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Comment by talentedcoin | Hacker News Reader

Why is notion the tool all the cool kids seems to like for this stuff? (Serious question)

You can send a text email. But that’s not “professional” enough because it’s not about the text, it’s about presenting it.

So you can make a portal (ie: website behind auth) where you investors login to view their investors dashboard and update it regularly.

But that’s a lot of work and you barely have anyone in your “tech startup” that can setup such a thing.

Notion helps here because you can add all the gadgets you want but you don’t need to setup/host/code a website yourself.

you can’t make revisions to an email

I really like Notion and use it for many scenario. However, I'd be very careful of not having your own format and/of the content that you should be able to walk out without much pain.

I have heard of some people who have moved bag and baggage to Notion to even replace the likes of Dropbox and Google Drive. I'd be extra careful of being so tied to something you can't switch easily or walk out to another platform/tool.

Please do keep in mind how Evernote went from a plan of a 100-year note-taking to "what went wrong with that company".

Notion has pretty extensive export options and the relatively new API is another way to get your data out.

Do you have any concerns with either of these options? Genuine question - one reason I chose Notion was the ability to get my data out if I needed to.

I agree that Notion isn’t and shouldn’t be used as a replacement for Dropbox or other file sync services.

The ease with which data can be extracted is subject to change. It changed negatively with Evernote when they limited at 50 the number of notes that could be exported at once. This made it very hard to do for any reasonably-sized database. Fortunately there was a workaround which involved editing a config file but this was likely not something an average non-technical user would discover or be comfortable doing.

It’s a nice mixture of text editor, wiki and low code app builder.

Plus, it communicates to investors, candidates and other outsiders that “we’re smart but too busy doing the important things to optimize our docs system.”

Five years ago Notion wouldn’t have communicated that, but it’s easier to reach for now so doesn’t signal too much thought about which tool. If that makes any sense.

Presumably because they are all investors in Notion.

Just a guess, but I assume it's because of attractive UI/UX.

Notion templates, and general interface, guides people into presenting information in a fashion that doesn't follow the utilitarian manner and standard practices of business centric software like Microsoft Office.

Also, there's been a trend to "back to the basics" in information dissemination lately. Newsletters and static site generators have been making a comeback. In design, boutique firm architects I've spoken to have told me they've been moving away from fancy auto CAD renditions of projects to hand made watercolors and sketches. This unique approach has allowed them to bag contracts from under larger firms. In a way it mirrors the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century as a reaction to industrialization.

Because investors value their time very highly and using a single platform makes it easier for them to aggregate data and stack-rank the companies.

Marketing?

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