Notion's Journey from Subreddit Frustrations to $10B

The All-in-One Workspace Promise

Before Notion, people used Evernote for notes, Trello for tasks, Google Docs for docs, and Excel for spreadsheets. The productivity subreddits were full of people asking for ways to connect these tools or complaining about "app fatigue."

Solving Fragmentation

Notion's genius was listening to the complaints about context switching. Users hated having their information siloed. Notion didn't just build a better note-taking app; they built a "lego set" for productivity that allowed users to build their own workflows, solving the specific fragmentation pain point.

The Power of Templates

Notion observed how users were hacking other tools to fit their needs. They empowered this behavior by allowing users to share templates. This turned their user base into their biggest marketing asset, as people shared their custom Notion setups on Reddit, driving viral growth.