PitchMagic

Notion pitch deck (2013)

Notion's 2013 pitch deck is the seed deck Ivan Zhao sent to Elad Gil in March 2013, later published by Notion itself. It pitches one home for notes, docs and small pieces of software, long before Notion was the product people know today. Founders study the Notion pitch deck to see how a big, abstract vision was sold with simple diagrams and very few words.

Company
Notion
Year
2013
Round
Seed
Slides
16
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Deck © Notion. Shared for learning, credited to notion.notion.site.

What's in the Notion pitch deck

All 16 slides, in order.

  1. Notion pitch deck, slide 1: Cover

    Slide 1 · Cover

    The Notion name, Ivan Zhao, March 2013 to Elad Gil, and a stone tool next to the line we shape our tools, and thereafter our tools will shape us.

  2. Notion pitch deck, slide 2: Background

    Slide 2 · Background

    Only 2 million developers write software for 80 million knowledge workers and 200+ million internet users.

  3. Notion pitch deck, slide 3: Mission

    Slide 3 · Mission

    Democratize software and bring computing power to non-programmers.

  4. Notion pitch deck, slide 4: Problem

    Slide 4 · Problem

    The software as applications model is highly inefficient, shown with Word, Gmail and Photoshop, and summed up as we can't go to Mars by sending Word documents around.

  5. Notion pitch deck, slide 5: Solution

    Slide 5 · Solution

    Notion is a centralized home for your information and software, built in layers from web to visual editor, structured content, LEGO for software and a marketplace.

  6. Notion pitch deck, slide 6: Demo

    Slide 6 · Demo

    A placeholder slide for a live Notion demo.

  7. Notion pitch deck, slide 7: Markets Overview

    Slide 7 · Markets Overview

    A horizontal product across design tools ($500m), web hosting ($2B to $3B), office and docs ($22B+), enterprise SaaS ($120B+) and a new software marketplace.

  8. Notion pitch deck, slide 8: Design Tools Today

    Slide 8 · Design Tools Today

    A diagram of the painful loop between designers, clients and developers passing images and mocks back and forth.

  9. Notion pitch deck, slide 9: Design Tools with Notion

    Slide 9 · Design Tools with Notion

    Designers and clients work in one environment with no developers in the middle.

  10. Notion pitch deck, slide 10: Enterprise Today

    Slide 10 · Enterprise Today

    Users are pigeon-holed into one application or yet another SaaS vertical.

  11. Notion pitch deck, slide 11: Enterprise with Notion

    Slide 11 · Enterprise with Notion

    Tailored software for all, from conservative users with a webpage to advanced users with docs, data, email and mobile.

  12. Notion pitch deck, slide 12: Marketplace Today

    Slide 12 · Marketplace Today

    Developers keep rebuilding the same old stuff with no division of labor.

  13. Notion pitch deck, slide 13: Marketplace with Notion

    Slide 13 · Marketplace with Notion

    Make once, serve many, with Notion providing hosting and plumbing on top of existing open source libraries.

  14. Notion pitch deck, slide 14: Marketplace Economy

    Slide 14 · Marketplace Economy

    Notion tracks usage when an end user pays $5 and distributes revenue to the building blocks used, priced at $2, $1 and free.

  15. Notion pitch deck, slide 15: Timing

    Slide 15 · Timing

    Hypercard in the 80s and OpenDoc in the 90s tried this, and now the web with HTML5 is the right platform.

  16. Notion pitch deck, slide 16: Roadmap

    Slide 16 · Roadmap

    5 months to private beta for design tools, then public beta, and 15 months to a Series A.

What the Notion deck does well

  • Slide 2 frames the whole opportunity with one ratio, 2 million developers building for 80 million knowledge workers, shown as simple icons.
  • Slides 8 to 14 use a today versus with Notion pair for each market, so every claim comes with a before and after picture.
  • Slide 15 answers why now by naming past attempts, Hypercard and OpenDoc, and saying what changed.

What founders can learn from it

  • If your vision is big and abstract, pick one small first market, like Notion did with design tools, and show it on the roadmap.
  • Use before and after diagrams instead of paragraphs when your product changes how people work.
  • Name the earlier companies that tried your idea and explain why the timing is different now.

Questions about the Notion pitch deck

How many slides are in the Notion pitch deck?
The 2013 Notion seed pitch deck has 16 slides.
What's in the Notion pitch deck?
It covers background, mission, problem, solution, a demo slot, a market overview, before and after slides for design tools, enterprise and a software marketplace, a timing slide and an 18-month roadmap.
Can I download the Notion pitch deck?
Yes. The full 2013 Notion pitch deck is free to download as a PDF on this page. Notion also published it on its own site.
Who was the Notion pitch deck sent to?
The cover says it was sent by Ivan Zhao to Elad Gil in March 2013.
What problem did the Notion pitch deck describe?
It said the software as applications model is highly inefficient, with people stuck in separate apps and only a small number of developers able to build software for everyone else.

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