Julian's first user acquisition move was "spamming" every Notion-related online community he could find immediately after publishing the MVP. This included Notion's subreddit and multiple Facebook Groups dedicated to Notion users. He was able to do this without backlash because the product was brand new and entirely free — no monetization at all — which made community moderators and members more tolerant of what would otherwise be seen as self-promotion. He also leveraged the fact that Notion had a large, passionate existing community (big subreddit, tons of Facebook groups) so there was a ready-made, concentrated audience to tap into. This allowed him to get "quite a lot of users pretty fast" without any paid spend or pre-existing audience of his own. The zero-friction, free product was the key enabler of this cold outreach into communities.
NoteForms
Form builder that integrates natively with Notion workspaces
10 moves, in order
- Pre launch / MVPRapid mvp build
Built a minimal form-builder integration for Notion in just 6 days, capitalizing on the timing of Notion releasing its public API. Launched immediately with no monetization to reduce friction.
Working MVP live within 6 days of starting - LaunchReddit community posting
Posted in Notion-focused subreddits immediately after publishing the product. Positioned it as free and brand-new, which reduced community pushback against self-promotion links.
Large initial user influx described as 'quite a lot of users pretty fast' - LaunchFacebook groups
Posted in multiple Notion-related Facebook Groups alongside Reddit. Identified Facebook Groups as 'super alive' and particularly effective for niche tool audiences.
Significant early user acquisition alongside Reddit push - Early growthProduct Hunt launch
Launched on Product Hunt to broaden visibility. Julian did not heavily prepare for this — it was a relatively low-effort listing.
Some additional traffic and a backlink, but zero sales attributed to the launch - Early growthTwitter community engagement
Started engaging genuinely with relevant Twitter accounts (inspirational founders, Notion community figures) to build a follower base organically over time, rather than broadcasting cold promotional tweets.
Gradual follower and awareness growth; no specific numbers stated - Scaling — viral loopProduct led viral loop
Built a 'powered by NoteForms' attribution link into every form shared by users. Since forms are inherently shared publicly (embedded on websites, sent to respondents), every form submission became a brand impression. This created a compounding viral loop: more users → more forms shared → more signups.
Core growth engine; contributed to scaling to ~100K registered usersUsers 100k users - Monetization launchEmail to existing users
After accumulating a large free user base with Pro-tagged locked features (labeled 'free during beta, will be paid later'), Julian flipped the paywall switch and emailed all existing users with a 40% lifetime discount code as a reward for early adoption.
First sale was a $90 annual subscription on day one; grew steadily from there to $37K MRR - Revenue growthGoogle Ads
Invested approximately $3K/month in Google Ads as the primary paid acquisition channel. Julian noted this was the only paid channel used because it was the one he understood.
Ongoing paid acquisition contributing to current $37K MRRMRR $37k - Retention & expansionIn product feedback loops
Embedded multiple in-product touchpoints (bug report buttons, feature request buttons, feedback prompts, AI chatbot trained on docs and past conversations) to continuously surface user needs. Only built features explicitly requested by users.
Higher retention and product-market fit improvement; reduced churn by building what users actually wanted - Pricing optimizationPricing experimentation
Started with below-market pricing (justified by having fewer features than competitors). Gradually increased prices incrementally, monitoring conversion impact. Added higher-tier plans over time to capture more revenue per customer.
Price increases had no meaningful negative impact on conversion; added incremental MRRMRR $37k
Julian was already a power Notion user for 2-3 years, giving him deep domain knowledge and direct access to the Notion community. He also had 10 years of experience with the same tech stack (PHP/Laravel), enabling him to ship an MVP in just 6 days and iterate quickly by reusing code from prior projects.
viral_product_loop
Product Hunt launch: Julian explicitly said he got more eyes on the product but did not get a single sale from it, and believes it is "a bit overrated." He noted some founders waste weeks preparing for a PH launch for what amounts to a small traffic bump and a backlink. Twitter was also slow to start due to the cold-start problem of having no followers initially.
How I Built It: $37K/Month Notion App
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