How Notion Went from Near Death to a $10B Productivity Powerhouse

The Origin: A Design Tool, Not a Note App

When Ivan Zhao started Notion in 2013, he wasn’t trying to build another note-taking app. His dream was bigger: to give non-coders the power to build software, the way developers use code, creatives use Figma, and writers use Google Docs.

It started as a tool for building tools. A customizable interface where blocks could turn into anything: a checklist, a database, a doc. But the early product was clunky. Worse, the tech stack was slow. By 2015, they were running out of money.

With just a few months of runway, the team laid off most employees and moved to Kyoto to cut burn.

From Kyoto with Code

In Kyoto, Ivan and cofounder Simon Last rebuilt Notion from scratch. They dropped the old tech stack and rewrote everything in React. The product was rebuilt not for investors, but for users.

In 2016, Notion 1.0 launched quietly on Product Hunt. It was still early. But it had something magical, block-based editing, offline-first performance, and the ability to build your own workspace.

Early fans? Designers, writers, startup founders, anyone frustrated by juggling Google Docs, Trello, and Evernote.

Product-Led Growth, No Hype Needed

Notion had no sales team. No flashy launch. Just great UX and word-of-mouth.

People loved it. And they started talking about it. Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Notion became a viral product because it was useful.

By 2018:

• Notion had over 1M users.

• The team was just 10 people.

• Revenue was doubling every quarter.

In 2020, the pandemic made remote work the default. Notion became the new digital HQ.

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A Product That Became a Platform

What made Notion different?

Blocks. Each piece of content, a line, a heading, a task, was a block. And blocks could be nested, linked, dragged, duplicated. This structure made it endlessly flexible.

Community. Users weren’t just using Notion, they were sharing templates, building guides, hosting YouTube tutorials. A whole creator ecosystem emerged.

Modularity. Notion wasn’t “one tool to rule them all.” It let users build their own tools. Personal CRM, habit tracker, OKR planner, all inside Notion.

The Fundraising Flip

For years, Notion turned down VC money. Ivan believed in independence.

But in 2020, they raised $50M from Index Ventures and others, at a $2B valuation. In 2021, another round followed, valuing Notion at $10B.

The reason? Growth had exploded. Teams were replacing Confluence, Asana, and Google Docs with Notion.

Building the Second Brain for Work

Today, Notion serves millions of users and thousands of teams, from startups to Fortune 500s.

The product is no longer just a note-taking tool. It’s becoming the operating system for knowledge work.

Final Thoughts

Notion didn’t win by shouting louder. It won by building slower, better, and with more care. From a near-shutdown in 2015 to a $10B valuation in 2023, it’s a masterclass in product-led growth.

Ivan’s dream, to give everyone the tools to build tools, is coming true.

One block at a time.

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