How Notion went from failure to $2 Billion Valuation in 3 years

Designed to be an online platform where teams can collaborate.

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Notion is a productivity tool like no other. But how did it go from being a failure to having a $2 billion valuation in three years? Let’s find out! 

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Notion was originally conceived all the way back in 2013 by founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last who built their app on a tech stack which caused it to crash constantly. 

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In 2015, Notion almost shut down because of the app’s angel investments running out and the founders refused to meet venture capitalists to raise more funds. 

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This is when the company moved its operations from San Francisco to Kyoto which was a cheaper city. Here, the founders spent most of their time coding and trying to develop a second, much more functional version of Notion. 

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In 2018, Notion was relaunched with the same mission: Giving people all the tools they needed to create prototypes of their tools without having to code. 

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With its second release, the platform skyrocketed to the top of Product Hunt and started receiving positive reviews everywhere - including the Wall Street Journal. The platform hit its first million users without any external funding or investment. 

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The Notion app started became a milestone in UX design because of its powerful functionality and minimal user interface. The platform helped its users visually navigate their content, making it easier to collaborate and ideate. 

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With 500 plus apps embed in the Notion pages, the platform allowed users to schedule tasks, manage files, save documents and set reminders - all at the charge of a monthly subscription. 

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In 2019, investors were lining up to invest in Notion because of the millions of users that the app had already attracted. It was being used by large corporations as well as smaller, internal teams. 

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At the same time, while other companies were focused on marketing and advertising, Notion invested in improving user experiences and grew organically. They took feedback from their user base before developing new content, which was a game-changing move. 

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Last summer, Notion raised $10 million dollars from more than a dozen investors, including First Round, Sherpalo Ventures and Draft Ventures, helping the company’s valuation go up to $800 million.