# Notion: ambassadors, template creators and a billion TikTok views

> How Notion grew to 100M users with ambassadors, template creators who earn from the marketplace and creator videos in every niche. A Social Burning case. (Notion did not use the Social Burning framework; the case shows the same mechanism.)

Source: https://socialburning.com/examples/notion
Last updated: 2026-10-11

- **Organic engine:** users sharing their setups, templates and workflows
- **Many voices:** ambassadors in 23+ countries, template creators, #Notion past 1B TikTok views (2023)
- **Amplification:** paid sponsored creator videos; a template marketplace and affiliate program
- **Result:** 100M users (Aug 2024, per Notion); about $500M annual revenue (Sep 2025, CNBC)
- **Caveat:** no evidence of boosting creator posts as ads

Notion is the best-documented example of a software company growing through many niche voices. students, founders, productivity creators and ambassadors each showed Notion from their own angle, and template creators built businesses on top of it. Notion did not use the Social Burning framework, but it shows the core idea clearly: one product, many niches, each reached by someone who speaks its language.

## How did Notion grow through community?

by letting users show their own setups. a student's study dashboard, a founder's company wiki and a creator's content calendar are three different videos about the same product. Notion's own blog says it reached 100 million users in August 2024, and a Community Inc deep dive reports #Notion passed 1 billion TikTok views by September 2023.

## How did ambassadors and templates help?

Notion started an ambassador program in 2019 with 20 people and grew it past 200 in 23+ countries, according to Community Inc. its template marketplace lets creators sell their setups, and Notion says some creators made $1M in 2023. that turned power users into teachers with a reason to keep posting new, original content.

## Did Notion pay to amplify?

Community Inc reports Notion paid creators for sponsored videos, roughly $500 to $1,000 for 20,000 to 70,000 views. it also runs an affiliate program. we found no evidence that Notion boosted creator posts as Spark Ads or partnership ads, so the paid layer here is sponsoring creators, not promoting proven posts.

## What Notion teaches about the Social Burning framework

| what Notion did | the Social Burning framework version |
|---|---|
| a student, a founder and a creator each showed their setup | each account serves one specific niche with its own angle |
| templates gave people something original to share | original, useful content per account, never reposts |
| sponsored creator videos on top | paid goes behind posts and angles that already proved themselves |
| community in every country and niche | the loop keeps adding angles where the scoring sheet finds demand |

to plan niches like this for your product, read [Social Burning accounts](/blog/social-burning-accounts).

## Videos

- [The ultimate second brain setup in Notion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs8WQh2k-Ow) by Thomas Frank (2022-05-26, youtube, creator): the creator whose templates became a business.
- [Notion hacks for back to school, with a student creator](https://www.tiktok.com/@notionhq/video/7405703869973499167) by @notionhq (2024, tiktok, brand): the brand account running creator-led content.
- [Ivan Zhao: Notion's lost years and staying small](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIPKMixTMfE) by Lenny's Podcast (2025-03-06, youtube, interview): the founder on community-led growth.
- [First Block: Ivan Zhao and Simon Last](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMrjvxCIPpY) by Notion (2024-03-21, youtube, brand): the official founder story.

## Sources

- [Notion blog, Sep 2024: 100 million of you](https://www.notion.com/blog/100-million-of-you)
- [Community Inc: how Notion built community everywhere](https://community.inc/deep-dives/community-everywhere-notion)
- [Notion Help: selling on the marketplace](https://www.notion.com/help/selling-on-marketplace)
- [Wikipedia: Notion revenue and valuation history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notion_(productivity_software))