Growing a simple Notion extension into a $37k/mo form-builder business

Julien Nahum, 28, didn’t think anyone would pay for a Notion add-on he built in a few days. But it turns out speed is everything.

His form builder NoteForms was the first extension of its kind — and it’s now netting him $37,000 a month.

He took me through his journey so far 👇.

Taking the leap

I grew up in Paris and I stayed there until I was 19. After high school I studied engineering. Super technical, chemical stuff. I really hated it.

I was into the idea of entrepreneurship and computers. I learned a bit about coding on my own, then I moved to London and studied computer science there for four years. I did freelance on the side, which taught me a lot.

I also had this kind of indie hacking mindset and I built tons of small projects, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends.

When I was maybe 22 or 23, I discovered the indie hackers community online. That there were other people doing what I was doing and a ton of resources to learn from. 

I was working for Amazon Web Services while building all these projects and trying to contribute to open source on the side. It was all a bit intense. 

One day, my girlfriend got a job opportunity in Paris, so we decided to move back. I thought it was the perfect time for me to try and go all-in on indie hacking.

A scrappy MVP

When Notion released its API, it allowed developers to create products around their ecosystem. I spent maybe three or four days building the first version of NoteForms, which was called NotionForms at the time.

Then, I just launched it.

The first version was simple. You could create an account, connect your Notion account, then make some scrappy forms. It was a bit buggy, but it was the first Notion extension available.

You’d have your Notion database properties displayed as inputs and you could just reorder them. It was simple, but it was the first time people could get some data into their Notion workspace without having to give access (to the Notion database) or even without sharing that they're using Notion.

Since then, we've built tons of features. There are some Notion-specific things such as Notion relation supports. We also have tons of security features and customization options. Essentially, everything you can expect from a form builder these days.

The tech stack today is almost the same as when I started. The backend uses a PHP framework called Laravel. We just added Nuxt onto the front end, which is built with the Vue framework.

The first payment

When I started NoteForms, it was free and there was no business plan. I even thought about selling the project and I listed it on Acquire, which was very popular back then.

Some people were super interested and I realized I must have missed something, so I decided not to sell.

After maybe three months I decided to introduce a pro plan which offered advanced features and customization options for $15 a month.

I remember the first day just waiting for the first payment notification to appear. It came that night and it felt really nice. The guy who made that payment is still a customer today.

I've increased the pricing twice since then. It went from $15 to $19 and now it's at $24.

I also added a tier for teams, which allows you to have as many people on board as you need and provides extra team-related features.

A viral product

Growth was super organic. At the very beginning, I was proactive with getting feedback every time I came up with a new version.

At the time, the Notion community was still kind of small. People were starting to share templates, but it was still pretty new. There were no other apps. 

I basically spammed every Notion-related community I could find. Facebook groups, Reddit, Twitter — even some Slack channels.

Because it was so new and entirely free, people were kind of fine with me spamming. There are so many little tools around Notion now, I’m not sure you could get away with it anymore.

After this, word of mouth started to kick in. A form builder is a super viral product by nature. You create a form and you share it, embed it on your website.

Depending on your options, we include a link and a note: “Created with NoteForms.” That really helps with SEO and with getting the word out there.

Diversify your business

OpnForm is the same product, but without Notion. It’s a standalone, open-source form builder. As developers, we use open-sourced software all the time, so I wanted to contribute to that community.

You can take the code for OpnForm and use it for free on your own server. Or you can use the version we host for a small fee. I launched it about a year and a half ago.

My goal is to build a cool product that people can contribute to — build tools and integrations for the product. I'm really trying to focus on the community aspect of it. It’s growing slowly but people are using it. Some people are super active around it.

It’s also a chance for me to diversify a bit from the platform risk NoteForms has as a Notion extension. It’s going to be an interesting time for the product because Notion is going to release its own native form builder.

Obviously, I would have preferred to be the only option. But I expect the feature will be pretty simple. Best case scenario, people realize they can use forms for Notion databases in the first place, and it raises awareness for us.

I’m about to launch another form builder for Airtable, which has a native form builder that’s pretty limited. It needs a little work still to iron out some technical issues. But it will be ready in a few weeks.

Ups and downs

There have been plenty of cool moments so far. Reaching 3k per month, when I realized I could pay my rent. I could live off this product. That was huge. 

And when it reached 10k MRR, that was amazing.

But there were difficult times too. During the first year and a half, I was working entirely alone and had all this customer support. I was also stressed out about platform risk. That was pretty paralyzing, to be honest.

But I kept working on it, and I spent some time on other projects while maintaining it. I chilled out and it ended up just fine.

100% control

Indie hacking has given me so much freedom. It’s amazing to 100% be able to control your time.

If I decide not to work one day, or just finish early one afternoon, that’s fine. I play tennis almost every day. I can go get lunch with my grandma if I want.

Realizing you can do your own thing and make money online really changes your perspective of what you can do with your time. I value that a lot.

Parting advice

The most important thing is just get started and try to make something as fast as you can. I created a scrappy product in a few days. Getting some feedback was really motivating and helped validate the idea.

You don't have to quit your job to do it. You can spend a few hours on the weekend.

Once you’ve put something together, talk about it, share it on Twitter or LinkedIn or whatever community you like. Don’t be shy. It really helps to get feedback.

Even if you’re not technical, you can still get started these days. Because of AI, there’s no reason not to start working on your project.

Try to have fun with it and it will be much easier.