along the way.In this episode, we spoke with Brendan Foody, Co-founder and CEO of Mercor. Mercor is an AI-powered recruiting platform that scaled from $1 million to $100 million in revenue run rate in just 11 months, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley.Brendan shares his journey from selling donuts in eighth grade to building automated hiring solutions, the decision to drop out of college, and how he positioned himself perfectly for the AI talent revolution.For video, transcripts, and custom Notion Mercor templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/cbc8mpTo learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/271hmwChapters:00:00 Intro03:39 Mercor by the Numbers05:36 Obsession Over Discipline08:39 Fundraising as Input10:59 Scaling Self & Culture13:40 Automating Manual Processes17:40 Finding the Right Market21:08 Staying Long-Term Oriented22:58 The Tool Stack25:22 Advice Block
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First Block: Interview with Varun Anand, Co-Founder of Clay
Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders from the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience.In this episode, we spoke with Varun Anand, Co-founder of Clay, one of the most exciting companies at the intersection of GTM and AI that’s redefining what modern go-to-market looks like.Varun shares insights on the journey to finding product-market fit, how Clay went from horizontal spreadsheet tool to specialized go-to-market platform, and why following your curiosity matters more than traditional startup wisdom.For video, transcripts, and custom Notion Clay templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/7i8hzvTo learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/udg5vzTimestamps00:00 Intro01:20 Finding PMF07:48 Reverse Demo Strategy10:50 Scaling with Intent16:04 Reinventing Sales Roles19:58 Hiring for Potential21:48 Clay's Operating Culture23:56 AI Pressure25:37 Advice Block
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First Block: Interview with Michael Truell, Co-Founder & CEO of Cursor
Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders from the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience.In this episode, we spoke with Michael Truell, Co-founder and CEO of Cursor, an AI code editor that has gone from side project to one of the fastest-growing AI tools in the developer world in under a year. Michael shares why they started with a solution in search of a problem, ignored conventional advice, and focused obsessively on product over everything else. From a 4-person founding team to hiring just one person every few months, their unorthodox path laid the foundation for breakout growth.For video, transcripts, and custom Notion Cursor templates, please visit: https://ntn.so/2yr1lwTo learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/9ipiekTimestamps00:00: Intro02:18: The original spark and false start in mechanical engineering05:53: The pivot moment to developer tools06:45: The decision to fork VS Code08:45: Building AI-native coding tools and the balance between speed and control12:24: Cursor's explosive growth trajectory13:41: Early mistakes and lessons learned14:16: Hiring philosophy and building the first team17:08: Internal tools and operational philosophy19:01: Maintaining focus in a hyper-fast environment20:53: Advice for founders building in the AI era
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First Block: Interview with Ivan Zhao and Simon Last, Co-Founders of Notion
Full video episode here: https://youtu.be/ZMrjvxCIPpY
To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/rmCdsK
First Block, a Notion series - hosted by Notion's Co-Founder Akshay Kothari - where founders and executives from some of the world’s leading companies tell us what it was like to navigate the many firsts of their startup journey — and what they learned from that experience.
In this episode, Akshay sits down with Notion co-founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last to talk about everything Notion — where we started, how we got where we are now, and where we’re headed.
Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:06 The Founding Story
04:55 The Early Days
11:43 Reaching Product-Market-Fit
17:53 Building a Lean Team
19:58 Building for All: The Tradeoffs
27:09 Creating a Global Community
30:19 Scaling Company Culture
37:13 The Future of AI
44:32 A Day in the Life of Ivan Zhao and Simon Last
Candid conversations with the people shaping the world of technology — from pioneers of computer history to founders at the world’s leading startups. For more information, visit: https://www.notion.so/blog/topic/first-block
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