How Notion built a super-strong community and attracted millions of fans: An interview with Ben Lang
Apr 25, 2023
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Ben Lang, Head of Community at Notion, shares his secrets to creating an engaged community of millions of fans. He discusses community building, hiring the right people, and his experience at Notion. The podcast explores the significance of community building for startups and emphasizes the importance of understanding the target audience. Ben also mentions his role as an active angel investor and his passion for mentoring startups.
Notion's intentional and careful approach to hiring the best talent has contributed to their success in growing from 10 to 500 employees.
Building a passionate community around a product can be instrumental in spreading awareness and increasing user engagement.
Deep dives
Building Notion from 10 to 500 employees
Ben Lang discusses his experience at Notion, where he joined as one of the first employees and witnessed the company's growth from 10 to 500 employees. Notion's intentional and careful approach to hiring, focusing on bringing in the best talent and rigorously evaluating each candidate, has contributed to their success. With 20 million plus users, Notion has become a widely used platform for various personal and work-related tasks.
Creating a thriving community around Notion
The importance of building a community around a product is emphasized by Lang. He shares how Notion recognized early on that there were passionate individuals who wanted to be part of the Notion journey. By bringing together these early adopters through an ambassador program, Notion empowered them to share their love for the product through various channels like YouTube, newsletters, and Twitter. This organic and authentic approach proved to be instrumental in spreading awareness and increasing user engagement.
Investing in startups and the importance of team dynamics
Lang shares his experience as an angel investor and highlights the significance of investing in startups with founders who have a long-term vision and commitment to their ventures. He emphasizes the importance of founders who are passionate about their products and are willing to devote the next 10 to 15 years of their lives to the startup. Additionally, Lang mentions the value of founders who have worked together before, as it provides a foundation of trust and understanding in navigating the ups and downs of building a company.
In this episode of The Visual VC, Daniel Zaturansky interviews Ben Lang, head of community at Notion and he actually shared his secrets to creating an engaged community of millions of fans! Ben is also an active angel investor. Ben shares his insights on community building, hiring the right people, and what he looks for in a startup team before investing. He also talks about his experience at Notion, from joining as one of the first 10 employees to helping the company grow to over 500 employees and 20 million users. If you're looking for practical advice and insight on building, growing, and securing funding for your startup, you don't want to miss this episode.
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