9-Year Hustle to Achieve a Single GoalㅣNotion's Cofounders

This is the co-founders' story of Notion, Akshay Kothari(COO) and Ivan Zhao(CEO), building Notion.
Notion is one of the most innovative productivity tools worldwide to make every human able to build their own software without coding.
Before co-founding Notion, Akshay built Pulse, which is RSS based news curation app, and Ivan was a designer from Canada just after college graduation.
00:34 Akshay's background
03:15 Notion's first failure
06:21 Notion's PMF story
12:05 Notion's culture and core values
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Subtitles for this video were created using XL8.ai machine translation.

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[@techwithsaran]

Notion is great but it is not as dumb. It has a learning curve but once you get it, it works great. But the greatest thing about notion is the software itself. It never hangs, even with adding complexity, it works great. It’s a 10/10 from software perspective.

[@hamm8934]

Also the security exploits are great. It’s great getting weekly massive data breaches lol. It blows my mind how they’ve continually dodged this bad PR. Edit for more context: They’re a software company without end-to-end encryption in 2023… this has been a basic requirement of all software since the early 90s with the dawn of the internet. If your company is using notion for sensitive information, or anything really, you’re absolutely going to have a ransomware attack. All a hacker has to do is get access to notion and then they have everything from your notion accounts - everything. Your data isn’t hashed or encrypted on their servers. It’s an open book. How else are they going to turn a profit without selling absolutely everything about you to ad tech, insurance companies for off-the-books pro-rating, etc.. Notion staff have gone as far as to directly address this complaint and say they have no plans to add end-to-end encryption because it would “slow down the search feature”. Complete BS. Similar apps like Obsidian offer end-to-end encryption for a subscription and have far more impressive search functionality. Notion’s negligence is taking a page out of FTX’s playbook.

[@johnjamison460]

Was thinking this as well. We use it at the startup I work for but definitely took a bit to wrap your head around it. After that, you realize the possibilities are endless

[@user-jp7ni5xv1r]

@@johnjamison460 Its just an advanced spreadsheet.

[@aziz9488]

@@hamm8934 Did chatgpt write this 😂? Just a tons of buzzwords that don't make sense.

[@hamm8934]

@@aziz9488 buzzwords? I’m a software engineer. I know this space. Notion is a powder keg ready to blow and take down any enterprise partnership they have with them.

[@kkingstarr1]

I discovered Notion halfway through my bachelor's degree and it felt like a cheat code for productivity. I'm now close to finishing my masters and still use it everyday. Very interesting to see the journey behind it!

[@hotpenguin607]

I recently got into it when ppl mentioned ChatGPT alternatives So I started using notion AI and it is great. Idk how all the templates and database work yet, but im using it like a better and easy-to-organize version of OneNote (toggle headings, subpages and breadcrumbs are just amazing omg) supercharged by a Generative AI. I'm using it during and after work and it makes everything faster

[@method341]

What does Notion actually do?

[@aqibhasan3157]

@@method341 productivity tool keep track and keep your life organized, can be used as a weekly agenda, create list, take notes and store notes in a folder that you create, and you can customize to fit your needs

[@method341]

@@aqibhasan3157 yeah thanks, I actually had a look on their website just before and realised you can make databases and web pages too.

[@sulaimonadeyemo4329]

Can you recommend a tutorial on how to use notion?

[@haebomi]

It was an honor to be with Notion. If you're curious about what kind of world Notion will build in the future, build idea now.

[@Theoldmad]

"It's kind of like art combined with technology, it's very intuition driven" - Ivan Zhao CEO of Notion. Cool to see a CEO doing strategy with something spiritual: intuition.

[@user-zj2jm2nt1t]

I remember the very first time I used Notion. Groundbreaking in its usability and sleek design, continuously evolving to provide the tools I didn't know I even needed before. Thank you for sharing your precious journey with us !

[@av.bilgehanarifoglu7758]

Notion is my #1 source, my everyday life organizer, my notes, my thoughts, everything... Thank you guys for bringing Notion to our lives.

[@rdean150]

It's your #1 source? As in, it gives you ideas and content? And then you build upon those ideas by entering your own content back into Notion? Ever wonder where its suggestions came from? Ever wonder if other users were given YOUR ideas to help them in the same way it helps you?

[@hisoka1186]

Hi Bilgehan do you already used Obsidian ? Whether it's yes, if you compare it to Notion which apps is the most valuable for you ?

[@av.bilgehanarifoglu7758]

@@hisoka1186 I used Obsidian. But you can't even compare Notion with Obsidian because Notion has 500+ features that Obsidian doesn't have. Things like embedding PDFs, extensions, and visual improvements are important for note-taking. Obsidian want to be cool with its mapping system which I believe Notion will bring it soon

[@habibi750]

Notion is great, but come on, they didn’t really invent or develop anything new. Notion is a wiki page with a database and prebuilt templates. Wiki pages have around fir a long time.

[@reinforz]

Excellent video! It's inspirational to see Akshay and Ivan's drive and perseverance in bringing Notion to life. Their nine-year journey to attain their objective demonstrates the power of perseverance and hard work. Notion is an innovative tool that enables individuals and teams to be more productive and creative.

[@ukdrahul]

Really love Notion, it's simplicity, minimalistic approach, the Japanese & minimal vibe of it. A really well designed peaceful product.

[@suhanipal4565]

Well japan website's and internet is far from minimalistic. They have the most cramped up websites.

[@aaradhyarawat7589]

​@@suhanipal4565gahaha

[@PK-eo8kp]

@@suhanipal4565that guy obviously never been to Japan lol

[@krox477]

Its using IKEA effect

[@ebinjp]

@@suhanipal4565lmfao working as a engineer in Japan also done my university education in here, I can tell that you are 100% right 😅

[@SheInTheMaking]

So thankful for these guys and what they’ve created. They’ve got a Notion believer in me.

[@gauravidesigns]

I love notion , I am using it for two years . Finally met the founders 😊😊

[@franpalokaj]

Big thanks to all of you, Notion is an absolute beast of a tool 🙏

[@manojbhat1440]

My friend introduced me to notion and now I can't use any other software. Design is very simple ,helps to organize things lot easier. The tools are really helpful. Thank you so much.

[@msvyla]

Notion is one of the best tools! I use this for everything like work, notes, planning and staying organized in life. Can’t live without it!

[@Allthingswealth]

Watching this in the background while writing content ideas in my Notion dashboard. Thanks for such an awesome platform!

[@swirlycanvas1991]

Absolutely love love love Notion, am a huge fan and evangelist. Cannot wait to see how else it evolves. Thank you Notion team for everything you folks do!

[@MAZZ007]

Notion's free version has been a lifesaver for our fledgling startup, but trust me, the moment we take off, that "pay" button is getting hammered! All the incredible features and functionality, it's honestly mind-blowing. Thank you for crafting software that inspires true appreciation.

[@pathfinder.george]

My whole life is organised in Notion. Loved the Template-based go-to-market strategy as well.

[@nicolaslamour8712]

So cool to "meet" the poeple who save humble dyslexic students, like me. To now have a note/organisation app system that they can trust.

[@franciskafieh]

This video was amazing! All the tips were super helpful. Akshay and Ivan seem so down to earth and honest!

[@airbnbhorrorstory]

💯

[@SkyraXD]

bro he built myspace without the social media part genius man, both of them and their teams I appreciate it

[@arpitpatel7065]

One of the best consumer software products ever! It's gives the feeling of Zen so much that it justifies the fact that the product was built in Japan.

[@user-kn7hj3zr5o]

Thats just one way to view the case

[@aaradhyarawat7589]

And then you realise Zen wasn't built in Japan.

[@akosuakoranteng3327]

Absolutely love Notion and the vision behind it! Great start up story!

[@simply6162]

Wtf is even notion for isn’t it some kind of notes app?

[@Mr.BobsDog]

@@simply6162 yeah for kites

[@Brodragon2225]

@@Mr.BobsDog there is very much competition

[@airbnbhorrorstory]

These guys are great. They're so passionate about what they do. Notion was part of the tech stack (though not in my department) at a previous job. I just started using it and I'm excited at some of the possibilities.

[@wlockuz4467]

I have been using Notion for a while, I didn't know its roots were grounded in Asia!

[@r1nlx0]

If the story is true, notion as product is when engineering, product, business & marketing does sit together and do their best (each of their team could utilize their expertise to the max since every team just focus into their own expertise)

[@jimmygan801]

Notion is probably the best product coming out during that 2015 wave

[@kiknaio]

Amazing! Notion is a really great tool, but I never thought that it's valuation could reach to 10bn. Congratulations on that! Well deserved!

[@TMM-N]

Damn..9 years! Not all unicorn achieve the best result within 2-4 years

[@hirenahir76200]

True It's just those motivational speakers use this unicorn within 2 years blah blah blah

[@Danuxsy]

the large majority of people don't achieve something like this in their lifetime.

[@Brodragon2225]

they achieved nothing except funding lets wait

[@chrisnotion]

I loved Notion so much I made it my full time job

[@jinze8259]

I really really really love Notion. Hope it will become better and better.

[@wafflepiffle]

truly groundbreaking product

[@dailysoulenglish]

It played a significant role in boosting my creativity and changing my career. It affected my life. Good job.

[@userjay912]

discovered notion when i was starting high school and it has accompanied me ever since.

[@adityahudapratama5254]

Glad to know how notion was built and how it grew until now. Nice content!

[@HieuNguyen-ty7vw]

Great story told by founders. I will try Notion first thing tomorrow.

[@xbmcme9768]

Tried Notion a couple of years back and found it unintuitive, so it was a no go. Now I'm all about Obsidian. I own my data and have tons of plugins to choose from. Obsidian is just more intuitive.

[@cahoivuotthac]

I have used Notion for such a long time but haven't known the founder and co-founder until now.

[@trtl9106]

This was such a great presentation and interview. I totally admire Ivan's vision and Akshay's acknowledgment of that, and I wonder if they got to a point where they can say that they accomplished what they set out to do in the first place. Also thank you editors for your hard work!!!

[@hevmadeit9354]

I love Notion. This app and Tiimo are helping me move forward in life. It looks complicated, but you can simplify it and personalize it. As you understand how you want to work with it, then you can make it more customizable. It's a great app. My favorite in a very very long time.

[@GlobalEltorro]

Hands down the best note-taking app ever built.

[@casinarro]

they are so clear about it

[@felixvargasjr6678]

Notion has helped me so much while earning my degree in software engineering. I’m excited to ditch my notebook and use notion as my note taking and productivity

[@user-xr5zw2ts8l]

It is wonderful! Great people make great tools!

[@honggirin]

해외 컨텐츠 너무 유용하고 좋아요! 앞으로도 많이 부탁드립니다~ 한가지 아쉬운건 한글 자막이 조금 아쉬워요!

[@ttttully]

What a beautiful area to hold an interview...

[@felixgebauer7327]

tooooo maaaany cuuuuuuuts. let the man speak and breathe.

[@indiangigachad777]

Discovered notion last year and I can say notion is such a convenient app

[@juliahip]

Thank you for building Notion!

[@swiadiapkhazava1119]

Bro's got the Patagonia vest - VC hasn't left him lol

[@PrinceKumar-hh6yn]

Omg ! It has been developed by a INDIAN origin !! It motivates ❤️🙏

[@enyosam]

As a founder, this is inspiring.

[@nafis711]

What did you founded ?

[@simoncasciaro]

Great content guys!

[@techcoderworld8518]

Notion is the best tool I’ve found for productivity in the last 5 years!

[@tech.startups]

Notion is beautifully built!

[@pog9238]

I know this is so common and many Indians in comments say this, but seeing one of my favorite tools for education or just life co-founded by someone coming from Indian hereditary is so cool!

[@justonce967]

I don't understand one thing why they have to go to US and co found everything why not in India cause they literally have millions of brains to do everything by themselves without the need of third party.

[@aaradhyarawat7589]

​@@justonce967Higher education. More reach. More connections. More funding. It's all about being surrounded by elite group in terms of education, networking and money.

[@kenanaosithole1586]

Notion was essentially ‘no code’ before becoming Notion. That was pretty forward thinking just a bit early. 6:11

[@JacobSucksAtCode]

Love this story!

[@Jan-uc7gw]

⏱Timestamps for this video! 0:00 - Introducing Notion and its Mission 0:42 - Moving from Engineering to Product and Business 1:20 - Starting Pulse and the Importance of Bias Towards Action 1:55 - Pivoting to Notion and Learning from Early Mistakes 4:28 - Joining Notion as COO and Scaling the Business 9:18 - Notion's Global Success and the Importance of the User Community 10:05 - Building Blocks and Creating Efficient Engines 10:52 - Introducing Notion AI 11:38 - Notion's Values 12:18 - Mission of the Company 13:30 - The Importance of Notion's Values 🧙‍♂✨ Generated with Houdini Chrome extension.

[@michael05242002]

.

[@moisemayali]

Great product, I'm still learning. Well done guys, keep it up

[@AnnChu-tb4hp]

I absolutely love Notion

[@beynessemavelarz]

Notion is the great organizer all you need

[@knolf93]

Interesting the way they thought to build Notion. It seems to me that there indeed exists a fundamental symmetry between the way we interact with the world/computers and how the brain processes information. Organizing everything in trees with well-defined parent and child folders came to me some years ago as the best way of creating a mental map of the folder tree structure. Love it!

[@hanzelkit]

Watching from the Philippines

[@yijiyu0513]

와 노션이라니!! 잘 보겠습니다!!!

[@danielesemezie4436]

I think you guys should make more videos like this that are more authentic and real. I believe it’s one of the reasons it has so many views. Less of that hyper business hyper typical content that isn’t as interesting.

[@Lser03]

I love using notion!!!!

[@ilinkthereforeiam]

Love notion! As steve jobs said, " The computer is like a bicycle for the mind"

[@ariessanchez379]

Thank you for the video!

[@MohammedMisselmany]

I love notion I use it everyday.

[@Gd7OS]

this is one of the most life changing applications i've used

[@clean-nature-sound7851]

love notion so much

[@tareqrahaman5284]

I just love notion.

[@kosnowman]

quality content!

[@UcheOgbiti]

Notion is probably the first ever software version of the IKEA effect

[@captainayaan]

Great app, great founder.

[@danielosei864]

Love Notion

[@aenishshrestha8103]

interesting love the product !

[@hwang5189]

amazing program

[@Jasp0000]

Inspiring

[@curious.akshat]

Really wonderful story.

[@raideveloper]

I really enjoy notion, it is what MS one note should be, and I really enjoy the integration of document, table, and embedded, to be perfect the only lack thing is offline mode and excel level tables

[@corylyon545]

MS Office used to come with a DB tool called Access, and it had lots of templates.

[@rdean150]

I imagine it can't work offline because much of its functionality relies on remote servers. I also expect that their business model relies on having access to the content you enter into their tool.

[@Danuxsy]

Notion was the most retarded program I've ever used.

[@caiolins2495]

I love the 4 core values!

[@airbnbhorrorstory]

Seems like such a positive place to work. Seems like the founders really walk the walk. Be kind!

[@neil527]

But does it work offline??

[@healthspace4936]

Question, Evernote or notion? For everyday use for startup, we use jira for project management but still we feel lack of clustering data, resources.

[@khareemoliver]

I LOVE NOTION !

[@iwantsquareballoons]

looking forward to their netflix documentary next year

[@zakariamohamud6637]

Plz can you tag me when the upload their documentary?

[@GBlunted]

I don't know how this video got on my list but it got you another subscriber -who would have thought? 😀 The soundtrack is so good, matches the video perfect! 😆 👍

[@Orken1]

Great stuff guys. Using Notion myself I really like it!

[@yavagedex]

That's great !

[@serispeaks]

I love this

[@bennykokmusic]

Amazing

[@salehjamali6716]

"Dumb" i loved it lol and damn man i neeeed that auto grammar fixing in notion u just showed

[@anthonydanvers559]

Un contenu de qualité

[@glenanimates]

Love how an advert for ClickUp started playing a couple minutes into the video

[@user-oi4mb2nb2t]

노션 너무 좋아요~~~~~~~~~

[@rahulshendre7089]

great video

[@Eggs-n-Jakey]

Can't wait til it's finished

[@himsingh]

notion is second brain to many! but I am hardwired to use my notes in mac. They should build a desktop app as light and fast as mac's notes app