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I love good design.
I could spend all day talking about branding, product design, and my adoration for Jony Ive. When it comes to building consumer tech products, I often think of this quote from Steve Jobs: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
There’s a strong argument that the iPhone is be the greatest work of art of the 21st Century
Even Bill Gates, Jobs’s arch rival, admired Apple’s design sensibility—after Jobs’s death, Gates told 60 Minutes: “[Steve] knew about brand—in a very positive sense. He had an intuitive sense for marketing that was amazing.”
I have a soft-spot for tech products that feel like a work of art, and Notion is such a product. It’s gorgeous, sleek, intuitive. My friend Sarah Cannon once wrote of it, “I deeply admire artists who get to the essence of things…Notion’s product reflects a philosophy of minimalism. The product facilitates a singular focus on the things that matter.”
I use Notion to run my day-to-day life—writing to-do lists, tracking startups, outlining Digital Native pieces. When my dad asked me over Christmas why Taylor Swift is so great, I wrote him “An Education in Taylor Swift” in Notion. (It’s publicly available here if you’re in need of indoctrination.)
Notion is a fascinating case study in versatility. On the one hand, Notion is an enterprise software company that sells into big companies. Customers include Pixar and Figma. My partner works at Faire, now about 1,200 employees, and Faire runs on Notion; Notion is its central nervous system. In a world of global, distributed teams, Notion offers a source of truth and acts as a company wiki.
Yet Notion is also a viral consumer product. Somehow, a productivity software tool captured the imagination of Gen Z and became something of a TikTok sensation. Young people use Notion for homework planners, content calendars, Pinterest-like vision boards. And they aren’t shy about broadcasting their love for the product:
In addition to product design, I have another great love: understanding how startups grow. I geek out about brand, marketing, and virality. And Notion’s growth playbook is one of the more savvy and unique out there.
Notion’s secret weapon is a function that many startups overlook: Community.
At a time when distribution is more difficult than ever for entrepreneurs—post-ATT CAC headwinds, Big Tech incumbents, AI shifting how we interface with companies—Community offers a new and underutilized distribution channel.
I spoke to Ben Lang, Notion’s Head of Community, to understand how Notion has leveraged community to scale and how other startups can replicate its success. This week’s piece stems from our conversation: