Akshay D. Kothari
Notion
For his enterprising achievements in developing a news-reader interface app redefining how viewers on social media access content that became one of the fastest growing consumer products inside the LinkedIn platform.
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Notion
For his enterprising achievements in developing a news-reader interface app redefining how viewers on social media access content that became one of the fastest growing consumer products inside the LinkedIn platform.
Dream high but stay grounded.
— Abraham Lincoln
Career Highlights
| 2018-present | Chief Operating Officer, Notion |
|---|---|
| 2018 (8 months) | Vice President – Product and Head of International, LinkedIn |
| 2016-2018 | Head, LinkedIn India |
| 2013-2016 | Principal Product Manager, LinkedIn |
| 2010-2013 | Co-Founder; Chief Executive Officer, Pulse News |
| 2007-2008 | Investment Analyst, SDL Ventures |
| 2007 | BS Electrical Engineering, Purdue University |
| 2010 | MS Electrical Engineering, Stanford University |
Biography
Tinkering can result in a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Akshay Kothari is proof of that.
Kothari, and a fellow engineer, tinkered their way to inventing the Pulse News app — an app providing users easy access to their favorite news, blogs and social networks, all in one place. Within three years, the app garnered 30 million users. Pulse was named to Apple’s App Store Hall of Fame and given the Apple Design Award, chosen as an Android Editor’s Choice app, and selected as one of TIME’s Top 50 iPhone apps of 2011.
In 2013, LinkedIn acquired Pulse News and Kothari went to work integrating the app’s content into the LinkedIn product. Pulse soon became one of LinkedIn’s fastest growing consumer products.
Kothari is quick to point out that the success came as a bit of a surprise. “We were playing around with building a lot of mobile apps that didn’t work out and then Pulse just happened to be one that took off,” he recalls. “As I look back, Pulse was never meant to be a $100 million company. It was just meant to be a fun news app that helped gather and read news. We didn’t realize that 30 million other people had the same need.”
Many years later, Kothari says the Apple Design Award remains a highlight of his career because of an auspicious encounter: “Meeting Steve Jobs, in 2011, was probably my professional peak. He talked about the Pulse app in his 2010 keynote without even knowing us, so I think he played a big role in making this fun app into a little company.”
Kothari says he gained much more than academic knowledge during his undergraduate years at Purdue. “Purdue has incredible academic programs, but it also has these amazing labs and it’s very entrepreneurial. There were so many other things that happened around the core program. There was the research that we did, but also, I was part of the homecoming king celebration. I had so many amazing experiences that made me much more confident in the professional world.”
Today, after nearly six years with LinkedIn, Kothari is now the Chief Operating Officer for Notion. Notion software provides project-management components including databases, Kanban boards, wikis, calendars, etc.
With 11 years of successful professional perspective to reflect on since graduating from Purdue, Kothari offers practical advice for students dreaming of similar success: “Keep building things. Tinker. Tinker with circuits, software and craft. Do things with your hands. That will serve you well. A lot of things in my life started as side projects or hobbies and then they became real companies that were worth a lot of money.”