By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
TechziTechziTechzi
  • Home
  • Community
    • Our Review
    • Join Our Slack community
    • Referral: Richieee
    • Referral: 6 for 6
  • Publications
    • Special Report: SE Asian Startup Funding
    • Top 30 Most Funded Southeast Asia Startups
  • Agencies
  • About
    • About us
    • Contact
Search
© 2023 Techzi . All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Adriane Schwager Shares How Notion Bounced Back From Near-Death to $10 Billion Valuation
Share
Font ResizerAa
TechziTechzi
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • Home
  • Community
    • Our Review
    • Join Our Slack community
    • Referral: Richieee
    • Referral: 6 for 6
  • Publications
    • Special Report: SE Asian Startup Funding
    • Top 30 Most Funded Southeast Asia Startups
  • Agencies
  • About
    • About us
    • Contact
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
© 2023 Techzi . All Rights Reserved.
Strategy

Adriane Schwager Shares How Notion Bounced Back From Near-Death to $10 Billion Valuation

Adriane Schwager
Last updated: February 12, 2024 1:28 pm
Adriane Schwager
Share
4 Min Read
SHARE
Adriane is the Cofounder and CEO of GrowthAssistant.com.
Guest Author: Adriane Schwager

In 2015, Notion almost died. The founders moved from SF to Kyoto, Japan so they could build in peace.

Last year, they did $119.4M in revenue. And hit $10 BILLION in valuation. How? Two things:

1. Focused Product

2. Community-led growth

Bookmark this one, Ivan Zhao and Simon Last started Notion in 2013 with the vision to give non-technical users the ability to make their own tools without writing code.

It did well, and they expanded the vision: all-in-one workspace for entrepreneurs. The launched the beta in 2015. And it imploded. No users, bad feedback, and it constantly crashed.

Plus they were running out of money. So Ivan and Simon laid off the few employees they had, left their SF office, and moved to Kyoto, Japan. “No one there spoke any English, and we didn’t speak Japanese. There was nothing to do except code.”

They stayed focused on their original mission: no-code tools for non-technical founders to build their businesses. And they built it obsessively: both in the weeds of every piece of code and every design decision. By 2018, they were ready to launch.

Notion 1.0 came out that year. And it exploded. Users loved the UX, convenience, and thoughtfulness that went into the product. Some even called it “a milestone in the history of UX design.”

Just look at how simple the home screen is. Hiding behind is a very powerful tool you can run a business using. And they keep iterating, but with the same core in mind. In the last 5 years, they’ve gone viral. Everyone uses Notion. But there’s one more part of the story: community-led growth.

Early on, they’d see users post on Twitter and Reddit about how they were setting up their workspaces and different things one could do with Notion. Camille, Notion’s Head of Marketing, noticed this and went all-in. She hired Ben Long to head the community, and they launched V1 of their ambassador program. It was a super-hit.

Users passionate for the product got a real way to do something about it. And Notion was the kind of product MANY users were passionate about. r/Notion, started by ambassadors now has 300k+ members, and those ambassadors still manage this subreddit.

They kept going: Champions Program, Campus Leaders, Location-based groups, interest-based groups, and more. Then Notion hit the holy grail: Viral User-Generated Content TikToks started exploding with people demo-ing their workspaces, their notes and to-do systems, and massive YouTubers got in on the Notion train.

People began building businesses out of selling Notion templates! It turned into a virtuous cycle that keeps spinning faster.

And Notion keeps growing. 30% + growth on a base of 35 million users!

What a business. What a team.

Check out the original tweet here.

TAGGED:div5

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Share This Article
Facebook X Copy Link Print
Share
Previous Article Indian Video Commerce Startup Swirl Bags $1.1M to Scale AI Offerings
Next Article LinkedIn Adds “Catch Up” Feature to Prompt More User Outreach

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
=

Stay Connected

XFollow
InstagramFollow
YoutubeSubscribe
TiktokFollow

Latest News

Techzi is Pausing
Media December 24, 2024
Twitch Pioneer Emmett Shear Launches Mysterious AI Venture
AI December 24, 2024
OpenAI CEO Labels Musk a ‘Bully’ in Latest Tech Titan Clash
AI December 24, 2024
AI Revolution Could Spark Live Entertainment Boom
Culture December 24, 2024

You Might also Like

AI

Oracle Empowers 10,000 Singaporeans with Free AI Training

April 19, 2024
Health-TechVC

Richieee Takes a Deep Dive on Impress Health

February 28, 2024
AIStartups

Airbnb Aims to Build “Ultimate Concierge” with AI

February 19, 2024
AI

Quora Raises $75M To Power AI Chat Platform Poe And Its Creator Economy

February 17, 2024
AISaaS

Anduril Founder: AI Could Have Prevented Putin’s Ukraine Invasion

May 28, 2024
AI

Silicon Valley Heavyweights Target AI Content Moderation Under Trump

December 21, 2024
Startups

UnaBiz Secures $25M in Pre-Series C: IoT Solutions Get a Power-Up

August 19, 2024
MobilityVC

VinFast Breaks Ground on $500 Million EV Factory in India

February 27, 2024
StartupsVC

Mezzofy Secures $2M in Pre-Series A Funding for Global Expansion

June 12, 2024
AI

AI Godfather Advocates Universal Basic Income Amid Job Loss Concerns

May 28, 2024
Social Media

Leaked Images Reveal Musk’s Grok Chatbot Coming to Twitter’s Paid Tier

February 12, 2024
AIHardware

OpenAI Charts New Course in Chip Development for 2026

November 4, 2024

Techzi

SE Asian tech news: Free & Comprehensive. Read more

Quick Links

  • Logistics
  • Marketplace
  • Mobility
  • Startups
  • VC
  • Food tech
  • Gaming
  • Health-Tech
  • Media
  • Social Media
  • SaaS
  • Travel

Quick Links

  • AI
  • Edutech
  • Climate
  • Creators
  • Crypto & Web3
  • Culture
  • Deep Tech
  • e-Commerce
  • FAANG
  • Fashion
  • Fintech

Techzi Tech Newsletter

FREE and Curated by Tech Insiders

Legal

Privacy Policy

Terms & conditions

TechziTechzi
Follow US
© 2024 Techzi . All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?