CJ

🇺🇸 New York City

[CJ @BoomerWoman]

Museum leaders gather in Philadelphia, send clear message to those who want to erase Black history https://t.co/eXzQ6gVL5Y via @phillytrib

[EastTexas @JashuwahJackson]

ADOS have always been an inclusive people. We’ve lived alongside and supported other communities for generations without issue. We stood against apartheid in South Africa. And here in the U.S., when a Black immigrant—like Botham Jean or Amadou Diallo—is gunned down or mistreated, we show up in solidarity, no questions asked.
But that solidarity has rarely been reciprocated. The tension surfaces when Black immigrants—and Pan-Africanists more broadly—co-opt our history, piggyback on our justice claim, and attempt to rewrite it as a Diaspora-wide narrative. No better example of this exists than the cultural hijacking of Juneteenth—a day set aside to mark the end of chattel slavery in the United States—which has been rebranded into what I can only call “Summer Kwanzaa.”
#ADOS

[Antonio Moore @tonetalks]

Don’t tell me about @harvard being attacked by @realDonaldTrump. What was done by Harvard to smear #ados and suppress Black political speech was awful. Read for yourself. https://t.co/FlA1uybHln @elonmusk
They still haven’t answered why was Democratic donor group Moveon allowed to financially fund this paper? @nypost @nytimes @washingtonpost @cnn @msnbc
And even moreso why didn’t major media cover the retraction. Particularly when the prior press secretary was the Moveon org spokesperson a month before the paper was started? Then left to join the Biden administration.

[Freedmen Woman @Nemo17246097]

Please sign our petition to disaggregate data for the Black/African American community. This is vital for recognizing and addressing the specific socio-economic challenges faced by this group & ensuring a fairer distribution of resources.

Support disaggregating data for African Americans/Black people in NY State to ensure targeted resources address the specific needs of each community. Recent laws have been passed to disaggregate data for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, & a bill was introduced to do the same for Middle Eastern, North African (MENA) groups. These measures, backed by the Black, Puerto Rican, Asian, and Hispanic Caucus, aim to direct resources where they are most needed.

Freedmen, descendants of enslaved Africans, consistently rank lowest in socio-economic indicators in New York State. To effectively address their unique challenges—rooted in 248 years of history and reinforced by systemic inequities—disaggregated data is crucial. Without it, resources and policies may not reach those most in need.

https://t.co/0Pyi7lmqh8

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

When I cast my vote for President Biden, I wasn't expecting much. I just wanted trump out of office.

I knew he was old.
I knew he had a stutter.
I knew he had a rep for "gaffes."
I didn't care. Just wanted trump gone.

Four years later, things are different.
I wasn't expecting that President Biden would be the most legislatively successful President in my lifetime.

I wasn't expecting him to help expand NATO.
I wasn't expecting him to lower insulin & inhalers.
I wasn't expecting him to create & recover 15m jobs.
I wasn't expecting him to bring manufacturing back.
I wasn't expecting him to forgive student debt.

But he did ALL those things, and more.
He surpassed my expectations by a lot.
And he has more planned for 2025-2028.

He's not a master orator,
He doesn't move so smoothly
But neither did FDR from his wheelchair.

Meanwhile, trump is STILL a threat.
He wants to be a dictator.
He wants to stay out of prison.
He wants revenge on his enemies.
He wants to take away from the poor and middle class and give to the ultra wealthy.
His Project 2025 will enable a national abortion ban to criminalize women seeking safe and legal abortions.
His Project 2025 will take away the rights of our LGBTQ family and friends.
His Project 2025 will transform the government into a loyalty pledge, not to America but to him ALONE.
We might never have another free election.

THAT is what is at stake in this election.

We can continue to progress with Biden policies, or we can let trump destroy democracy as we know it.

If you're looking for someone who's young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

I'll take the old guy who needs a nap while saving democracy over the old guy trying to overthrow democracy who needs a legal team.

[CJ @BoomerWoman]

@jilevin This post reminds me of my father who was born in 1902. He designed and built houses and other buildings. So many stories...

[Pascio @IAmPascio]

The greatest productivity app of ALL TIME...

@NotionHQ

Over the last 9 years, they secured more than 40,000,000+ users.

So I scraped the trenches of the internet to find out HOW they did it.

Here's the history of Notion and the strategy they used to get there:

Some quick stats on Notion if you're unfamiliar:

• Founded just 6 years ago
• Unicorn status after 4 years
• Over 40 million users.
• Over 25 investors
• Over 370 employees
• Over $343 million in funding
• Over $20 billion valuation

So... what can we learn?

First, we need to closely examine the original founder, Ivan Zhao.

A graduate of cognitive science & fine arts, his real devotion was with coding and programming.

After a few years working at Inkling (a software company), he decided to start building his own dream.

Enter Simon Last — the co-founder of Notion — a former software and computer science engineer.

Together, they set out on a mission to build a collaborate tool, during a time where most tools were specialized and for a single purpose.

Their keyword? Disruption.

When people asked them about "Notion", they'd refer to their project as the LEGO of productivity tools.

Their aim: to give non-techies the ability to create and customize their own tools without writing code.

The year was 2013—also known as the birth year of Notion.

And as you might already know, most startup stories aren't sunshine and rainbows.

Having secured multiple angel investments for their idea, they'd started the building phase:

In their first year, they'd grown to 4+ employees in the company and had already secured a minor customer base.

Another year of sleepless nights & hard work went by before shit hit the fan.

And shit did certainly hit the fan when they lived through the nightmare of every developer out there.

They'd come to the realization that they'd built Notion on the wrong tech stack!

Countless crashes and unstable latency had their customers fleeing en masse.

To top it off, their angel investment funding was running out and the motivation of everyone was dwindling.

Like many other business owners, they had a tough decision to make:

"Do we call it quits or do we restructure and keep going?"

You already know what they did. They chose the latter.

But do you know how they came out of the rut with:

- $1 billion valuation?
- 40 million users?
- 350 employees?

I'll tell you:

They reconsidered their entire company structure, fired all four employees and Ivan went to his family to for help.

He borrowed $150,000 from his mother to save the sinking ship.

They also subletted their San Francisco office and moved halfway across the globe to ... JAPAN!

There was multiple reasons for moving there, including:

- Low cost of living
- Free of distractions
- Hard working country

But most importantly...

- They didn't speak the slightest amount of Japanese:

So by positioning themselves in a country where no one spoke English, they made sure to eliminate any social distractions that could arise.

- No after work beers.
- No mingling with the ladies.
- No cultural experiences and vacation.

Just work. Pure, dedicated, hard work.

A year later in 2016, the Notion we know today was born.

The app officially launched in March 2016 for web browsers and OS X, May 2017 for Microsoft Windows, and June 2017 for iOS.

This was the moment when the shit that hit the fan earlier, began to turn into golden feces.

This golden goose was called Notion 1.0 and in their first seed round, they raised an undisclosed amount of funding.

This was also the time, where the community we know today, began to take shape.

The best comparison for what happened next would be this...

Like The Black Plague in the 1200's, Notion spread from word of mouth, like a wildfire.

From the first dedicated users, to the far outskirts our globe.

India, Saudia Arabia, Scandinavia, Korea, Brazil.

Everyone fell for Notion.

The success that Notion had, could also be attributed to their successful Producthunt launch.

They got rated as #1 Product of the Day, Week & Month on @ProductHunt

Get some heavy feelings-infused nostalgia vibes here:

https://t.co/V4BgFBhLTO

It seemed that Notion had found their way.

In March 2018, just 2 years later, they launched Notion 2.0

This launch was even more successful than their last and contributed to a growing amount of users for the platform:

https://t.co/OUD0Dn4bbW

Fast forward a few months - then came the mobile apps for iOS & Android.

They were expanding in all areas — from customers, to revenue, to employees.

In September 2019, they hit a major milestone — 1,000,000 users worldwide.

Now hold on to that number:

They actually quadrupled that number by 400% — IN JUST 8 MONTHS!

This amount of growth HAD to be rewarded.

And it most certainly was.

Notion was now officially a UNICORN — a statistically rare successful business venture.

The long days & sleepless nights had finally paid off.

Investments come pouring in and Notion has now established themselves as market leaders.

Many have tried to replicate Notion, but none have been successful.

But what does the future hold for Notion?

It's hard to say with certainty, because disruptors cannot be calculated.

6 years ago, no one would have thought they could save the sinking ship.

Ivan's mom did though — but hadn't it been for the sheer dedication and willpower of Ivan & Simon, Notion wouldn't have survived.

What does the future hold?

Well, if Notion keeps going at it like they are now, they're set for the moon by 2030.

By 2050, they'll probably hit another galaxy and in 2100, the universe collapses.

Joke aside, let's summarize what we've learned in tweet:

— Setbacks doesn't equal failure
— All you need is a goal & hard work
— Rethink the way you do things (before it's too late!)

If you enjoyed this post, here's 2 things for you to do:

👇

1. Follow me (@iampascio) for more threads like this
2. Share this tweet with your friends by retweeting it

[Yvette Carnell 🇺🇸 @BreakingBrown]

“People of color” is a meaningless term that allows everyone with melanin to shoehorn into the justice claim of #ADOS

But yeah, get read of it. And BIPOC.

[NBC BLK @NBCBLK]

A Maryland woman knew her ancestors had risen from slavery in middle Tennessee.

What she didn't know: a direct descendant of the people who enslaved her ancestors is a U.S. congressman today. https://t.co/ClOeMam9tL

[CJ @BoomerWoman]

@Microsoft has let me down... I can't recover my email account even though I have been getting messages from @Microsoft everyday!!!! at the same number!!! HELP!!!

[Rajat Soni, CFA @Rajatsoni]

Debt is slavery

When you take on debt, someone else is using you to make a profit

Don't take on debt before you understand how it works

Let me explain:

(THREAD 👇)

[President Biden Archived @POTUS46Archive]

Microchips power almost everything in our lives. America invented these chips, but over time, we went from producing nearly 40% of the world’s supply to producing over 10%.

I signed the CHIPS and Science Act so America could lead the way in chip manufacturing again.

[Robert Reed @rreed444]

@BreakingBrown This is why I'm not at all entertained by the temporal argument that suggest it happened a long time ago and no one alive had this done to them. America SHOULD have given these people redress, had every opportunity to, but didn't.

[Yvette Carnell 🇺🇸 @BreakingBrown]

The collective outrage right now should be over this case, not KeKe Palmer & Usher.

If you’re ready to get serious about movement politics, go to https://t.co/KbjWrRasg8.

If not, I hope you have a parachute 🪂 for the economic cliff on the horizon.

[ChristinaProenzaColes @ProenzaColes]

In 1939 attorney Samuel Tucker arranged a sit-in at a VA public library where 5 Black Americans requested library cards - which were denied; they read library books in silence & were arrested. Tucker was “an effective, unrelenting advocate for freedom, equality & human dignity.”

[I AM @andshedid]

Has the United States ever atoned for enslavement of Negroes?

[Natasha S. Alford @NatashaSAlford]

Also, advocate for yourself. Because high-performing low-income students and students of color are *routinely* overlooked for gifted and talented programs. The access gap starts early. There are talent pipelines that create two tracks and two worlds of possibilities for students based on race and other factors.

[Natasha S. Alford @NatashaSAlford]

For any young person who feels defeated by what has happened with Affirmative Action, who has dreams people tell you are too audacious, “unnecessary,” or foreign… dreams no one in your own family may have touched but you can’t shake… please don’t give up.

[PBS News @NewsHour]

The sudden death of Olympic sprinter Tori Bowie sent shockwaves around the world. The idea that a young, elite athlete could go into labor and die stunned many. But the problem is more common than many realize, and its particularly bad for Black women.
https://t.co/Qvxc1E0SI1