Notion
To make it possible for everyone to shape the tools that shape their lives by providing an all-in-one workspace for notes, docs, wikis, and project management.
Founding Story
Notion was founded in 2013 by Ivan Zhao and Simon Last with a vision to create 'internet-powered paper.' In 2015, facing a near-collapse, the founders laid off their staff and moved to Kyoto, Japan, where they lived cheaply and rebuilt the entire platform from scratch, focusing on a more modular and flexible block-based architecture that became the foundation for Notion 1.0.
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Leadership
Founders
Ivan Zhao
Co-founder and CEO. Studied cognitive science and fine arts at the University of British Columbia. Previously worked in product at Inkling.
Simon Last
Co-founder and CTO. Graduated in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. Previously a software engineer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and Nebula Inc.
Akshay Kothari
Co-founder and COO. Former CEO/co-founder of Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn for ~$90M). Served as VP at LinkedIn before joining Notion in 2018.
Chris Prucha
Co-founder. Previously an engineer at Apple and co-founder of HackDesign.
Jessica Lam
Co-founder. Early member of the founding team.
Toby Schachman
Co-founder. Early member of the founding team.
Executive Team
Ivan Zhao
Co-founder & CEO
Visionary lead, focused on product and design.
Simon Last
Co-founder & CTO
Technical lead, overseeing engineering and architecture.
Business Model
Revenue Model
SaaS subscription-based model with tiered pricing and an AI add-on for advanced features.
Pricing Tiers
For individuals and small groups to organize their work.
For small teams that need more features and unlimited blocks.
For companies that need advanced collaboration and administrative tools.
For large organizations needing advanced security, compliance, and dedicated support.
Target Markets
- Startups
- SaaS Companies
- SMBs
- Enterprise Organizations
- Individual Professionals
- Education/Students
- Knowledge Management
- Project Management
- Product Roadmapping
- Company Wikis
- Personal Productivity
- Remote Team Collaboration
- OpenAI
- Figma
- Ramp
- Vercel
History & Milestones
Launched Custom Agents, enabling autonomous AI workflows.
Reached 100 million users; launched Notion Mail and AI Meeting Notes.
Acquired Skiff; launched Notion Calendar (formerly Cron).
Launched Notion AI; reached 20 million users.
Acquired Automate.io; raised Series C at a $10 billion valuation.
1 AI Tool by Notion
AI agents that automate work within Notion, keeping tasks and projects moving 24/7 without manual intervention.
