Notion + Gradient

Last week, Gradient Ventures General Partner Darian Shirazi held a fireside chat with Ivan Zhao, CEO of Notion, as a part of NY Tech Week.

It was a great example of how companies can leverage investment firm partnerships to strengthen brand awareness within a portfolio.

First, let’s take a minute to get clear on the players here:

Notion

• Growth-stage collaborative platform.

• Embedded AI into its product over a year ago.

• Startups have been some of Notion's best early customers.

Gradient Ventures

• Google's seed stage AI fund.

• Mural, FlutterFlow, and ŌURA are in their portfolio.

• Around 85 active investments.

Event Purpose: Signaling

Notion has prioritized word-of-mouth over paid marketing since their founding. If you’ve ever seen a staff member’s “headshot” or a template guru on YouTube, you know how far down the path they are with this.

CEO time is a precious resource. Making sure your CXOs are in the right place at the right time to share your message is an integral part of Investor GTM.

Notion made time for their CEO to visit with the Gradient’s General Partner at one of the summer’s biggest tech events.

They did this to signal a few messages to Gradient’s portcos and anyone else watching:

 (1) “Our founder is just like you.”

 (2) “We are AI-forward and savvy to the needs of startups.”

 (3) “We plan to lead the AI wave in workflow apps for the foreseeable future.”

We can imagine an adjacent set of signals being sent by Gradient.

The Result

Ultimately, we have a microcosm of Investor GTM with an event where a software company and a VC are coming together to flex their brands.

The impact of carefully arranged events like these adds up—especially if part of a broader strategy. And as it does, Notion will continue to strengthen their brand and pipeline.

This event implies a selective, savvy approach to investor engagement by the Notion GTM team—kudos to them for this result.