From Zero to $100M ARR: Notion’s Product-Led Growth Masterclass

Of all the PLG companies I’m tracking, Notion is the hottest. It’s disrupting the $16.6B docs market long dominated by Google and Microsoft.

Word on the street is its AI product is already well north of $100M ARR. And it’s all powered by a textbook case of product-led growth.

Let’s break it down.

I cover all the screen-by-screen details in the deep dive.

Layer 1: Core Problem Communication

Notion’s illustration style is iconic. All their executives use it for their profile pics. And it’s everywhere in their marketing. You immediately understand this is a brand that pays attention to design.

The other major lever of Notion’s problem communication is its community. You can’t go a few weeks without getting invited to a Notion document. These documents act as natural ambassadors.

Layer 2: Information for Decision

Notion has plans for every user. Their free plan is great for personal use. As you become a business, it has paid plans. As you grow, it has enterprise plans. This helps everyone see a version of Notion for them.

On top of that, Notion is differentiated. It’s not quite a doc, spreadsheet, or wiki. It’s all put together.

Layer 3: Friction

In PLG, you have to abolish friction. Notion does, beginning with its onboarding. It eschews the “add more steps” formula of B2B SaaS, and sits in the B2C camp of “fast.”

Once you finish onboarding, Notion drops you into a blank page and encourages you to import. It’s a great way to get people back into the work they were already doing.

Layer 4: Time to Aha

Notion makes docs fast. For instance, instead of having formatting hover in the top, formatting pops up when you highlight text. Features make themselves apparent when you need them.

Notion has a suite of integrations to embed popular files like Figma and Miro. So you can easily built it into your existing workflows, driving a quick aha.

Layer 5: Repeatable Value

Notion creates permanent changes in user behavior through its unified workflow. Companies and people are building their entire operating systems in Notion.

Moreover, Notion has a videogame-like learning curve. There are so many advanced features, that you can endlessly keep improving your Notion use.

Layer 6: Monetization

In true PLG and PLS fashion, Notion has a fantastic free plan. But then if you want to free trial a more expensive plan, it asks you to contact sales.

But, there are plenty of ways to upgrade to paid plans with built-in feature gates, like guests and page history. And with new feature gates constantly being added, like custom sites and AI, Notion’s monetization engine is humming.

Layer 7: Flywheels

The final element to Notion’s PLG motion is its fantastic flywheels. It all begins with its community-led growth. Templates, word of mouth, easy sharing… Notion does it all.

In addition, it has fantastic word of mouth triggers. For instance, making a website is literally 1-click. All of this comes together to create self-reinforcing growth flywheels.

And that’s why Notion is one of the hottest companies in PLG.