Articles by Ivan
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Steam, Steel, and Infinite Minds
Steam, Steel, and Infinite Minds
Every era is shaped by its miracle material. Steel forged the Gilded Age.
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100 Million of You
100 Million of You
Last week, Notion just passed 100M users! I found the photo I took after we reached 1000 users. And I still recall the…
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisLast night I got to help organize a happy hour for ex startup founders working at Notion. The energy they have around the absolutely incredible things they are building here gave me an optimism I haven't felt in a while, having spent too much time trying to just stay on top of 'everything happening right now' I'm going to spend less time on that external chatter and more time on founders (both the ones here, and anyone out there who wants to chat - reach out!!) To that end, Anthony Accomazzo (Founder of Sequin, acq by Notion last year) is hiring a Software Engineer for User Database Infrastructure, and this is not one to miss: https://lnkd.in/gAmA5yrD
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Ivan Zhao shared thisThere’s a gap between how models benchmark and how they FEEL in real-world knowledge work. Our research team wanted to study the latter, so they created the Notion Knowledge Board: live, anonymized traffic scored by an ensemble judge built with researchers at Anthropic and OpenAI. TLDR: — Real work is messier than benchmarks — Open and closed models both have their place — Fast models can also be capable Here's the link: https://lnkd.in/gBHd_Kik
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisExcited to share that I’ve recently joined Notion to build the UK business! Why? Mission and people. So much of AI today is built for the world’s largest companies, or for individuals using single-player chatbots. Notion brings enterprise-grade AI to the millions of businesses that make up the global economy. From an independent bakery in Healdsburg, to restaurants in London, to the hotel in a remote town on a Greek island, all the way to OpenAI, and Ramp running on Notion. I’d rather build toward more businesses participating in the next few years than a few. If you’re a Notion user, I’d love to hear from you. What are you building? What’s working? What could be better? Feel free to reach out. Thank you to Ivan Zhao, Akshay Kothari, Erica Anderson and Andrew McCarthy for the opportunity!
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisSkip the resume. Seriously. We're hiring SDRs and BDRs. To apply, just build an agent a sales team would actually use. Apply by July 15 (tag your friends): https://lnkd.in/e4EhjKHQ
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisA year ago, I joined Notion and one of the first things I did was ask our People team for something a little audacious: forget the playbook and throw out what has worked in the past, and build from first principles - with a beginner’s mindset. Instead of making incremental adjustments to our existing programs, I asked the team to truly reimagine what work could feel like in an AI-native world, starting with ourselves as Customer Zero and a blank page. A year in, here's what's stayed with me. ❤️ You GET to drive transformation. For too long, People teams have been beholden to Eng and internal tooling teams, and we’ve missed the moment. AI has democratized building, and every function has shipped something real: we created our own comp tool, automated our ask channels, reimagined case management, crafted agile interview guides, and automated complex workflows for onboarding and offboarding. 🤝 One system, one team. The more we built, the more the gaps showed — our data, ops, and infrastructure weren't connected, so every agent needed a one-off fix. We hosted our inaugural People Kick Off (PKO, a three day offsite with the whole global team) and mapped out the key moments that matter to Notinos: from offer, to Day 1, to 5 year anniversary, to alumni. We built a People Analytics team to retool our metrics — moving from time to hire to quality of hire. Shout out to Brian! Instead of shipping our org chart, we move as one cohesive team with a consistent Notino experience. 🏗️ Ship like a product org. We break things apart and rebuild with our customer in mind. Instead of rigid, time-based programs, we're piloting nudges and building white glove, bespoke experiences in real time. What's moved me most is watching our most tenured teammates lead from the front (looking at you, Vina, Kate, Emily, Pattie, Cuyler). Their fingerprints are all over the best of what we've built. 🖼️ Try new things and keep our craft high. Build days are our new normal with focus week once a quarter, hackathons, sprints, Claude Cowork sessions. We run like a lab: experiment, share in the open, celebrate the wins, and learn out loud when something misses. No precious egos, just rapid eval and faster impact. None of this was ever really about AI. It's about what becomes possible for people when you give them room to dream big. And, because we build it for ourselves, we get to hand it to the millions of teams who run on Notion. "You can just build things" has never been more true for People orgs. I'd love to compare notes and dropped a form in the comments. Share your ideas, sign up for updates, or even better — we’re hiring — come build the future of work with us. 💛
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisWe're finally shedding the .so (thank you Somalia!), and using the .com for Notion. And for this beautiful moment, I want to share a fun story: Back in 2018, I had just joined Notion, and one of the first things Ivan Zhao asked me to do was figure out how we could own notion.com. I had never done a big domain purchase before, so I reached out to a few domain brokers to understand the landscape. We tried different brokers, kept things anonymous, and attempted to surface a price the seller might consider. A year went by… nothing. Meanwhile, it was pretty clear this was only going to get more expensive as we grew. We needed a different approach. A fellow founder connected me to a broker who took a very different tack. Less transactional, more long-term relationship builder. He spent months getting to know the domain owner. Turns out owner was a fellow entrepreneur in the west coast… and a huge Grateful Dead fan. So we figured, why not get creative? Something beyond just price. So I called up our investor Ronny Conway and asked if there was any way he could help set up a private meeting between the domain owner and the Grateful Dead. Ronny is one of those people who somehow makes impossible things possible. A week later he calls me back: “New York City. Halloween. 15 minutes after the concert. Done.” The broker went back to the owner with an offer: some cash, some equity, and a private meeting with the Grateful Dead. That got his attention. He didn’t take the band meeting in the end, but he did lean into the equity (great call, in hindsight). We shook hands, and a few weeks later, the deal was done. I’ve been waiting years for the day we move our product to notion.com. Looks like 2026 is finally the year. Safe to say I’m unreasonably excited about this update!
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisI’m moving to Dublin to take on the GM, EMEA role at Notion. 🍀 My first priority is to meet as many customers as possible. If you’re a Notion user or customer in EMEA, I’d love to speak with you. My focus is simple: 1️⃣ Build a talent destination — a place where top talent go to transform their life and career 2️⃣ Deliver exceptional customer value — helping customers build their AI operating system for work I’ve spent the last few weeks getting to know the team and visiting all the offices. We have something special here at Notion: 🚀 Surpassed $500M ARR last year 📈 Revenue has accelerated for 7 straight quarters 🤖 AI now counts for 60% of our business (3x YoY) 🙂 Cash flow positive Excited to build with this team! Excited to build with our customers!
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Ivan Zhao reposted thisIvan Zhao reposted thisThe first interview at Notion no longer involves a resume. The CEO of Notion, Ivan Zhao, wants to see something you've actually built. That’s not a quirky startup thing anymore, it’s the new normal. In the AI era, companies want to see what you can do with the AI tools. The candidates who stand out aren’t just AI curious. They’re "fluent". They’ve built Skills, they've shipped projects, automated workflows, prototyped ideas, and moved faster because they treat these tools like a superpower. The resume is becoming table stakes. Your portfolio, especially the one you’ve built with AI, is what gets you in the room. And yes, compensation is shifting too. Companies are starting to reward people who actually leverage these tools to deliver significantly more value. If you’re early in your career or reinventing yourself right now, here’s my direct advice: Stop consuming, start building. Get creative. Ship something this month. Document your process. Share what you learn. The future belongs to the makers, and it’s arriving faster than most people realize. Links below for the full episode 👇
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Ivan Zhao liked thisCongrats to Max Schoening the new CTO of Notion. Max's strong engineering and product sense is exactly what Notion needs for its next chapter. I can't be more excited about the future of Notion with Max at the helm! As for me, I will be a Notion advisor until the end of year and plan to take a much needed and planned sabbatical.
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Ivan Zhao reacted on thisIvan Zhao reacted on thisDay 1 of the Forward Deployed Sales University! 🎓 We are setting out to train the next generation of sales leaders in EMEA. The leaders of the future will not only be great at commercial conversations, but they will also be great at building new workflows. Value is being captured by those who can rethink and rebuild the process end-to-end. Proud of the team. Building and learning together!
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Ivan Zhao reacted on thisIvan Zhao reacted on thisExcited to share that I’ve recently joined Notion to build the UK business! Why? Mission and people. So much of AI today is built for the world’s largest companies, or for individuals using single-player chatbots. Notion brings enterprise-grade AI to the millions of businesses that make up the global economy. From an independent bakery in Healdsburg, to restaurants in London, to the hotel in a remote town on a Greek island, all the way to OpenAI, and Ramp running on Notion. I’d rather build toward more businesses participating in the next few years than a few. If you’re a Notion user, I’d love to hear from you. What are you building? What’s working? What could be better? Feel free to reach out. Thank you to Ivan Zhao, Akshay Kothari, Erica Anderson and Andrew McCarthy for the opportunity!
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Ivan Zhao reacted on thisIvan Zhao reacted on thisKnowledge work is becoming programmable. To meet this moment, we have evolved Notion’s GTM organization: The future of GTM is here, and it looks a lot less like “selling software licenses” and a lot more like building systems with customers. It’s now possible to turn a customer's ideas into something useful in the first meeting. Our customers want us to build alongside them, with fewer handoffs, quicker iterations, and custom workflows that leverage AI for their business. This means each member of our team will have more ownership and stronger builder capabilities across the customer journey. So we’re moving from nine specialized roles into four builder roles: • 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 who identify customers ready to build • 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 who own the account end to end and turn customer goals into functioning workflows • 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 who build beside customers to drive adoption and durable value • 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 who design and implement technical systems for complex customer workflows I believe this is where software is going. Customers won’t work with the companies that can only describe the future of work. They’ll choose the teams that can help them 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 it today. We’re hiring for our next chapter. No business should be left behind in the AI era. It’s our mission at Notion to help millions of businesses make that leap. If you work in sales, solutions consulting, technical pre-sales, customer success, solutions architecture, or even just someone passionate about working directly with customers to bring them into the AI era, let’s talk.
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