How I Built It: $37K/Month Notion App | Starter Story

In 2019, Julian was a software engineer with a three-hour daily commute, spending that time building side projects. When Notion released its API, he saw an opportunity to copy a feature from Airtable—forms—and build it specifically for Notion users. He built a minimal version in six days, posted it in Notion communities, and within a few years had a business doing $37,000 a month in recurring revenue with nearly 100,000 registered users. His approach was not about a novel technical breakthrough but about speed, platform leverage, and a deliberate growth loop.

Building on a Platform to Skip the Community Problem

Julian’s core strategic choice was to build NodeForms as a plugin for Notion rather than as a standalone product. He explains the logic plainly: “Building around the platform is easier. You don't have to build the community around it. You can kind of cannibalize part of it and try to solve a sub-issue.” Notion already had a massive, engaged user base across Reddit, Facebook groups, and Twitter. By solving a specific pain point for those users—the lack of native forms—he could tap into an existing audience rather than spending years cultivating one from scratch. He acknowledges the tradeoff: platform risk. If Notion changes its API or builds its own forms feature, his business is vulnerable. But for a solo founder starting out, the ability to borrow an existing comm