He Grew a Simple Notion Extension into a $37K/Month Business

Table of Contents

• Taking the Leap

• Building a Scrappy MVP

• The First Payment

• A Viral Product

• Diversifying the Business

• Ups and Downs

• Parting Advice

• Starting From Zero’s Take:

When Julien Nahum, 28, created a quick Notion add-on in a matter of days, he never expected it to become a business. But speed and innovation were everything.

His form builder, NoteForms, became the first of its kind for Notion, and it’s now pulling in $37,000 in monthly revenue. Here’s how Julien went from an iffy MVP to running a viral, profitable product.

Taking the Leap

Julien’s journey started in Paris, where he studied engineering but found his real passion in entrepreneurship and coding. After moving to London, he taught himself to code, freelanced, and discovered the indie hacker community.

When his girlfriend got a job in Paris, Julien decided to fully commit to his indie hacking dream. He left his job at Amazon Web Services and took the leap into building full-time.

Building a Scrappy MVP

When Notion released its API, Julien spent just a few days building NoteForms (then NotionForms). The first version was basic but functional, allowing users to build forms directly in Notion without sharing access to their database.

It was the first Notion extension available, and despite its simplicity and early bugs, it found an audience quickly.

The First Payment

Julien initially offered NoteForms for free, unsure if anyone would pay for it. After seeing strong interest, he introduced a paid pro plan at $15/month. His first payment felt like a major win, and that customer is still with him today.

The pricing has since increased to $24/month, and he’s added a team tier, diversifying his offerings to fit different users.

A Viral Product

Growth was completely organic. Julien actively sought feedback in every Notion-related community he could find, and word of mouth took off. The viral nature of form builders – with users embedding forms on websites – helped spread the word quickly.

Diversifying the Business

To reduce platform risk, Julien built OpnForm, an open-source, standalone form builder. He’s also working on launching a new form builder for Airtable, diversifying beyond Notion’s ecosystem as it develops its own form feature.

Ups and Downs

The journey hasn’t been without challenges. In the early days, working alone and managing customer support was tough. But Julien pushed through, balanced other projects, and built a sustainable business.

Parting Advice

Julien’s advice? Just get started. You don’t need to quit your job or overthink it – build something simple and fast, then share it for feedback. Even if you’re not technical, tools like AI can help you get going.

If you have a passion for building, like Julien, you might just stumble onto something big.

Starting From Zero’s Take:

This story is a great example of how the indie hacker mindset can lead to big opportunities. Julien didn’t have it all figured out when he built his first MVP—he just saw a gap in the market and moved quickly to fill it. That’s a key takeaway: you don’t need to spend months (or years) perfecting your product. Ship it early, learn from your users, and iterate.

The part I love most about Julien’s journey is how organic the growth was. He didn’t need a huge marketing budget or crazy resources. He spammed communities, yes, but that hustle paid off. And now, thanks to the viral nature of forms, his product is growing through word of mouth.

Also, Julien’s decision to diversify (OpnForm, Airtable) shows how important it is to reduce reliance on a single platform. Platform risk is real—and if you’re building something that depends on someone else’s ecosystem, it’s crucial to hedge your bets.

Lastly, the simplicity of his advice—just get started—should be the mantra for any indie hacker. Don’t overthink it; build, launch, and learn. We live in a time where tools like AI make it easier than ever for non-technical people to get into the game, so there’s really no excuse.

What do you all think? Anyone else out there working on Notion extensions or other indie projects?

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Cheers,

Matt