"You earn the right to stand the night watch." - @CameronLMcCord Cameron McCord. Founder and CEO of @Nominal_io. Submarine officer turned founder building the software stack for the physical AI era. New episode of @KnuckleUpHQ is live ↓ 00:00 Who is Cameron McCord? 01:34 What did 484 days underwater teach him about leadership? 10:36 How do you "earn the right to stand the night watch"? 16:28 What was so special about Anduril’s culture? 28:39 What is the "power of ambiguity"? 31:29 How does Cameron think about recruiting? 37:39 Can you recruit “killers” who are also low ego? 46:50 What was the broken old way of testing hardware? 50:50 How do you actually crack selling to the government? 55:12 How did Nominal land four of the five largest defense primes? 1:01:33 What does "physical AI" actually mean? 1:18:14 What is Cameron still working on in his inner game? 1:23:22 Quickfire: military movies, leadership books, and a favorite office? 1:25:07 What advice would Cameron give to his 25-year-old self?

"We were go-karting and doing quite well. Now we've moved to Formula 1, and we're in the middle of the pack. We have a shot at the podium but we have to rewire for the race we're in." Akshay Kothari (@akothari). Cofounder and COO of @NotionHQ. Three years from now, most pre-AI companies will be gone. Notion will be one of the few standing stronger than before. This episode is a field study in how they're pulling it off. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 01:27 What were Notion's core founding principles? 06:20 Which early cultural principles scaled, and which broke? 08:22 How did Notion hire its first employees, and where did they come from? 11:48 How does hiring work now that the founders can't meet everyone? 14:35 Why does Akshay, as COO, prefer to have zero direct reports? 19:05 How do Ivan, Simon, and Akshay divide the work? 21:07 Does Notion's intentionality ever conflict with speed? 25:25 What should other founders steal from Notion's culture? 28:11 When did AI become a reason to rethink the whole product? 30:44 Why were the early AI years a "swamp of despair"? 36:05 How do you push AI across a huge product without losing the user? 39:25 Does Notion buy its AI DNA or build it? 40:44 Should Notion be afraid of OpenAI, Anthropic, and fast copycats? 46:58 What's hardest about the reinvention, and what does "meet the LLM" mean? 52:42 Is Notion AI-native in every function yet? 54:36 Are Notion's engineers still writing code, and how has engineering changed? 1:01:07 Once building is cheap, what's the new bottleneck? 1:02:39 How is AI reshaping sales, marketing, and support? 1:09:07 How many agents run inside Notion, and who builds them? 1:11:28 How has recruiting changed for the AI era? 1:13:48 What still worries Akshay about Notion's future? 1:15:22 Quickfire: admired founders, books, overrated AI advice, and Akshay’s superpower 1:19:42 What should a $50M pre-AI company do in the next 90 days?

"We were go-karting and doing quite well. Now we've moved to Formula 1, and we're in the middle of the pack. We have a shot at the podium but we have to rewire for the race we're in." Akshay Kothari (@akothari). Cofounder and COO of @NotionHQ. Three years from now, most pre-AI companies will be gone. Notion will be one of the few standing stronger than before. This episode is a field study in how they're pulling it off. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 01:27 What were Notion's core founding principles? 06:20 Which early cultural principles scaled, and which broke? 08:22 How did Notion hire its first employees, and where did they come from? 11:48 How does hiring work now that the founders can't meet everyone? 14:35 Why does Akshay, as COO, prefer to have zero direct reports? 19:05 How do Ivan, Simon, and Akshay divide the work? 21:07 Does Notion's intentionality ever conflict with speed? 25:25 What should other founders steal from Notion's culture? 28:11 When did AI become a reason to rethink the whole product? 30:44 Why were the early AI years a "swamp of despair"? 36:05 How do you push AI across a huge product without losing the user? 39:25 Does Notion buy its AI DNA or build it? 40:44 Should Notion be afraid of OpenAI, Anthropic, and fast copycats? 46:58 What's hardest about the reinvention, and what does "meet the LLM" mean? 52:42 Is Notion AI-native in every function yet? 54:36 Are Notion's engineers still writing code, and how has engineering changed? 1:01:07 Once building is cheap, what's the new bottleneck? 1:02:39 How is AI reshaping sales, marketing, and support? 1:09:07 How many agents run inside Notion, and who builds them? 1:11:28 How has recruiting changed for the AI era? 1:13:48 What still worries Akshay about Notion's future? 1:15:22 Quickfire: admired founders, books, overrated AI advice, and Akshay’s superpower 1:19:42 What should a $50M pre-AI company do in the next 90 days?

Most seed founders think they have a channel problem. It's almost always a messaging problem. Wrote up my playbook based on time at Ramp and OneSchema: substack.com/@willgenesen/p-…

"We were go-karting and doing quite well. Now we've moved to Formula 1, and we're in the middle of the pack. We have a shot at the podium but we have to rewire for the race we're in." Akshay Kothari (@akothari). Cofounder and COO of @NotionHQ. Three years from now, most pre-AI companies will be gone. Notion will be one of the few standing stronger than before. This episode is a field study in how they're pulling it off. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 01:27 What were Notion's core founding principles? 06:20 Which early cultural principles scaled, and which broke? 08:22 How did Notion hire its first employees, and where did they come from? 11:48 How does hiring work now that the founders can't meet everyone? 14:35 Why does Akshay, as COO, prefer to have zero direct reports? 19:05 How do Ivan, Simon, and Akshay divide the work? 21:07 Does Notion's intentionality ever conflict with speed? 25:25 What should other founders steal from Notion's culture? 28:11 When did AI become a reason to rethink the whole product? 30:44 Why were the early AI years a "swamp of despair"? 36:05 How do you push AI across a huge product without losing the user? 39:25 Does Notion buy its AI DNA or build it? 40:44 Should Notion be afraid of OpenAI, Anthropic, and fast copycats? 46:58 What's hardest about the reinvention, and what does "meet the LLM" mean? 52:42 Is Notion AI-native in every function yet? 54:36 Are Notion's engineers still writing code, and how has engineering changed? 1:01:07 Once building is cheap, what's the new bottleneck? 1:02:39 How is AI reshaping sales, marketing, and support? 1:09:07 How many agents run inside Notion, and who builds them? 1:11:28 How has recruiting changed for the AI era? 1:13:48 What still worries Akshay about Notion's future? 1:15:22 Quickfire: admired founders, books, overrated AI advice, and Akshay’s superpower 1:19:42 What should a $50M pre-AI company do in the next 90 days?

"We were go-karting and doing quite well. Now we've moved to Formula 1, and we're in the middle of the pack. We have a shot at the podium but we have to rewire for the race we're in." Akshay Kothari (@akothari). Cofounder and COO of @NotionHQ. Three years from now, most pre-AI companies will be gone. Notion will be one of the few standing stronger than before. This episode is a field study in how they're pulling it off. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 01:27 What were Notion's core founding principles? 06:20 Which early cultural principles scaled, and which broke? 08:22 How did Notion hire its first employees, and where did they come from? 11:48 How does hiring work now that the founders can't meet everyone? 14:35 Why does Akshay, as COO, prefer to have zero direct reports? 19:05 How do Ivan, Simon, and Akshay divide the work? 21:07 Does Notion's intentionality ever conflict with speed? 25:25 What should other founders steal from Notion's culture? 28:11 When did AI become a reason to rethink the whole product? 30:44 Why were the early AI years a "swamp of despair"? 36:05 How do you push AI across a huge product without losing the user? 39:25 Does Notion buy its AI DNA or build it? 40:44 Should Notion be afraid of OpenAI, Anthropic, and fast copycats? 46:58 What's hardest about the reinvention, and what does "meet the LLM" mean? 52:42 Is Notion AI-native in every function yet? 54:36 Are Notion's engineers still writing code, and how has engineering changed? 1:01:07 Once building is cheap, what's the new bottleneck? 1:02:39 How is AI reshaping sales, marketing, and support? 1:09:07 How many agents run inside Notion, and who builds them? 1:11:28 How has recruiting changed for the AI era? 1:13:48 What still worries Akshay about Notion's future? 1:15:22 Quickfire: admired founders, books, overrated AI advice, and Akshay’s superpower 1:19:42 What should a $50M pre-AI company do in the next 90 days?

"The pace of building has changed so quickly with AI. You have to give somewhere. And we gave for speed." @AshwinSreenivas. Co-founder & President of @DecagonAI. You'd be hard pressed to find another startup moving as ferociously as this one. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 02:10 How did Jesse and Ashwin decide what to work on at Decagon? 04:19 Why did they reject the top-down market-sizing approach? 13:16 What does Decagon give up to keep moving fast? 17:54 6 days in-office for founders, 5 for everyone else. 23:33 Why didn't Decagon hire a single employee until $1M in ARR? 27:12 How do you hire 450 people in three years without compromising quality? 31:20 Are Decagon engineers even writing code anymore? 35:08 How does the IC engineer role change with Claude Code and Cursor? 36:32 How does EPD leadership change in the AI era? 40:15 Two types of FDE, and which one do most AI companies actually need? 49:21 How will the human role at Decagon evolve over three years? 57:15 Why is Decagon building its own models with Decagon Labs? 1:00:50 What worries Ashwin most about Decagon today? 1:03:52 How does Ashwin manage his psyche while running this fast? 1:08:00 Hiccups in the startup journey. 1:09:50 Quickfire: overrated advice, AI products, books, red flags 1:12:43 What would Ashwin tell his younger self about Decagon's journey?

"The pace of building has changed so quickly with AI. You have to give somewhere. And we gave for speed." @AshwinSreenivas. Co-founder & President of @DecagonAI. You'd be hard pressed to find another startup moving as ferociously as this one. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 02:10 How did Jesse and Ashwin decide what to work on at Decagon? 04:19 Why did they reject the top-down market-sizing approach? 13:16 What does Decagon give up to keep moving fast? 17:54 6 days in-office for founders, 5 for everyone else. 23:33 Why didn't Decagon hire a single employee until $1M in ARR? 27:12 How do you hire 450 people in three years without compromising quality? 31:20 Are Decagon engineers even writing code anymore? 35:08 How does the IC engineer role change with Claude Code and Cursor? 36:32 How does EPD leadership change in the AI era? 40:15 Two types of FDE, and which one do most AI companies actually need? 49:21 How will the human role at Decagon evolve over three years? 57:15 Why is Decagon building its own models with Decagon Labs? 1:00:50 What worries Ashwin most about Decagon today? 1:03:52 How does Ashwin manage his psyche while running this fast? 1:08:00 Hiccups in the startup journey. 1:09:50 Quickfire: overrated advice, AI products, books, red flags 1:12:43 What would Ashwin tell his younger self about Decagon's journey?

"The pace of building has changed so quickly with AI. You have to give somewhere. And we gave for speed." @AshwinSreenivas. Co-founder & President of @DecagonAI. You'd be hard pressed to find another startup moving as ferociously as this one. Knuckle Up ↓ 00:00 Intro 02:10 How did Jesse and Ashwin decide what to work on at Decagon? 04:19 Why did they reject the top-down market-sizing approach? 13:16 What does Decagon give up to keep moving fast? 17:54 6 days in-office for founders, 5 for everyone else. 23:33 Why didn't Decagon hire a single employee until $1M in ARR? 27:12 How do you hire 450 people in three years without compromising quality? 31:20 Are Decagon engineers even writing code anymore? 35:08 How does the IC engineer role change with Claude Code and Cursor? 36:32 How does EPD leadership change in the AI era? 40:15 Two types of FDE, and which one do most AI companies actually need? 49:21 How will the human role at Decagon evolve over three years? 57:15 Why is Decagon building its own models with Decagon Labs? 1:00:50 What worries Ashwin most about Decagon today? 1:03:52 How does Ashwin manage his psyche while running this fast? 1:08:00 Hiccups in the startup journey. 1:09:50 Quickfire: overrated advice, AI products, books, red flags 1:12:43 What would Ashwin tell his younger self about Decagon's journey?