Notion's Lost Years, Surviving the COVID Crisis, Staying Small to Move Fast, and Building a Horizontal Product

1. Notion's First 3-4 Years: 'The Lost Years'

• "The first three to four years as the lost years." Notion co-founder Ivan Zhao describes Notion's first few years as "the lost years." During this period, Notion tried multiple versions but failed to gain significant market traction.
  • Early vision: "Let everyone build their own software." They tried making developer tools easier so more people could use them, but realized most people weren't interested.
  • "People don't want to eat the broccoli but people like sugar, so give them the sugar then hide the broccoli inside of it." Ivan discovered that people were interested in productivity tools and decided to hide Notion's vision inside them — "sugar-coated broccoli."

2. Balancing Product and Business

• "Building for something you want the world to have is building for your value." Ivan emphasizes the importance of balancing personal values with market demands when building products.
  • Too much of yourself: No users, just a personal project.
  • Too business-focused: Becomes a mere commodity.
  • The importance of balance: "Too much of yourself, then there's no users. Too much for business, you're building a commodity."

3. The Relationship Between Tools and Human Potential

• "Tools are extensions of us. Once we shape them, they come back to shape us." Ivan explains that tools are extensions of humans, and once we create tools, they reshape us in return.
  • Notion was designed not as a simple productivity tool but as a philosophical tool to expand human creativity and potential.
  • Inspired by Douglas Engelbart's paper 'Augmenting Human Intellect', Ivan believes computing tools can amplify human problem-solving capabilities.

4. Notion's Crisis and Recovery

• The COVID-19 Crisis
  • Notion ran on a single Postgres database instance, and when user numbers surged during COVID-19, the database nearly reached capacity.
  • "We stopped building any new features, all hands on deck." All engineers focused on solving the database sharding problem.
  • The database was weeks from filling up, but they ultimately resolved the issue and survived.

5. Staying Small to Move Fast

• "Notion is a small bus." Ivan compares Notion to a small bus, explaining that a small team can move faster and more nimbly.
  • "The smaller the bus, the easier to turn corners, accelerate, and maneuver." By keeping the team small, they reduced internal communication complexity and maximized efficiency.
  • 'Talent density': Valuing the value created per employee rather than headcount.

6. The Joys and Pains of Building a Horizontal Product

• "Lego for software." Notion aims to build tools that are like Lego for software.
  • "Most people care about Lego boxes, not Lego bricks." Most users want finished Lego sets rather than individual blocks. Notion strives to provide easy-to-use "solutions" while maintaining the flexibility of Lego bricks underneath.
  • Combining with AI: AI leverages Notion's data for better search, connections, and automation, making the process of assembling Lego blocks easier for users.

7. Ivan Zhao's Leadership and Philosophy

• "We shape our tools, and thereafter, our tools shape us." Ivan believes tools play a role in extending human nature.
  • Notion is designed as a tool that amplifies creativity and beauty, helping users maximize their potential.
  • "If it's unique enough for yourself and useful for others, things will follow." Ivan emphasizes that building products aligned with your own values is most important.

8. Market Dynamics: Bundling and Unbundling

• "Empires long united must divide, long divided must unite." Ivan explains that markets cycle through bundling and unbundling.
  • The proliferation of SaaS tools increased the number of tools companies use, and now the trend is shifting back to bundling.
  • Notion leverages its strength as a horizontal tool to integrate diverse functions in this environment.

9. Ivan's Advice

• "Look beyond tech to steal good ideas." Ivan says drawing inspiration from outside technology is important.
  • Find lessons in history, other industries, and complex systems theory.
  • "Good artists copy. Great artists steal."

10. Closing

• Ivan Zhao designed Notion not as a simple productivity tool but as a philosophical tool to expand human creativity and potential.
• His leadership and philosophy are deeply rooted in Notion's success, and Notion will continue opening more possibilities through AI integration.
• "It never gets old when you walk by a coffee shop and see people using Notion." Ivan says he feels great fulfillment whenever he sees people using Notion.

This summary provides deep insights into product development, leadership, and human potential through Notion's founding journey and Ivan Zhao's philosophy.