Notion Labs, Inc.
Leadership History
2 leaders · 2013 to present
Ivan Zhao is the CEO of Notion, in the role since 2013.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akshay Kothari | Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer | 2018 | Present | 8 |
| Ivan Zhao | Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder | 2013 | Present | 13 |
Notion is a connected workspace where pages, databases and wikis are built from interchangeable blocks. A team can keep its handbook, product roadmap, meeting notes and project tracker in one place, link them with relational databases, and now ask AI agents to search, summarize or update them. Starting with students, startups and creators, Notion has grown into a tool used by companies such as OpenAI and Cursor. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Notion was founded in 2013 in San Francisco, California, by Ivan Zhao and Simon Last; after a complete codebase rewrite while living in Kyoto, Japan, they relaunched Notion 2.0 to create the iconic all-in-one connected workspace used by over 100 million people worldwide.
Notion uses a freemium subscription model. Individuals can use a Free plan; teams pay per member per month for Plus (about $10 billed annually), Business (about $20, which since May 2025 includes full Notion AI such as agents, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search) or custom-priced Enterprise contracts with SSO, audit logs and admin controls. Revenue grows as free users bring Notion into their employers and teams upgrade to higher tiers. The former standalone Notion AI add-on was retired for new buyers in 2025 when AI moved into the Business plan.
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer
2018 – Present
8 years (current)
Led Notion's early push into Asia, including Japan and Korea, and the scaling of business operations.
Joined as co-founder and COO and built Notion's international expansion and go-to-market operations.
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
2013 – Present
13 years (current)
Kept headcount small for years and avoided raising primary capital after 2021; moved full Notion AI into the $20 Business plan in 2025; launched Notion AI agents (September 2025) and Custom Agents (2026).
Led the 2015 Kyoto rebuild, the 2018 Notion 2.0 breakout, the 2021 Series C at $10 billion, and the 2025-2026 shift to AI agents.
Notion operates in an intensely competitive enterprise productivity software ecosystem where tech monoliths aggressively bundle competing tools. Key challenges include countering Microsoft Loop (which replicates Notion's block canvas and is bundled free into Microsoft 365 enterprise licenses), displacing Atlassian Confluence in risk-averse corporate IT environments, managing the steep learning curve for non-technical enterprise users attempting to build complex relational databases, delivering true offline desktop synchronization, and scaling enterprise sales and customer success without compromising its minimalist design culture.
Ivan Zhao is the Co-Founder and CEO of Notion. Born in China and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Zhao studied cognitive science and visual art at UBC. He co-founded Notion in 2013, famously moved to Kyoto to rebuild the product during a near-death crisis in 2015, and led the company into a $10B global tech leader.
In 2015, Notion's initial Substack-like prototype suffered from constant crashes and impending cash exhaustion; Ivan Zhao and co-founder Simon Last laid off their small staff, sublet their San Francisco office, and moved to an Airbnb in Kyoto, Japan, where they coded 18 hours a day for a year to build the block-based architecture of modern Notion.
Akshay Kothari serves as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Notion. An early investor and advisor, Kothari previously founded news reader Pulse (acquired by LinkedIn in 2013) and served as Head of LinkedIn India before joining Notion in 2018 to lead global business operations, enterprise sales, recruiting, and international expansion.
Simon Last is the Co-Founder of Notion. A graduate in computer science and physics from the University of Maryland, Last designed Notion's core client-side block rendering engine, real-time synchronization protocols, and custom data structure architecture.
Zhao maintains a deeply intentional design culture in San Francisco, furnishing offices with classic mid-century furniture, maintaining an extensive design library, enforcing very high visual standards, and operating with small, highly autonomous engineering pods.
Ivan Zhao (CEO) leads Notion alongside co-founders Simon Last and Akshay Kothari (COO). Notion does not publish a full executive roster in its announcements, so this profile lists only confirmed leaders.
Zhao believes that great software should sell itself: by obsessing over speed, craft, delight, and intuitive ergonomics, users become brand evangelists who introduce Notion to their employers, allowing the company to scale without large, aggressive outbound telemarketing teams.
Zhao views generative AI as the greatest shift in personal computing since the graphical user interface, aiming to transform Notion into an intelligent cognitive partner that organizes knowledge, connects ideas, and automates mundane workplace workflows smoothly.
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