In 2015, Notion was on life assist. The startup, based by Ivan Zhao and Simon Last, had spent three years and most of its funding attempting to construct a software they thought folks needed. They had a tiny staff of 4 workers, a codebase that wasn’t working, and a consumer base that wasn’t exhibiting up. It was the form of scenario that normally ends with a quiet shutdown and a “lessons learned” weblog put up.
Instead, the founders decided that appeared suicidal to most startups: they fired your entire staff, scrapped their product, and left San Francisco fully. Their vacation spot wasn’t a shiny tech hub however Kyoto, Japan. The transfer wasn’t about inspiration—it was about survival. Kyoto value lower than half of San Francisco, and with their financial institution accounts virtually empty, each dollar counted.
Life in a Two-Story Coding Cave
In Kyoto, their life grew to become monastic. Ivan and Simon rented a small two-story home and spent 18 hours a day coding, dwelling on on the spot noodles, and infrequently stepping outdoors. They didn’t even trouble with chores or actual meals. Ivan couldn’t learn Japanese menus, so he guessed his orders utilizing Chinese characters—“beef” or “chicken” have been his protected bets.
They weren’t constructing an organization at this level; they have been combating for its life. Ivan later recalled, “We were just, code, code, code.” It was on this isolation that they realized why their first model had failed: they misunderstood human conduct.
The Insight That Changed Everything
The first Notion had been bold—it allowed folks to construct customized apps—however hardly anybody used it. The drawback? Most folks don’t wish to “build apps.” They wish to remedy issues. Quickly. Easily. Without occupied with code.
That perception grew to become the inspiration for Notion’s rebirth. Instead of giving customers an intimidating clean canvas of code, they gave them intuitive constructing blocks. Notes, tables, databases, and templates might now snap collectively like LEGO bricks. People didn’t should be builders to create the workflows they wanted.
In March 2016, Notion 1.0 launched. The response was rapid and explosive. It rocketed to the highest of Product Hunt, incomes Product of the Day, then Week, then Month. The identical firm that had been days away from dying was out of the blue Silicon Valley’s darling.
Obsessing Over Users, Not Investors
While different startups would have rushed to boost cash after this breakout, Ivan and Simon made one other unconventional alternative: they stayed bootstrapped. Instead of courting enterprise capitalists, they centered fully on customers. Ivan personally responded to each tweet, criticism, and suggestion. This obsessive focus constructed a loyal, virtually cult-like following.
The outcomes have been staggering:
- 2019: First funding spherical—$10 million at an $800 million valuation
- 2020: Pandemic drove distant work adoption; customers quintupled
- 2020: $50 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation
- 2021: $275 million Series C at a $10 billion valuation
In simply 5 years, Notion had gone from the brink of collapse to a decacorn.
Building a Platform, Not Just a Product
What made Notion completely different wasn’t simply nice advertising or timing—it was the philosophy behind the product. Instead of handing customers a inflexible software, Notion gave them a platform to create their very own options.
Think of it like this:
- Microsoft gave folks instruments to create paperwork.
- Apple gave folks instruments to create apps.
- Notion gave folks instruments to create workflows.
Platforms like these flip customers into creators. They permit one product to serve infinite use instances—note-taking, challenge administration, wikis, job lists—with out altering the core software program. This flexibility turned Notion into a worldwide phenomenon.
By 2024, the numbers spoke for themselves:
- 100M+ customers
- Revenue skyrocketed from $3M (2019) to $300M (2024)
- 50% of Fortune 500 corporations use Notion
- Creators earn over $1M promoting customized Notion templates
All of this began with two founders coding in a Kyoto “basement” with nothing however noodles and cussed perception.
The Pattern Behind Every Tech Empire
Notion’s journey isn’t only a startup fairy story—it displays an even bigger sample in tech historical past. Every era of transformative corporations empowers customers to do one thing that was beforehand onerous or inaccessible:
- Railroads gave odd folks entry to distant cities.
- Electricity introduced energy to each dwelling.
- The web put international info in everybody’s pocket.
- Platforms like Notion give people the power to construct their very own digital instruments with out figuring out code.
The corporations that acknowledge and experience these shifts don’t simply make merchandise. They make empires. And like Ivan Zhao and Simon Last proved, typically the trail to a $10 billion firm runs straight by a two-story home in Kyoto, fueled by on the spot noodles and 18-hour coding marathons.