Ivan Zhao's Notion Simplifies Work and Life for 100 Million Users
By Tom Kagy | 03 May, 2025

Notion hopes to wean an entire generation or two from the productivity suites offered by Microsoft and Google.

Few entrepreneurs understand the sheer laziness of users better than Ivan Zhao.

Back in 2013 Zhao launched Notion to provide tools to help users build apps and websites.  It was a bust.  Its devastated founder took this failure as a sign that he needed to make changes.  He began by moving from San Francisco to Kyoto, the ancient Japanese capital famed for its ability to transport visitors to a bygone era of hushed temples surrounded by lush greenery.

Zhao's instinctive response to a devastating failure proved to be sound, at least if you judge the move by the 100 million users Notion has acquired since then.  The turnaround is attributed to the insight, possibly provided by Kyoto, that most people crave simplicity, not the daunting task of building apps and websites.

That's why today's successful iteration of Notion is "Lego for software", in Zhao's words.  Instead of seeking users who want to build, it offers a suite of ready-made apps that help users simplify their work and personal lives.  Much of the productivity boost it offers comes from a suite of ready-made templates to help people collaborate on things like work projects, documents, automating repetitive tasks, collaborative calendars, and even travel planning. 

In short today's Notion is a less-expensive productivity suite that seeks to supplant the ones offered by Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace which have become the standards, respectively, for boomers/GenXers, and millennials.  That's why Zhao's primary target users are today's college students who, he expects, will carry the Notion habit into their corporate jobs.

Notion's current $10 billion valuation — of which 30% is owned by its founder — has made Ivan Zhao, at 36, something of a Yoda to the entrepreneurial community.  The zen vibe introduced by his early move to Kyoto (he's now back in San Francisco) has ripened into full-on philosopher status thanks to his fondness for using nature metaphors in discussing business.  Notion is a beetle living in a symbiotic relationship with grass, he has suggested.

But perhaps the more important factor in Notion's recent resurgence is Zhao's direct personal involvement in seeking to understand and address the needs and gripes of his users.  As recently as early 2025 his personal mobile phone received in real time every single support ticket generated by those 100 million users.  By regularly scanning them Zhao is able to direct changes to Notion's offerings to ensure generally positive word-of-mouth.