Founder stories
$10K MRRin 1 year
3 milestones
Bootstrapped a Notion form builder from $0 to $10K MRR in one year
Founder
Julien Nahum
Solo Founder•Technical•France
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
ExperiencedProduct
A form builder that connects directly to Notion databases.
Type
SaaSIndustry
ProductivityModel
FreemiumMarketing Strategy
How Julien acquired customers
Primary Channel
Product Hunt
Also Used
SEO / ContentTwitter / X
Tech Stack
Tools used to build NotionForms
LaravelVue.jsNotion APIStripe
The Full Story
TL;DR
Julien built NotionForms to solve his own problem, reaching $10K MRR in 12 months through Product Hunt and SEO.
NotionForms hit $10K MRR - this is my one-year journey to get there.
The Problem
I was using Notion for everything, but collecting form responses into Notion was painful. Existing solutions were clunky or expensive. I decided to build something better.
Building in Public
I documented the entire journey on Twitter (@jhumanj). This helped build an audience before launch and created accountability to keep shipping.
Product Hunt Launch
The Product Hunt launch was a turning point. We got featured and saw a surge of signups. More importantly, we got valuable feedback from power users.
The Path to $10K MRR
Month 1-3: $0-$500 MRR (building, iterating) Month 4-6: $500-$2K MRR (Product Hunt boost) Month 7-9: $2K-$5K MRR (SEO kicking in) Month 10-12: $5K-$10K MRR (word of mouth)
What Worked
1. Riding the Notion ecosystem wave 2. Freemium with generous free tier 3. Excellent documentation 4. Fast support responses
The Notion community is incredibly supportive of tools that integrate well.
Key Takeaways
1
Building for an existing ecosystem (Notion) provides built-in distribution
2
Product Hunt can accelerate growth if you have a polished product
3
Freemium with generous limits builds word of mouth
4
SEO takes 6+ months but compounds
Originally published onJulien Nahum Blog
Inspired by Julien's journey? Generate a business idea in the Productivity space using AI and real founder data.
Milestone Journey
Julien achieved 3 milestones on the path to $10K MRR
First Customer
$9
7 days
May 2021
93% faster
vs avg 3 months+4 months to next milestone
$1K MRR
$1,000
4 months
September 2021
64% faster
vs avg 11 months+10 months to next milestone
$10K MRR
$10,000
1 year
July 2022
34% faster
vs avg 1 year1 year
Total journey time
3
Milestones achieved
Julien's Path to $10K MRRPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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