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Sameer Sanagala

Building notionapps.com so everyone can build apps

Sameer Sanagala is the Co-Founder and CEO of utilize, a company currently focused on developing Notion Apps.14 He has a background in Computer Science engineering with a minor in Film and Media from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.4

Sameer's professional journey includes:

  1. Working as a Software Development Engineer at Flipkart from 2015 to 2017.4
  2. Co-founding Otra, an outdoor advertising startup, from 2017 to 2018.4
  3. Participating in Entrepreneur First as a Fellow in early 2019.4
  4. Founding utilize in August 2019, where he currently serves as CEO.4

At utilize, Sameer and his team initially created a platform for building mobile apps from Google Sheets for deskless teams. They later pivoted to Notion Apps, which allows users to create mobile and web applications based on their Notion databases.1 This pivot has shown promising results, with around 1500 signups and growing revenue.1

Sameer describes himself as an engineer who became a marketer and is focused on helping founders acquire their first 1000 users for their SaaS products.3 He is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, and continues to build and improve notionapps.com.24

Highlights

Feb 13 · linkedin

Progress report of NotionApps (10 months after launch)

• Traction

  • Signups: 2200
  • Paid: 45
  • End-users: 16,000+ (till date)
  • Monthly active end-users: 300+ (as of Jan)
  • Top 5 use cases: Client Portal, Task Tracker, Member Portal, Field Apps, Directories 
  • Top countries: Japan, USA, UK, France

• Product & Customer

  • One-liner: Build apps from Notion in minutes
  • Target persona: Small businesses and agencies using Notion
  • Viability: Proven (40% revenue increase after December release)
  • Is it a hair-on-fire problem? Maybe, an increase in conversion will prove it more
  • First mover advantage: Exists, still the only app builder for Notion
  • Competitive advantage: Exists, users of Glide moved their apps to NotionApps 
  • Platform risk: Exists
  • Global product? Proven, signups from 84 countries  
  • Latest major feature: Relations support (resulted in more conversions)
  • Upcoming major feature: Desktop view (expected to 2x the conversion)
  • Rebranding: Deprioritized 
  • Video tutorials: Pending
  • Better onboarding? Pending for March. Improved app templates.

• Growth

  • Next 3 months: 2-3x revenue
  • End of year: 5-10x revenue 
  • Niche: Exists, staying focussed on Notion
  • Hockey stick: No signs 
  • Sustainable growth: Yes
  • Scope for top-funnel growth? 5-10x this year.
  • Better conversion rate? Current 2%. Goal 5%. 

• Marketing channels

  • Communities: Proven. Notion-based groups.
  • Reddit, Li, X, FB groups: 30% of total traffic
  • Non-English communities: Pending
  • Content: About NotionApps, Notion, and building in public
  • Founder profile: <10% of traffic but helps build relationships with power users
  • Partner persona: Exists, got paid subscriptions through Notion consultants
  • Influencer persona: Exists, 30% of traffic from Notion/no-code influencers
  • Free tools: Pending, launching one in Mar
  • Product Hunt: Next launch in Apr
  • Lifetime deals: Currently live. Limited. Targeted for power users and partners. 
  • SEO & blog: Pending
  • Cold outreach: Deprioritised

• Pricing experiments

  • Increased prices for new users: Pending for Feb
  • Paywall for features: Pending for Mar
  • Per-user pricing: Pending for Mar
  • Add-on pricing: Pending for Feb (extra domain, extra workspace, etc)

• Funding

  • Angel funding: Relevant
  • VC funding: Not relevant
  • YC: Rejected
  • Accelerators: Applied to TinySeed, Antler, and a few others 
  • Outreach: More actively from this month

• Team

  • Founders: Jatin & Sameer 
  • Hiring: No full-time, working with freelancers and interns
  • Tech: 1 intern, hiring one more
  • Design: First project with a freelancer 95% complete 
  • Content: Hiring an intern for content/community tasks  
  • Mindset: Execution mode
  • Big Mission: Enable 10 million businesses with custom apps without the need for traditional software developers or consultants. 
  • Motivation: To grow revenue, not thinking about the big mission.
  • Temptations: To work on an AI/prompt-based app-building experience
  • Mental health: WIP

#buildinpublic #notion

Jan 29 · linkedin

People from 85 countries built apps using NotionApps without coding. People from 111 countries have used apps that were built on NotionApps.

It includes big boys like Japan, USA, India, and France, and also nations like Mauritius, Georgia, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and so on.

I know we have a long way to go, but this stat makes me a tad bit proud of how we are building a new-age app builder for the global audience.

#notion #buildinpublic

Related Questions

What inspired you to pivot from Utilize to Notion Apps?
How did Startup Wise Guys help in your company's growth?
What challenges did you face when transitioning to Notion Apps?
Can you share more about the Notion Apps product and its features?
How did you manage to acquire 1500 signups for Notion Apps?
Sameer Sanagala
Sameer Sanagala, photo 1
Sameer Sanagala, photo 2
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Location

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India