Entrepreneur Talks by STATION F

Ivan Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of Notion, the all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. Entrepreneurs rave about it, VCs chase after it, and we simply cannot stop hearing about it.

Notion bundles multiple use cases into one tool and helps teams cut down on their number of applications used. For many users, Notion sparks inner joy — it appeals to the Marie Kondo in all of us, helping us clear out the clutter and organize efficient workflows.

On top of being a product that people love to use, Notion is also a company that entrepreneurs admire, especially in the SaaS space. At the beginning of COVID, it hit a $2 billion valuation after raising a $50 million round — with a relatively small team of 40 people. Notion’s approach to company-building has since been distinguished with two main elements: its lean team and its conscientious attitude towards VC funding.

In this episode, we learn more about the Notion journey — where it comes from and where it's going — with its founder, Ivan Zhao.

Topics:

00:22 — Introduction with Roxanne Varza

01:03 — Ivan Zhao on the market need for Notion

02:13 — Notion’s mission to empower people to create their own tools

03:16 — The 4 main use cases of Notion

03:58 — How Notion built a product that people love so much

05:48 — When Notion exploded in 2018

06:43 — Notion’s approach to building a company: fundraising and team size

09:20 — Raising $50 million at $2B valuation during COVID

11:08 — New offices in Europe and Japan

11:33 — Notion API launch in April

12:02 — New languages, including French!

13:06 — Interesting alternative use cases for Notion 🍳🐉🤓

15:08 — Tools that Notion can replace

16:18 — Ivan on tools that he finds exciting: Figma

16:55 — Bundling vs. unbundling strategy for building product

17:30 — Ivan’s advice for early-stage entrepreneurs

This episode is hosted by Roxanne Varza and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the latest episode of Entrepreneur Talks, STATION F's podcast. We had the chance to sit down with Frédéric Montagnon, Founder & Chairman of Arianee. He created 7 companies, exited 5 of them, killed one, and invested in more than 150 startups.

Arianee is on a mission to empower brands and owners to give digital life to products, experiences, or communities through NFTs. Last year, they issued more than 1M NFTs.

Tune in to this new episode to learn about his journey so far as an entrepreneur and investor, why he believes Web3 is the solution to data sovereignty, and why founders should now seek for the Environment-Market fit rather than Product-Market fit.

Topics

01:00 to 04:00 — Introduction and presentation of Fred by ChatGPt and himself

04:00 to 09:00 — His background and why Web3 with Arianee

09:00 to 12:00 — Why did he become an entrepreneur, only 2 years after graduation?

12:00 to 15:00 — His strength: at the intersection of Tech and Business

15:00 to 19:00 — His failures and learnings as an entrepreneur

19:00 to 24:30 — The "environment-market fit"

24:30 to 29:00 — How did you become an expert in Web3?

29:00 to 31:00 — The beauty of open source

31:00 to 35:00 — The pain: digital sovereignty

35:00 to 37:00 — His views on Twitter acquired by Elon Musk

37:00 to 42:00 — Arianee's solutions and the future of data ownership

43:00 to 45:00 — Arianee’s KPIs and its clients

45:00 to 47:00 — Business Angel: why and how to invest in 150 startups?

47:00 to 49:00 — Is he a philanthropist?

49:00 to 52:00 — Outro questions: his unpopular opinion about Web3? Best quality trait of an entrepreneur? The company he would build tomorrow?

If you have enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a rating and a review!

This episode is hosted by Yacine Sqalli, and produced with STATION F.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, agriculture is among the greatest contributors to global warming, emitting more greenhouse gases than the transportation industry, with methane released from cattle rearing largely responsible. Yet, by 2050, food production needs to increase by 70% to respond to population growth. This discrepancy means that we are in dire need of a new food system that will not overwhelm the planet despite our growing demand for food.

In this episode, we tackle the future of food with Antoine Hubert (co-founder & CEO of Ÿnsect), Ying Shao (co-founder & CEO of Plantik Biosciences), and Daan Luining (co-founder & CTO of Meatable). We discover the new breeding technologies for plants and meats that Ying and Daan are respectively developing. We learn about insects as an alternative source of protein with Antoine and dive into the most interesting innovations in food today.

Topics:

[00:22] — Introduction with Roxanne Varza

[01:22] — Ying on what cannabis has to do with the future of food

[02:53] — Ying on what Plantik does with cannabis

[03:54] — Daan on Meatable’s lab-grown meat

[05:02] — How does Meatable’s technology work

[05:56] — How does Meatable compare to other alternative meats on the market

[07:25] — Ying on the importance of producing crops differently today to respond to food scarcity

[08:45] — Daan on the environmental footprint of traditional cattle production

[10:47] — Company stage and product timeline for Meatable

[12:35] — Company stage for Plantik Biosciences

[13:35] — Ying on consumer attitudes around cannabis and gene editing

[16:25] — Daan on consumer attitudes towards cultured meat

[18:48] — The perspective from animal activists

[20:47] — On regulations: working with low THC vs. high THC plants, gene editing techniques, food in general

[25:09] — Meatable starting the first European trade association for cellular agriculture

[25:52] — Other innovations in the food space and other opportunities left to be addressed

[30:23] — Introduction of Antoine

[30:42] — Antoine on why Ÿnsect grows insects for animal feed rather than human consumption

[32:05] — Why what animals eat matters

[33:33] — Doing more with less: on vertical farming

[34:04] — Antoine’s background: from agricultural engineering to starting his own NGO to raise awareness around food waste before starting Ÿnsect

[35:35] — How the idea of Ÿnsect came about

[36:50] — On the research that goes into Ÿnsect

[39:44] — Going through food regulations

[41:05] — Ÿnsect’ product vs. traditional fishmeal

[41:53] — The commercial side of Ÿnsect

[42:48] — Production, company, and market evolutions since the beginning

[44:25] — On Ÿnsect's $372M Series C with Astanor Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, and many more from around the world

[47:07] — Algae, biotech, and other technological developments in the food space

[47:42] — On the importance of fighting food waste and changing consumer behaviour

[51:41] — In 2050, how will we be eating?

STATION F: The Podcast is hosted by Roxanne Varza, and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

VCs say they’re open for business during COVID but what does that mean? In this episode, we get an overview of the impact of coronavirus on VC activity with some investors in the STATION F community: Caye Hurtado (Principal at Balderton), Fred Destin (Founding Partner at Stride.VC), and Hussein Kanji (Partner at Hoxton Ventures). We dive into key questions around: investing during confinement, updates on deal flow, new investment opportunities, and tactics for remote investing.

STATION F: The Podcast is hosted by Roxanne Varza, and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jamie Macfarlane is the founder & CEO of Creator Fund, an early-stage VC fund that invests in student-led companies with student investment partners.

Having studied both in the UK and in the USA, he started Creator Fund based on the observation that some of the world's most successful technology companies —like Facebook and Google— have been started in the dorm rooms and laboratories of American universities. Europe has universities of equal caliber but these have not yet managed to spin out as many tech champions. With the Creator Fund, Jamie hopes to support more student-led innovation and the creation of tech-driven companies across the continent. To do so, he has also designed a very unique student-focused model.

In this episode, we talk to Jamie to learn more about how their model works, what are some of the most exciting companies currently being built in universities across Europe, and what Europe can do to encourage more DeepTech companies.

Topics:

00:23 — Introduction with Cindy Yang

01:07 — How Jamie first started investing in students

02:29 — Creator Fund's investment model (and its secret sauce 🌶)

03:50 — How they recruit their student investment partners

05:02 — Why they're not called "ambassadors" or "scouts"

07:16 — The difference between investing in students in the US vs. in Europe

08:20 — What Creator Fund looks for in companies

12:16 — The advantage of getting investment from Creator Fund: talent network and follow-on investment

15:34 — The ideal founding team and the example of Touchlab

19:56 — Trends and companies that Jamie is excited about: Baseimmune and RecyclEye

23:44 — The technology behind vaccine company Baseimmune

28:10 — The limits to Creator Fund's investment model

31:44 — How IP works in universities

33:16 — What Europe can do to encourage more DeepTech companies

37:00 — Jamie's piece of advice for student entrepreneurs

This episode is hosted and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.