Two Years to Land Notion: The Sponsorship Patience Play
The Story
Milly Tamati pursued Notion as a sponsor for two years, reaching out through four different contacts before the partnership materialized (Source 1). The collaboration was a hit for all parties, and Notion renewed its sponsorship for another quarter (Source 1).
Since shifting to a lifetime community membership model, Milly has leaned into sponsorships and brand deals as a core revenue stream (Source 1). Recent brand partners include Notion, Canva, Lovable, Gamma, and Zapier (Source 1).
Her sponsorship pricing as of 2025: newsletter sponsorship at $1,500 per placement (or $4,500 for a 4-placement bundle), podcast sponsorship at $10,000/month, LinkedIn post at $750, TikTok video at $750 (Source 2).
The newsletter has 55,800 subscribers with a 45.3% open rate and 8% click-through rate (Source 2). Audience demographics: 55% aged 35-44, 40% US-based, 30% UK, 15% Australia. Audience profile: C-level executives, entrepreneurs, business owners, content creators (Source 2).
Her approach to sponsorships emphasizes “intentional, thoughtful messaging” rather than transactional advertising. She focuses on repeated sponsorships that build trust and improve ROI over time (Source 2).
Community programming is also sponsored: the Summer School of Generalist Skills was sponsored by Notion and Canva (Source 1).
Lesson for Creators
Two years of outreach for a single sponsor sounds like a long time. But Milly wasn’t just chasing a deal. She was building a relationship with a brand whose audience overlapped perfectly with hers. The 45% open rate and C-level audience demographics are what make the sponsorship valuable enough for Notion to renew. The lesson: sponsorship revenue scales with audience quality, not just audience size. 55,800 subscribers with a 45% open rate is worth more than 500,000 with 10%.
Related
- From Side Hustle to One Million ARR — Alex Garcia: $65-75K/month sponsorship revenue at scale
- The One-Person Media Empire — Lenny Rachitsky: $2M podcast sponsorships in year one
- 9,200 Subscribers from One-Way Substack Recommendations — Tom Orbach: same patience-and-receipts pattern, applied to recommendations
- The 600 Decision-Makers Map — Nathan May: the same finite-named-list outreach approach to a small B2B universe
- The “Mind If I Add You?” LinkedIn DM — Nathan May: faster cousin of the patience play — direct DM with named-peer social proof
- The Sponsor Hunt That Almost Killed the Newsletter — Jesse J. Anderson: contrast — sponsorships drained the creator and got abandoned for paid subs