13. Notion

Founders: Ivan Zhao (CEO), Simon Last, Akshay Kothari
Launched: 2013
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $330 million
Valuation: $10 billion
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, cloud computing, generative AI, low code/no code software
Industry: Enterprise technology
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 1 (No. 32 in 2023)

There is no shortage of work productivity and management tools available today, but few have the enthusiastic user base of Notion. 

The platform lets users take notes, share and create documents, make to-do lists, manage projects, build wikis and collaborate. What makes it stand out from others is a minimalist interface that's easy to customize and connect with dozens of applications like Google Drive, Trello, Jira, Slack, Zapier and Asana. Notion has become something of a millennial and Gen Z favorite, sparking a passionate and engaged app community with more than 20 million users worldwide. Its flexibility makes it useful to individuals, small businesses and large teams at Fortune 500 companies.

Like many other companies, Notion has integrated AI into its platform in recent years. This includes Notion AI, an AI-powered assistant that can generate summaries, help polish writing, create to-dos based on meeting notes and more. In May, it introduced a new AI-powered version of Notion Projects, a project management system integrated with AI, which lets users plan, manage, and execute a project in one place. In November, it released Q&A, a supercharged AI-assisted search function that sifts through a user's documents, projects, notes and more to answer questions. 

For a company with an implied valuation of $10 billion and more than 600 employees worldwide, Notion has few investors and a centralized ownership structure. Forbes estimates that Notion's founder, Ivan Zhao, still has at least 30% equity ownership. Zhao had a reputation for being anti-VC until the pandemic convinced him to raise some funds, and the company has received $330 million in funding thus far. It last raised $275 million from Coatue Management, Sequoia and Base10 in 2021.

Notion has plenty of competition, not just from other startups, but from tech giants. Google's work suite now includes AI, while Microsoft's collaboration app, Loop, has been called a Notion copycat.

At a time of continued layoffs in tech, Notion has expanded its team by more than 30% and added some senior staff. It appointed a new chief revenue officer, Erica Anderson, formerly CRO at GitHub, and hired Fuzzy Khosrowshahi, who created Google Sheets, as its chief technology officer. Notion also appointed its first chief marketing officer, Rachel Hepworth, one of its early marketing hires.