Ivan Zhao (CEO and co-founder)06 March 2025

Notion’s lost years, its near collapse during Covid, staying small to move fast, the joy and suffering of building horizontal, more

6Frameworks

14Insights

Episode overview

Lenny Rachitsky interviews Notion co-founder and CEO Ivan Zhao about the company’s three-to-four-year search for a product people wanted, including discarded developer-tool versions and a complete technical rebuild. Zhao explains how Notion stayed small, treated software building as a craft, and balanced its Lego-like platform vision with practical solutions customers understand. They also discuss Notion’s near collapse when its single PostgreSQL database approached capacity during Covid, the challenges of horizontal products, and how AI can assemble Notion’s building blocks into custom software.

Key ideas

Notion found traction only after hiding its software-creation vision inside a familiar productivity-tool form factor—the “sugar” around the “broccoli.”
Zhao argues that durable products balance personal values and taste with real users and revenue; either extreme becomes an art project or a commodity.
Resetting can accelerate progress when a better abstraction compounds faster than continued linear work on a flawed foundation.
Notion stays lean because small teams reduce communication overhead, preserve talent density, and make the organizational “bus” easier to maneuver.
Horizontal platforms must offer customers ready-made solutions or “Lego boxes” while continuing to build reusable “Lego bricks” underneath.
During Covid, Notion stopped feature development and focused its engineers on sharding its nearly exhausted single PostgreSQL database.
AI strengthens horizontal tools by searching bundled information and by assembling reusable blocks into custom workflows, software, and agents.
Zhao sees tools as extensions of people that subsequently shape their users, motivating Notion’s emphasis on creativity and beauty.

Transcript available · source text is retained privately and is not published

Frameworks in this episode

Marketing4 steps

B2C2B: Horizontal Wedge to Enterprise

Win a billion-user consumer use case first, then let personal users carry the product into their workplace.

Read →

Strategy4 steps

Bundling vs Unbundling Wave-Reading

Read where the market sits in the eternal bundle/unbundle cycle to decide vertical vs horizontal.

Read →

Marketing4 steps

Lego Brick vs Lego Box (Selling Solutions Up-Market)

Sell ready-made solution boxes to move up-market while still building composable bricks behind the scenes.

Read →

Innovation4 steps

Reset Through Better Abstractions

Don't fear throwing work away — a better abstraction compounds and recovers sunk cost fast.

Read →

Leadership4 steps

Systems Over Headcount (The Small Bus)

Solve with better systems and talent density instead of adding people; a smaller bus turns faster.

Read →

Strategy4 steps

The Broccoli-Inside-Sugar Product Strategy

Hide your ambitious vision inside a form factor people already want and use daily.

Read →

People & resources mentioned

Attributed to the moment in the episode. Timestamps are approximate.

People · 16

Ivan ZhaoMentionswhen notion needs to broadcast messages in real time to other collaborators they use a real-time engine that they built for socket io.
“today my guest is Ivan Jiao Ivan is the co-founder and CEO of notion”
▶ Watch at ~1:30approx.
Lenny RachitskyMentionstoday we've got another very special compilation episode something I've been pulling on more and more with the podcast and the newsletter
“Ivan thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast”
▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
Alan KayMentionsA computing pioneer associated with Xerox Alto and Smalltalk.
“people like dogas angle bar alen k 10 Nelson the first generation Pioneers”
▶ Watch at ~8:00approx.
Douglas EngelbartMentionsA first-generation computing pioneer whose work influenced Ivan Zhao.
“people like dogas angle bar alen k 10 Nelson the first generation Pioneers”
▶ Watch at ~8:00approx.
Ted NelsonMentionsNamed among the first generation of computing pioneers.
“people like dogas angle bar alen k 10 Nelson the first generation Pioneers”
▶ Watch at ~8:00approx.
Alan KayMentionsA computing pioneer associated with Xerox Alto and Smalltalk.
“Xerox Alto alen K was one of the main person behind it”
▶ Watch at ~9:00approx.
Steve JobsMentionsSteve Jobs is just uh the bar he held for the company and for technical talent and for excellence was not uh wavering.
“makes me think of Steve jobs' famous line of how the computer is a bicycle for the mind”
▶ Watch at ~9:00approx.
Simon LastMentionsIvan Zhao’s Notion co-founder and rebuilding partner.
“my co-founder s feels the same way”
▶ Watch at ~16:00approx.
Bryan JohnsonMentionsDescribed as pursuing extreme longevity and having achieved six months of perfect sleep scores.
“I love this said just get sleep very Briant Johnson of you”
▶ Watch at ~22:00approx.
Tobi LütkeMentionsif you look at Toby from Shopify, his scores aren't that good, but that company's doing really, really well.
“Toby ly was on the podcast he said the same thing just be comfortable with sun cost”
▶ Watch at ~22:30approx.
Simon LastMentionsIvan Zhao’s Notion co-founder and rebuilding partner.
“me and Simon and AE we have the skill set you probably can run a whole company”
▶ Watch at ~30:30approx.
Finn BarnesMentionsIdentified as one of Ivan Zhao’s early investors.
“one of your early investors Finn Barnes suggested ask you”
▶ Watch at ~1:02:30approx.
Marshall McLuhanMentionsCited for the idea that people shape their tools and are subsequently shaped by them.
“one of my favorite quotes like the marsh quotes like we shape our tools therea our tools shape us”
▶ Watch at ~1:03:00approx.
Pablo PicassoMentionsPicasso was called stupid
“good artists copy great artist steel great artist steel yeah Picasso”
▶ Watch at ~1:07:00approx.
James BurkeMentionsThe presenter associated with the documentary series Connections.
“I think it's called about the gentleman's name is Burke”
▶ Watch at ~1:09:00approx.
Ivan ZhaoMentionswhen notion needs to broadcast messages in real time to other collaborators they use a real-time engine that they built for socket io.
“Ian thank you so much for being here”
▶ Watch at ~1:10:30approx.

Resources · 44

Lenny's NewsletterCoinednewsletter · Lenny Rachitsky
“if you become a paid annual subscriber of my newsletter”
▶ Watch at ~2:00approx.
GranolaMentionssoftware · Granola
“you now get a year free of notion Pro and perplexity Pro and superhuman and linear and granola”
▶ Watch at ~2:00approx.
LinearMentionssoftware · Linear
“you now get a year free of notion Pro and perplexity Pro and superhuman and linear and granola”
▶ Watch at ~2:00approx.
SuperhumanMentionssoftware · Superhuman
“you now get a year free of notion Pro and perplexity Pro and superhuman and linear and granola”
▶ Watch at ~2:00approx.
Perplexity ProMentionssoftware · Perplexity AI
“you now get a year free of notion Pro and perplexity Pro and superhuman and linear and granola”
▶ Watch at ~2:00approx.
EppoMentionssoftware · Eppo
“EPO is a Next Generation AB testing and feature management platform”
▶ Watch at ~2:30approx.
Airtable ProductCentralMentionssoftware · Airtable
“this episode is brought to you by airtable product Central the unified system”
▶ Watch at ~3:30approx.
UrumqiMentionsplace
“the city is called uruki is in the Northwest desert part of China so I grew up there”
▶ Watch at ~5:00approx.
NotionCoinedsoftware · Notion Labs
“that got me to want to create a product like notion today”
▶ Watch at ~6:30approx.
SpongeBob SquarePantsUsestv show
“you learned English by watching SpongeBob SquarePants”
▶ Watch at ~7:00approx.
SpongeBob SquarePantsUsestv show
“you have to watch SpongeBob or Simpsons to get a sense of humor”
▶ Watch at ~7:30approx.
The SimpsonsUsestv show
“you have to watch SpongeBob or Simpsons to get a sense of humor”
▶ Watch at ~7:30approx.
Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual FrameworkMentionspaper · Douglas Engelbart
“angle Bar's original paper called augmenting human intellect when I read that paper”
▶ Watch at ~8:30approx.
Xerox PARCMentionscompany
“Xerox park has working on the first generation personal computer”
▶ Watch at ~9:00approx.
Xerox AltoMentionsproduct · Xerox PARC
“it's called Xerox Alto alen K was one of the main person behind it”
▶ Watch at ~9:00approx.
SmalltalkMentionssoftware
“alutto runs down the system called Small Talk which is there's no separation between users and users app”
▶ Watch at ~9:30approx.
ReactUsessoftware · Meta
“right now all the web app runs on react”
▶ Watch at ~14:00approx.
Web ComponentsUsessoftware · Google
“there's a competing technology called Web component from Google and it makes sense”
▶ Watch at ~14:00approx.
LEGOUsescompany · The LEGO Group
“a grow up play Legos it's the only toy I ever wanted”
▶ Watch at ~16:00approx.
LEGOMentionscompany · The LEGO Group
“with C is call Notions the Lego for software”
▶ Watch at ~16:00approx.
Magna-TilesRecommendsproduct
“have you guys seen magnatiles though”
▶ Watch at ~16:30approx.
JapanMentionsplace
“Jaan is always top on our list”
▶ Watch at ~17:30approx.
LispMentionssoftware
“a really tiny coase and inspired by lisp which is another programing languages”
▶ Watch at ~23:30approx.
DeepSeekMentionscompany · DeepSeek
“trying to cut up the US really quickly with deep seek”
▶ Watch at ~24:30approx.
CinchMentionscompany
“this episode is brought to you by cinch the customer Communications Cloud”
▶ Watch at ~28:30approx.
Rich Communication ServicesMentionssoftware
“rich communication services or RCS think of RCs as SMS 2.0”
▶ Watch at ~29:00approx.
NotionUsessoftware · Notion Labs
“we pretty much run everything on otion”
▶ Watch at ~31:30approx.
Lamy 2000Mentionsproduct · Lamy
“various different form of chairs Lami 2,000 pens”
▶ Watch at ~36:00approx.
iPhoneMentionsproduct · Apple
“give you one example iPhones obvious one original Macintosh”
▶ Watch at ~36:00approx.
MacintoshMentionsproduct · Apple
“give you one example iPhones obvious one original Macintosh”
▶ Watch at ~36:00approx.
Sony transistor radioMentionsproduct · Sony
“the Sony transistor radio is the first one to shrink semic something small and useful for people”
▶ Watch at ~36:30approx.
Toshiba rice cookerMentionsproduct · Toshiba
“Toshiba rice cooker change how people eat rice in Asia”
▶ Watch at ~36:30approx.
PostgreSQLUsessoftware
“for the longest time we notion runs on one instance of postris database”
▶ Watch at ~49:30approx.
HubSpotMentionscompany · HubSpot
“it was third in CRM just behind Salesforce and HubSpot”
▶ Watch at ~54:30approx.
JiraMentionssoftware · Atlassian
“it was I have the popular project management tool after jira”
▶ Watch at ~54:30approx.
SalesforceMentionscompany · Salesforce
“it was third in CRM just behind Salesforce and HubSpot”
▶ Watch at ~54:30approx.
JiraUsessoftware · Atlassian
“there's things are living in Jura living in zenes that other customers St Reliance”
▶ Watch at ~59:00approx.
Romance of the Three KingdomsMentionsbook
“there's a classic Chinese literature called Romance of three kingdoms”
▶ Watch at ~1:00:30approx.
dBASE IIMentionssoftware
“early database software like dbase it's quite famous it start at thebase 2”
▶ Watch at ~1:01:30approx.
MicrosoftMentionscompany · Bill Gates and Paul Allen
“then Microsoft bundled everything back into a one sweet in the 90s”
▶ Watch at ~1:02:00approx.
Hacker NewsMentionswebsite · Y Combinator
“Tech Hacker News Twitter are so focused on now and what's in front of it”
▶ Watch at ~1:06:30approx.
BBCRecommendscompany
“all old BBC ones they're just excellent and they have a strong opinion in them”
▶ Watch at ~1:08:30approx.
ConnectionsRecommendsdocumentary · James Burke
“one oh yeah one is really good one to gu start called connections”
▶ Watch at ~1:09:00approx.
TwitterUseswebsite · Twitter
“probably find out me on Twitter Ivan hzo”
▶ Watch at ~1:10:30approx.

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take20:00

Building for Your Values vs. Building for the Business

Ivan draws a distinction between building for a business — where you want users and revenue and the market is an arena to optimize a scorecard — and building for your own values, taste, and aesthetic. Too much of yourself and you have no users, just an art project; too much for the business and you build a commodity. He finds building for value more lasting and fulfilling.

Building a product/business means optimizing for users and revenue, like a sport with a scorecard
Building for value means putting your taste and aesthetic into the world
Too much self yields an art project with no users; too much business yields a commodity
Building for value is the more durable, fulfilling energy source through dark years

“too much of yourself then there's no users you're just just doing art project”
Ivan Zhao · 21:30

“too much for a business you're building a commodity”
Ivan Zhao · 21:30

#product-philosophy#values#founder-mindset#craft

Hot Take1:06:00

Steal Ideas From Outside Tech

Ivan's closing advice: tech is obsessed with the now and what happened six months ago, but reading across other industries and back through history surfaces a massive reservoir of patterns, shapes, and tradeoffs you can borrow. Looking sideways and backwards lets product and business makers solve the problem in front of them with ideas from outside their domain.

Tech, Hacker News, and Twitter over-focus on the immediate present
Other industries and history hold reusable patterns, shapes, and tradeoffs
Borrowing clever patterns from other domains makes the problem in front of you more interesting and solvable
Echoes 'good artists copy, great artists steal'

“if you go back into history there's a massive amount of patterns and shapes and tradeoffs you can steal from”
Ivan Zhao · 1:06:30

#creativity#learning#history#product-makers

Explainer· 4

Explainer30:00

Why Notion Stays Small: The 'Small Bus' and Talent Density

Ivan explains Notion's decade-long commitment to staying lean — profitable, with most raised money still in the bank, no salesperson until $10M ARR, first PM at ~50 people. His view: better systems beat solving problems through more people, since most overhead is internal communication. Internally they track talent density and revenue per employee, and use a 'small bus' metaphor — a smaller bus turns corners and accelerates faster.

Notion has been profitable for years with most raised capital untouched; no salesperson until >$10M ARR
Most company overhead is internal communication and aligning minds, not headcount
They track talent density and revenue per employee rather than number of people
The 'small bus' turns corners, accelerates, and maneuvers faster than a big one

“we don't try to track number of people but we're try to track how Talent Den Revenue per employee”
Ivan Zhao · 32:00

“the smaller the bus is easier to turn Corners easier to accelerate easier to maneuver”
Ivan Zhao · 33:30

#lean#management#talent-density#efficiency

Explainer52:00

Selling Horizontal Software: Lego Bricks vs. Lego Boxes

Ivan shares the hardest lesson of building horizontal: segmentation. Only hardcore fans want raw Lego bricks; most people want ready-made Lego boxes, and enterprises buy 'solutions' that sit on a P&L. A vertical product's category is its natural wall, but a horizontal product going after the entire software market has no wall — so you must create one yourself through go-to-market and positioning, while still building bricks behind the scenes.

Most customers want the ready-made box, not the raw bricks; only hardcore fans want bricks
Moving up-market and into B2B requires shifting from a brick mindset to a solution mindset
Vertical software's category is its built-in wall; horizontal software has none
You must create your own wall via positioning while still building bricks behind the scenes

“for the longest time I felt too much in the Lego briak mindset now in the solution Lego box”
Ivan Zhao · 53:00

“building horizontal there's no wall at least for in our space we notion go after entire software Market but then you need to create a…”
Ivan Zhao · 53:30

#horizontal-software#positioning#go-to-market#segmentation

Explainer56:30

Notion's B2C2B Engine: Notes as the Billion-User Top of Funnel

Ivan describes Notion's growth strategy, which he calls B2C2B: consumers adopt Notion for the simplest use case — note-taking and document sharing, something over a billion people do daily — then discover its database power and bring it to work. About half of Notion's B2B customers came from prior personal users. That logic drives new products: Ivan targets other billion-user categories, shipping a calendar last year and building email now.

B2C2B: consumers start with simple notes/doc sharing, then bring Notion to work
Roughly half of Notion's B2B customers came from prior personal users
Document notes is a billion-plus-user use case that funnels into enterprise adoption
Ivan targets other billion-user categories — document notes, calendar, email — hence the calendar and upcoming email products

“half our B2B customers uh coming from prior personal users”
Ivan Zhao · 57:00

“which other category of software has 1 billion plus user there's document notes there's calendar there's email”
Ivan Zhao · 57:30

#growth#b2c2b#product-strategy#notion

Explainer1:01:00

Bundling and Unbundling: The Market Waves of Software

Ivan frames software history as recurring waves of bundling and unbundling, quoting the opening of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Paper was a fully democratized medium; PCs unbundled into standalone apps in the 80s, Microsoft rebundled into a suite in the 90s, SaaS unbundled again — and now, with the average company using nearly 100 tools, the market is swinging back toward bundling, accelerated by AI and macro pressure.

Software oscillates between bundling and unbundling, like empires uniting and dividing
PCs unbundled into standalone apps (e.g. dBASE) in the 80s; Microsoft rebundled in the 90s; SaaS unbundled again
The average company now uses nearly 100 tools — a sign the pendulum is swinging back to bundling
AI and macro conditions are pushing more value toward bundling for now, though the market could shift again

“Empires long United must divide long divided must unite as has always been bundling un bundling”
Ivan Zhao · 1:01:00

“average company to use like almost 100 tools it's not it's kind of Madness”
Ivan Zhao · 1:02:00

#bundling#software-history#market-cycles#strategy

Story· 6

Story09:00

How Steve Jobs Saw the GUI at Xerox PARC but Missed the Real Power

Ivan recounts the origin of personal computing at Xerox PARC, where Alan Kay's Smalltalk/Alto system had no separation between users and applications and everything was malleable. When Steve Jobs visited, he only registered the graphical user interface, not the underlying object-oriented environment where users could reshape their own tools. That miss, Ivan argues, locked the industry into the rigid application framework we still live with today.

Xerox Alto ran Smalltalk, where there was no such thing as an 'application' and everything could be changed by the user
In the demo, engineers instantly reversed the scroll bar direction for Jobs to show the system's malleability
Jobs took away the graphic user interface but not the object-oriented power beneath it
That framing led to the app-based, SaaS world Notion is now pushing back against

“you know what Steve Jobs is actually at fault of this in some strange ways”
Ivan Zhao · 09:00

“he only saw the graphic user interface he did not see the underlying object orent the environment power”
Ivan Zhao · 10:00

#computing-history#xerox-parc#steve-jobs#product-philosophy

Story10:30

Notion's Lost Years and Learning to Hide the Vision

Notion spent its first three to four years — the 'Lost Years' — building an easy developer tool so everyone could make their own software, and discovered most people simply didn't care. The team realized they had to hide that vision inside a form factor people actually use every day: productivity software. Ivan frames it as feeding people sugar with the broccoli hidden inside.

The first version was a developer tool; after a couple of years they learned most people don't want to create software
The fix was to hide the 'everyone can create software' vision inside a productivity suite people already understand
It took two-plus years just to realize they needed to build a productivity tool
The maturation was seeing the world from outside their own perspective, not just their own

“learned that actually most people just don't care”
Ivan Zhao · 12:00

“people don't want to eat the broccoli but people like sugar so give them the sugar”
Ivan Zhao · 13:30

#product-market-fit#founder-lessons#notion#vision

Story13:30

Why Notion Threw Away Its Codebase Over a Bad Tech Bet

Ivan explains that Notion rebuilt itself repeatedly, and one reset was purely technical: they had bet on Google's Web Components before React won, and the immaturity made bugs impossible to trace. Rather than run out of time on a broken foundation, they reset the codebase and effectively the company. It took four years total to get somewhere.

First two years were spent over-building a developer product nobody wanted
They bet on Web Components, an unstable pre-React technology where bug sources were untraceable
The choice was to rebuild the whole thing or run out of time
They reset the codebase and the company to build on the right technical foundation

“before react wins there's a competing technology called Web component from Google”
Ivan Zhao · 14:30

“then we have to restart a company otherwise rebuild the whole thing otherwise we're going to run out of time”
Ivan Zhao · 14:30

#engineering#tech-bets#startups#resets

Story15:00

How Ivan's Mom Kept Notion Alive

Staying solvent through the Lost Years partly came down to family. Ivan's mother helped him register a company (required for a Canadian to move to the US) and raise the initial money, which he later returned. When Notion ran out of cash again, he asked her to lend it back to bridge the gap.

As a Canadian, Ivan needed a registered US company to move, and his mom helped kickstart it
He returned that initial money, then had to ask to borrow it again when they ran out
His mother's bridge loan kept the company going during the cashless years

“then we run out the money so hey Mom can I borrow that just to bridge us”
Ivan Zhao · 15:30

#founder-story#funding#notion#survival

Story17:00

Laying Off Everyone and Coding in Japan

During one of the rebuilds, Notion laid off its entire team, shrinking from five people back to just Ivan and Simon. To change the scenery and reset morale, the two moved to Japan — and by subletting their SF apartment and office, they actually made money while living there. Ivan describes non-stop coding and design as some of the happiest days.

Notion cut from five people back to the two founders during a rebuild
They moved to Japan to change the scenario after a low-morale layoff
Subletting their apartment and office meant they made money living abroad
The two coded and designed non-stop, moving through the problem space fast because they knew each other's thinking

“at that time notion was five people we lay off everybody back to me and samon two people”
Ivan Zhao · 17:30

“we sub leas our apartment and office we're actually making money living in Japan”
Ivan Zhao · 18:00

#founder-story#layoffs#resilience#remote

Story49:30

The Covid Doomsday Clock: When One Postgres Instance Almost Killed Notion

Ivan tells the story of Notion nearly dying during Covid. For years the whole product ran on a single Postgres instance, scaled by moving to ever-bigger machines — until they hit the largest instance available and started running out of space to store everything. A 'Doomsday Clock' began counting down to a full shutdown; every engineer dropped feature work to shard the database, and they cleared it with maybe three-to-six months to spare.

Notion ran on one Postgres instance, scaling only by finding a bigger machine
They hit the largest available instance and faced running out of storage entirely
As they neared the limit, behavior became sporadic and unpredictable
All hands stopped building features to shard the database; the runway was three-to-six months

“for the longest time we notion runs on one instance of postris database”
Ivan Zhao · 49:30

“a Doomsday Clock that when we're going to trly run out this space to store everything in notion and notion got completely shut down”
Ivan Zhao · 50:00

#infrastructure#scaling#postgres#crisis

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway22:30

Don't Fear the Reset — Better Abstractions Compound

Ivan reframes sunk cost: resetting isn't just a self-help mantra, it's that progress made through better abstractions compounds and can recover everything you threw away faster than you'd expect. Humans think linearly, not exponentially, so we underestimate how quickly a better approach catches up. He points to Smalltalk's tiny Lisp-inspired kernel — roughly a hundred lines — that produced complex, valuable behavior.

Better abstractions create progress that compounds, so sunk cost recovers quickly
Humans think linearly and underestimate exponential/abstraction gains
Smalltalk and Lisp show a tiny kernel can compound into complex, valuable behavior
The same pattern shows up in LLM advances and Chain-of-Thought models that rethink a wrong turn

“you can create progress through better abstractions and that thing compounds faster”
Ivan Zhao · 23:00

“your humans are not thinking not good at thinking in terms of abstraction”
Ivan Zhao · 23:00

#abstraction#sunk-cost#systems-thinking#ai

Takeaway34:30

Why Ivan Obsesses Over the Office (No Shoes, Warm White, No Top Light)

Ivan explains the deliberate thought behind Notion's office: no shoes, one shared table, thirty shades of warm white tested on the walls. Part is pragmatic — most offices feel like hospitals with pale walls and dark floors, so cream walls, friendly floors and no top light make people feel creative and at ease. Part is a values/aesthetic stance: ugly things visibly hurt, the same way a bad chair hurts your back.

The office should feel like an artist's studio or a home, using home furniture, not corporate fittings
Avoid pale white walls, dark floors and top light — they make offices feel like hospitals
Cozy space makes people spend more time and feel more creative
Ugly visual input hurts, so aesthetics is an ergonomics-for-the-eyes value, not just decoration

“most office the top life feels like hospital”
Ivan Zhao · 35:00

“don't use white use some kind of cream make floor is more friendly colors and don't use top light top light is evil”
Ivan Zhao · 35:00

#office#aesthetics#culture#craft

Key ideas

Frameworks in this episode

B2C2B: Horizontal Wedge to Enterprise

Bundling vs Unbundling Wave-Reading

Lego Brick vs Lego Box (Selling Solutions Up-Market)

Reset Through Better Abstractions

Systems Over Headcount (The Small Bus)

The Broccoli-Inside-Sugar Product Strategy

People & resources mentioned

People · 16

Resources · 44

Insights & moments

◆Hot Take· 2

Building for Your Values vs. Building for the Business

Steal Ideas From Outside Tech

✶Explainer· 4

Why Notion Stays Small: The 'Small Bus' and Talent Density

Selling Horizontal Software: Lego Bricks vs. Lego Boxes

Notion's B2C2B Engine: Notes as the Billion-User Top of Funnel

Bundling and Unbundling: The Market Waves of Software

❝Story· 6

How Steve Jobs Saw the GUI at Xerox PARC but Missed the Real Power

Notion's Lost Years and Learning to Hide the Vision

Why Notion Threw Away Its Codebase Over a Bad Tech Bet

How Ivan's Mom Kept Notion Alive

Laying Off Everyone and Coding in Japan

The Covid Doomsday Clock: When One Postgres Instance Almost Killed Notion

▲Takeaway· 2

Don't Fear the Reset — Better Abstractions Compound

Why Ivan Obsesses Over the Office (No Shoes, Warm White, No Top Light)

Hot Take· 2

Explainer· 4

Story· 6

Takeaway· 2