Notion has hit 100M users and thereâs much to love in the email that Ivan Zhao, the founder, sent to celebrate the milestone.
In our early years, we were rather lost. ⌠We had no business sense, struggled with building a horizontal tool. Notion almost died. (Thanks for the bridge, mom!)
AndâŚ
Notion is built on the 70sâ vision that software can âaugment human intellectâ. ⌠The world needs a âLEGOs for softwareâ and Notion is here to build that! With our LEGOs, a community of non-programmers can sell âsoftwareâ built on Notion (some made $1M in 2023!) We dreamed of this in the original pitch deck, but I wasnât sure it would come true. Itâs gradually coming together, though instead of 15 months like we imagined in our original pitch deck, it took us 10 years đ
AndâŚ
As with our mission, our love for craft hasnât changed. We tried 30 shades of warm white paints for our office wall. We couldnât find merch we love, so we made our own work jackets. We care about craft & beauty, and we want to bring them to this world.
What I love about Notion is that is both highly opinionated and internally consistent. Once you understand how Notion works, how those LEGOs fit together, the light bulb goes off about (a) what you can do with the tool, and (b) where your contraints are. (You can do a lot with LEGOs, but not everything.) I think Notion is one of the more interesting products to come out of âthe Valleyâ in the last decade, and Ivanâs email was a nice peek into the culture driving the company. More like this, please.