He refers to Kothari as a human stem cell, a person who can spot any need in the company, design a plan to do the work, master the work and then eventually hire the right person to lead the new team doing that work. Theres no legacy code. Ivan Zhao Co-founder, Notion # 39657 10,809 followers 246 following 3,240 points Follow About Activity Upvotes 5 Hunted 1 Collection Stacks About notion.so Links Twitter Interests Productivity Badges 5 Top Product Veteran Maker History Notion One workspace. A significant figure among the young post-1980s generation of contemporary Chinese artists, the artist's work often interrogates his home country's institutional systems and politics, appearing anti-authoritarian and non-conformist in its ethos. * Notion's Enterprise Success with Community RootsIvan Zhao(Notion, Co-founder and CEO): Notion, the popular maker of productivity and collaboration tools, . You can be a designer. Vernal remembers Notions first few offices had a no-shoes policy, and when he sent Sequoia partners to learn about the company, he would remind them to wear good socks. This is what Im going to do. Theres nothing else that has more leverage to use my skill set than to help people to use their computer beyond just a typewriter. Eclipsing one million users, Notion (which bills itself as the missing half of Slack) is becoming one of the more interesting and unique productivity tools around. Zhaos vision of creating a community of people empowered to make computers help them be more creative and productive has remained constant. The company is hiring for about 75 more positions. Their angel investment money dwindling, they faced a brutal choice: Fire their fledgling team of 4 and start over, or run out of cash. Zhao Zhao Biography. The site was down for four nerve-wracking hours. Inside Design: How do you stop the undeniable and neverending pressure for you guys to raise more money, go hire a hundred people, to expand? Its like 90% perfect. Dr TONG Weihan . These were the kind of people who took it upon themselves to translate the Notion user guide into Korean because it was only available in English; who ran the Notion subreddit, now with 200,000 subscribers, and who ran the Notion Facebook groups in Korea and the Middle East, both with tens of thousands of members. This reality is not only expensive for businesses, but it has all of their employees jumping and context switching between many apps and tabs all day long just to complete single projects. Just dream of a piece of software, and you should just be able to build that using Notion., I thought it was the single best pitch Id ever seen in my time here, a work of art. I was playing basketball and found out, and I was like, What the fuck? Zhao was unfazed by this success. Inside Design: Do you feel that like digital designers, UX designers, product designers are a little too narrow in their vision? Joint/Adjunct . Related Markets 2. Mr. Zhao said he was wary of bloat slowing the start-up down and degrading the quality of its product. Today, with tens of thousands of templates circulating, Notion reflects that when millions of people are empowered to make their own online tools, they mostly design trackers, project management tools and elaborate tables. Nov 2021 - Present1 year 4 months. Ivan Zhao Founder at Notion San Francisco, California, United States 7K followers 500+ connections Join to view profile Notion Company Website Activity I spent most of my 2022 planning my. You can view this kind of database as a Kanban board if that helps you visualize tasks better. And then he decided to drop out of school and just work on this full time with me, remembers Zhao. It was kind of like despair, I would say. Sometimes something is really hard to code. However, when they rolled out this new Notion to their friends, they saw the framework theyd chosen to build with, a Google web framework called Web Component, crashed constantly. And just talk to people in restaurants, observe how theyre eating ramen, and see if you can change something about their experience. It became how people think, how people communicated. Wired wrote about it, and the Apple App Store featured it. Then the internet came along towards the mid-to-late nineties and that sort of breaks apart the monopoly of Microsoft. I am Ivan Zhao, cofounder/designer of Notion a unified tool for docs, wikis, and tasks. In the 1960s and 70s, these men, particularly Engelbart, envisioned a future in which people used computers to design their own software to accomplish whatever they wanted. But if you step back and look at history you have the entire world history to look at. He was who Notion needed. He was educated first at the church school in Ryazan and then at the theological seminary there. Its like, everybody can be a designer. Ivan Zhao - Systems Engineer and Support Lead - Recreational Services | LinkedIn Ivan Zhao Good person with cybersecurity personality for life Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand 303 followers 300. Zhao: In college, I did freelance work for friends who wanted to build their own websites, and I saw a couple of things. Theres a short history of this (and how it influenced Notion) here. Topics of Influence N/A. He has over 320 original manuscripts published in . Notion, Maker of Collaboration Software, Raises $50 Million. Read More Contact Ivan Zaho's Phone Number and Email Last Update 1/12/2023 1:37 AM Email i***@makenotion.com Engage via Email Contact Number (***) ***-**** Engage via Phone Mobile Number (***) ***-**** Engage via Mobile Company Notion Test Drive ZoomInfo's Directories Today, billions of us use computers, yet only 0.34 percent of the global population are software developers. He wrote, Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more rapid comprehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions.. Id never had a guest come to the office and touch the tables, and appreciate the quality of the leather of the chairs. Notions design also distinguishes it, with a restrained, black-and-not-quite-white aesthetic. That keeps our workflow really quick. Over the years, Kothari rose through the ranks at LinkedIn, becoming vice president of product and moving to Indias tech center, Bengaluru, to help run LinkedIn India as it expanded. And Notions mission is about software tool-making. Even if those tools just look like black-and-not-quite-white document editors at first. Zhao and one of his early Notion colleagues were members of a small scene of people passionate about visually oriented programming environments who followed each other on Twitter, sharing projects and insights. So for a company like Notion, we dont need to do anything just to pick up those ideas and execute. Join Facebook to connect with Ivan Zhao and others you may know. President of Beijing Society of Immunology. tags N/A. People eager to work there have gone to surprising lengths for attention one recently sent a package of cupcakes decorated with his own face and the words Hire me!. We started with Notion 1.0, which was all about docs and notes, and then introduced 2.0 with databases in the spring of 2018. So we went from one thing, Microsoft office, and it became many, many different SaaS products today. Update information for Ivan Zhao More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro Known For Painting Make-Up Department 2015 Hide all | | Edit Filmography Hide Makeup Department (1 credit) Notions innovation was letting users configure views of those databases in customizable ways, so different people could see the same information presented in different ways. That said, increasingly, teams need ways to work better together that dont require a ton of time spent in in-person meetings (which slows everyone down), and a way to keep communication focused and action-oriented. Prof. DAN ZHAO Biography I am currently the Director of Master Engineering Studies and Chair of Research Committee in University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Inside Design: How would you recommend designers start learning about the philosophical underpinnings that guide your thinking? I still remember his pitch. It was pretty much all hands on deck, Kothari says. Changpeng Zhao (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zho Chngpng), commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman, investor, and software engineer.Zhao is the co-founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2022.. In 2012, as he prepared to graduate, many of his friends needed online portfolios. He wanted coding to stop being a tiny community of specially educated people. Ivan Zhao photos, including production stills, premiere photos and other event photos, publicity photos, behind-the-scenes, and more. Furoxans are potentially useful heteroaromatic units in pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals. Today, Zhao estimates Notion can consistently replace about a dozen pieces of software like project-management or list-making tools. They neednt have worried, and they havent spent it. We want to figure out how to turn incoming capital into Moby Dicks first before getting more capital. Movies. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. Ivan Zhao NZ Country HR Leader @ Honeywell, Professional Coach, helping people and organisations grow through driving continuous learning. industry Computer Software. And that becomes slightly more objective, less fashion-y, less Dribbble-y. Well, very few people.. But somewhere during her high school days, she became increasingly interested in a career in films and TV. Do you view the same happening to a designers career? So by the time the men met up in 2018, Kothari had built new processes, teams and cultures inside a company with thousands of employees all over the world. Just dream of a piece of software, and you should just be able to build that using Notion.. They were running out of money. These men saw computers as a way to help humans be more imaginative, more creative, more capable of leveraging intelligence in ways not yet imagined. What was your inspiration or motivation for thinking around this? Description. Ivan Zhao - Co-founder, CEO @ Notion - Crunchbase Person Profile Person Ivan Zhao Overview Number of Founded Organizations 1 CB Rank (Person) 1,361 Primary Job Title Co-founder, CEO Primary Organization Notion Location San Francisco, California, United States Regions San Francisco Bay Area, West Coast, Western US Gender Male In this interview, we talked about the early days of building Notion and creating a community of passionate users, how he uses Notion in his personal life, the influence of Alan Kay and Douglas Engelbart on Notion's design, and much more. Then okay, you should go back to UX stage, maybe change the UX a little bit so it becomes really easy to implement. I was like, Holy shit. And then I consciously dont do that), why the company is only hiring designers who can code, and why he thinks SaaS is a winner-take-all game won by those who truly appreciate the computer screen as a brand new medium. I think we have an early fit that we can double down on. Thats what I mean by creating something that can do many different things, like Lego bricks, but its still fundamentally one product. On Wednesday, Notion said it raised $50 million from Index Ventures and other investors that valued it at $2 billion. 1407 S Market St, Benson, North Carolina, 27504, United States. Even though he had started Notion to help humans use computers for more than word processing, he realized this new version would have to be just that, only built with some flexible tool-making capabilities layered incloser to, he imagined, the kind of software his idols had once envisioned. Zhaos early insights about what makes software ubiquitousthe ability to help people solve everyday life or work problems as easily and intuitively as a document editoris now a key selling point. Add a bio, trivia, and more. A portrait of Engelbart hangs prominently in a first-floor hallway. They wanted to make software that could empower a global community of everyday people to make their own apps and tools without having to write code, all to unlock new levels of creativity and productivity. Notions co-founders are growing an enduring business by nurturing the creative community. The intention, at least for me, is a much larger market. What are you betting on? When he was in high school, his mom wanted more for his education, so she moved them to Vancouver. Bio. But Shana Fisher, an investor at Third Kind Venture Capital who had earlier backed the start-up, cautioned Mr. Zhao about raising too much capital because it could be distracting. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. He initially raised $2 million, which he. Then Bill Gates won, so Microsoft Windows runs everywhere. Keep your work, cut your costs. Sometimes I joke, Moby Dick was written by one person. Three of [Herman Melville] probably wouldnt be much faster. The key to healthy culture and productivity is over-communication and true understanding of what everyone is working on and why its important. Use first principles thinking, what some people call systems thinking. Dont base your approach just on copying and tweaking a little bit what other people have done. Notion had previously been valued at $800 million. Good luck finding a picture of Ivan online. Zhao, who had learned to code as a child, had a big visionto enable people to use any computing device with the same creativity and flexibility that they bring to their writing, allowing them to approach devices as a new medium, whatever that might mean someday. I marveled to myself, Who is this man? He is so discerning and so curious., Co-founder Ivan Zhao at Notions San Francisco office, Zhao grew up with his mom in rmq, a city of 4 million in Chinas northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, also known sometimes just as Xinjiang. 2) it breaks traditional productivity software into blocks text, lists, tasks, databases, images, etc. SAN FRANCISCO The spread of the coronavirus has meant feast or famine for technology start-ups. Ivan Zhao is on Facebook. Required fields are marked *. Each person were looking for will be similar to what we have now. notion.so. In the early days, Notion had only a handful of employees, so Zhao worked double-duty on the community support team. However, the applications for furoxan-based compounds have been hampered due to the underdevelopment of their synthetic methods. Ivan Zhao is currently reading Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China's Countryside by Xiaowei Wang (Goodreads Author) bookshelves: currently-reading Want to Read Rate this book 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Sep 30, 2021 10:35AM See all 11 books that Ivan is reading rss Ivan's Recent Updates BIO. Inside Design: I know you take pride in keeping small and nimble. Congcong Pei, Yu Zeng, Liang Zhao, Jing Zhao, Jingjing Wan. Those people have taste; they just dont have good tools., I was like, Holy shit. Ivan Zhao, the founder of Notion, has created a tool that is remarkably unique: It helps users gain clarity and be more productive in their work yet each one can design a unique workspace thats tailored to his or her needs. Collaborate in real time on a digital whiteboard. Last year, Notion expanded its service to larger corporate clients, who typically need armies of sales representatives and who negotiate complicated contracts. You have all these other planes of vision. Software is a lot like that. Because the investments we made there allowed us to build Notion in a way that it could serve the teenagers using Notion for their use cases all the way to big enterprises using it.. Published October 13, 2022. This is not surprising if you consider how these tools evolved. I van Petrovich Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 at Ryazan, where his father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov, was a village priest. We just launched the 1.0 a couple weeks ago, which you can play with the web/Mac app at notion.so (and we are hiring!) Notion AI Nov 2022 Notion for Students Sep 2019 Notion Template Gallery Apr 2019 Its founders, Ivan Zhao and Simon Last, had built their app on a suboptimal tech stack, and it crashed constantly. Three years into building their startup, they scrapped the code powering their app. A328 David P Rall Building. The present comes from the past. They need to do pixels, they need to do UX, they need to at least be able to code React. That has since quadrupled, Mr. Kothari said. And its flexibility can be used by project managers, productivity superfans, recruiters, executives, product teamspretty much anyone who needs to use computers to get things done (but cant code). Steve Jobs, Bill Gates they copied Xerox PARC. The tones are neutral and warm. So Im saying, and Im seeing, and Im hoping that were in this pendulum swing from one product, Microsoft Office, to too many SaaS products. Frey: What has changed in the nature of work that has created the need for a tool like Notion? Then, on New Years Day in 2021, as Notion workers were relaxing at home, Kothari and Zhao started getting alerts saying Notion had crashed. He focused instead on evolving the product toward his original vision of empowering people to make their own tools, and on growing Notion as a business. You can be a designer. She grew up in her hometown as an ordinary kid without any serious expectations of making a career in the show business. Inside Design: Youve spoken about how designers should look sideways to other fields for inspiration. It was more for nerdy tech crowds. Im the nerd of the friend circle, so I started coding peoples websites for them. Notion takes care of search, notifications, permissions. Three years into building their startup, they scrapped the code powering their app. I almost never had that feeling before, Zhao remembers. 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