How Notion grew without ads and how you can copy it
Notion didn't buy Super Bowl spots or run massive paid campaigns early on. They gave free accounts to students, teachers, and productivity YouTubers -people who were already obsessed with organizing their lives.
Those people made videos, wrote templates, and posted "my Notion setup" content for years. Free. Because they genuinely loved using it.
That's the part most founders miss. Notion didn't pay for reach. They gave early access to people whose audience already wanted exactly that kind of tool, and let genuine use do the talking.
Most of us don't have Notion's budget or timeline to wait years for that to compound. But the mechanic is copyable at any size: find the small creators whose audience already needs your specific tool, give them real access, and let the content come from actually using it.
That's the exact model behind Aproov: matching early founders with creators through free access or rev share, instead of chasing big names with a marketing budget you don't have.
Anyone else studied a "no-ads" growth story that shaped how you think about marketing?
Good point. I think another part people miss is making it easy for creators to share. Give them a few ready templates, simple examples, and a quick setup so they can create content in one day. Then watch which videos or posts bring real users, not just views. Keep working with the creators that bring active customers. A small group of the right people is usually better than a big list that never converts.
Thanks a lot for your comment Tamal. And strong point about giving them ready templates. Maybe we can do something with your take. thanks a lot!
hope It helps me to get to Notion numbers ;). Got in!
You have the product, Aproov gives you reach. Beyond that, sky is the limit
love it
Nice point. Being innovative when you don’t have a budget is the key to survival. Early stage businesses should use it as a major part of their growth hack strategy.
This is a really smart take,
The Notion playbook is the perfect example of how giving the right creators early access can compound into massive organic reach. Most founders try to buy distribution when they should be earning it through genuine use.
The rev share + free access model for early-stage founders feels much more aligned than the traditional "pay upfront for a post" approach. Creators get skin in the game and founders don't burn cash before seeing results.
Definitely checking Aproov out. Good luck with the next cohort!
Thanks a lot Chanchalsaini200!
Giving free access to people who were already obsessed with organizing their lives instead of paying for reach is the part that made it compound for years without feeling like marketing.
Matching that mechanic to small creators whose audience already needs the tool feels like the more realistic version for founders without Notion's timeline.
Exactly, Lily. Thanks a lot for your comment!
Good point. The key seems to be giving access to people who already have the problem, not just people with big audiences.
For early products, smaller creators with a very specific audience can probably drive better trust than broad paid campaigns. The content also feels more credible because it comes from actual usage.
I completely agree. Audience relevance usually matters more than audience size. A creator who genuinely uses the product and speaks to the right niche often drives far more trust than a much larger account promoting it.
Exactly
Nailed it!! Thanks a lot for your comment
just listed for second cohort!!! love the insight on notion, also
thanks!!! we already have you pre-matched. stay tuned!
Great insights!
I run GrowthStash.io where I curate and share marketing strategies from founders and companies.
Mind if I feature this gem on the site?
My pleasure!! If you need any more info, please dm in twitter (or here)
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I create AI video ads with Kling, Runway, Seedance"
Worth flagging a tension in your own pitch. The Notion magic came from free access and genuine use, but the moment you add rev share the creator's incentive shifts from 'I love this' to 'I get paid per conversion', and audiences smell that as fast as they smell a paid post. Your free-access cohort and your rev-share cohort probably behave differently enough to track apart. The quieter hard part is the plumbing: rev share means you owe real money per creator, so you need per-creator conversion tracking and clean payouts, not just matching. That's where most creator programmes fall over around the 30-50 creator mark, when the spreadsheet stops scaling. How are you attributing a signup to a specific creator today?
The part that clicks for me is 'let genuine use do the talking' because people can smell the difference between 'this person is paid to say nice things' and 'this person actually uses this every day and can't stop talking about it.' Question: when you're matching creators with founders, how do you filter for genuine fit vs. someone who'll do it just for the access?
The template ecosystem is probably the most interesting part of Notion’s growth. Templates weren’t just content or an extra feature. Each one was a working product demo created and distributed by a user.
It makes me wonder what the equivalent of a “template” could be for other SaaS products. What can users create for themselves that is valuable enough to share and naturally brings the next person into the product?
The Notion play is a channel program dressed up in creator clothing. I ran a Microsoft reseller channel for 20 years, and the partners who moved the most product were never the ones we paid, they were the ones building their own businesses on top of ours (templates, setups, consulting). If a creator can make money around your product without you cutting a check, distribution starts to take care of itself.
Good point, Gregory!
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proud notion user!
hahahaha now we are two
I think the underrated part is that Notion gave people something worth creating content around. Templates, workflows, dashboards... users weren't just reviewing the product, they were building on top of it. That creates a much stronger content loop than a typical SaaS.
Good point. I think the creator program worked because it amplified a behavior users already had...
Yeah, that's how I see it too. The creator program gave people a reason to discover Notion, but the product itself gave them something to keep sharing. If users don't naturally create artifacts others want to copy, it's much harder for that loop to sustain itself.
Thats true. But it was like that on the second wave, when many people already knew the product. For the first spike and beyond, they gain reach , basically, given free access to creators depending on their reach. Here you have their program, for example: https://www.notion.com/es/help/notion-for-creators
Fair point. I was thinking more about why the growth sustained over time than how it started. Giving creators access got the initial reach, but having a product people could build templates and workflows around probably made that growth compound instead of fading after the first campaign.
Of course of course. One thing is gaining reach, and how to do it, so can get known, but the most important thing is having a product so good, that people love creating content about. I was talking about how Notion, or you as a founder, can gain reach with no money, but, as you said, Notion success over the years does not depend on that, but on a product people love. Agree. Thanks a lot for your take!!
The Notion playbook works because the product fit the creator format perfectly. A "my Notion setup" video is genuinely interesting to watch because the tool is visual and personal.The harder question is how you copy the mechanic when your product doesn't naturally create that kind of content. B2B tools especially, the output is a meeting booked or a deal closed, which isn't exactly YouTube fodder. The rev share angle is interesting though. Giving creators skin in the game rather than just free access changes the incentive completely. They're not reviewing it, they're selling it.
Agree on the Notion take. Very "visually rich" for Youtube. We contemplate all kind of platforms, to adapt to the founders's company and service. Ex: Linkedin is the best one if you are selling B2B, not YouTube. We have creators on all kind of platforms. Every company is different as is the platform and the creator, but the take from Notion's playbook ("Notion didn't pay for reach. They gave early access to people whose audience already wanted exactly that kind of tool") is the common key.
And thanks a lot for your take on rev share and beyond, you nailed it!!
Curious if you were launching from zero today with no audiance, where would you look for those 20 creators?
depend on your product. if you are a b2c and no tech, maybe instagram or tikTok is your best channel. And the,, which creators? Normally you should do a regular search. There are now some tools that promise you you write your product and could find "your creators" -look for them-. For example, Aproov's approach is matching directly with them, so you don't have to search at all.
Notion is known for its extremely simple operating mode and the integration of a lot of AI into the system.
Totally. That's why many people love it. As do I
Approved... The problem is that there are tools and tools, and then there's Notion, and then there are influencers and influencers. To make it work like that, you have to combine the "hunger" and the desire to eat, otherwise it will hardly work. As for Aproov, there's nothing like trying the tool to see what happens...
Combining hunger and the desire to eat its an awesome metaphor and how our tool was built. Based on your comment, would like to know your take: what would be a no-brainer for you?
here to answer anything
That said, it's not very friendly for small teams doing AI product startups—the API costs can add up quickly.
what do you mean?