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How Laura and Simon grew Slap from beta to 500 sign-ups and 20 paid customers

Author

Jakob Jelling
June 04, 2025

Meet Laura Piraux.

Laura is the co-founder of Slap. She built it with her favorite colleague (who happens to also be her life-partner), Simon Lejeune.

Both of them are from Belgium but they moved close to Lisbon, Portugal, a few years ago.

Learn how this team of two have built and grown Slap.

A photo which captures two people taking a selfie indoors against a plain white wall with ceiling molding. The person on the left has short, light-colored hair combed to the side, a reddish-blond beard, and is wearing a light gray long-sleeve shirt with a subtle texture. The person on the right has shoulder-length, wavy brown hair with a slight reddish tint and is dressed in a red knit cardigan over a white top, with the cardigan appearing slightly oversized. The lighting is soft and natural, likely from a nearby window, suggesting a daytime setting.

Simon Lejeune and Laura Piraux - Founders of Slap

The story told by Laura Piraux

A team of two

I'm the product owner and Simon is the developer.

We’ve worked with many startups and scale-ups to help them transform their ideas into real (digital) products but, last year, we decided it was time to experiment with building our own product.

We saw this as a challenge to see what we were able to build together, but also as a way to get better at our day-to-day jobs. It forced us to work on parts of the business we were usually only vaguely aware of (sales and marketing – a classic for builders) and to be super selective with what we do with our time.

The fact that we’re only two people working part-time is also a great motivator, pushing us to find ways to build better in less time. If you take half a day building a feature nobody wants, you don’t get paid for that work; that’s just half a day you’ve lost (and where you could have built something else, met friends for a drink, or… play Baldur’s Gate III… and that’s sad).

The photo depicts two people taking a selfie at what appears to be an outdoor festival or event during the evening, as indicated by the darkening sky and bright artificial lights in the background. The person on the left has shoulder-length, wavy brown hair with a slight reddish hue and is wearing a gray knit sweater with a loose, textured weave. The person on the right has short, light-colored hair combed to the side, a reddish-blond beard, and is dressed in a light blue denim jacket over a gray shirt. In the background, a large crowd of people is visible, some standing and others moving, suggesting a lively atmosphere. There are several illuminated structures, including a large screen or sign emitting blue light on the left side, and various other brightly lit stalls or stages with colorful lights, possibly indicating food vendors or entertainment areas typical of a festival. The ground appears to be a mix of dirt and grass, and there are trees and a slight incline in the distance, adding a natural element to the scene. The overall mood is festive, with a sense of excitement and community.

Simon Lejeune and Laura Piraux - Founders of Slap

What is the product?

Slap (getslap.co) is a tool to manage email conversations as tickets, directly within Notion.

A client emails you.

Seconds later, their message appears in your Notion workspace as a ticket. The content of the email appears in the comment section, and you can reply by adding a new comment – no need to leave Notion. The full conversation is visible right there.

Then, you can use Notion's flexibility to assign team members, set priorities, change the status, etc.

The idea came from our experience working for another startup.

We had to manage support requests by email, and using a shared inbox was just chaos. Intercom and Zendesk were good options but were quite expensive for our needs and completely separate from our Notion workspace, where all our business processes lived.

Our clients mainly use it as a support platform and/or as a CRM in Notion.

Currently, it only supports Gmail, but we’re considering adding Outlook support soon too.

The image is a promotional screenshot demonstrating email management within Notion, a productivity and organization tool. The background features a gradient of blue, purple, and pink hues, with the bold text "Manage email conversations in Notion" at the top in white, emphasizing the feature being showcased. The main content displays a Notion workspace with an "Email Conversations" section. On the left, there’s a sidebar with a list of tickets categorized by status and priority: "NEW" (3 tickets): Includes "Oops! Forgot my password" (assigned to Laura, Medium priority, Technical tag). "ONGOING" (2 tickets): Includes "ALERT: POTENTIAL ACCOUNT INTRUSION!" (assigned to Laura, High priority, Technical tag) and "R2 Unit Language Glitch" (assigned to Laura, Medium priority, Technical tag). "NEED OFFLINE MODE—ASAP" (assigned to Laura, Low priority). Each ticket entry shows the assignee (Laura), priority (Low, Medium, High), and tags (Technical). There are 4 total comments indicated across the tickets. The main section on the right focuses on the selected ticket: "ALERT: POTENTIAL ACCOUNT INTRUSION!" It’s assigned to Laura, marked as "ONGOING" with "HIGH" priority, and linked to the email "asst.regional.mgr@dundermifflin.com". The conversation thread includes: An email sent on May 17, 2025, at 14:39:03 GMT from "asst.regional.mgr@dundermifflin.com" with the subject "Suspicious Login Attempt" and a message: "Was this you, or an imposter? Confirm immediately. YOUR ACCOUNT IS SECURE." A reply from Laura 7 minutes later: "YES, that was a routine security check from our system. YOUR ACCOUNT IS SECURE. No action needed from your end." A comment from Laura 6 minutes later: "Vigilance confirmed. Excellent. Carry on." An internal note (marked with #) from Laura 6 minutes later: "# @SIMON Let's see how to avoid triggering those emails, it worries customers." On the far right, there are annotations in light blue boxes explaining features: "Email displayed in comments section" "Reply directly from Notion" "Use # for internal notes" Additionally, there’s an arrow pointing from the Notion interface to a Gmail icon in the bottom left, indicating integration with Gmail for email management within Notion. The overall design is clean, with a focus on functionality and collaboration within the Notion platform.

Screenshots from Slap

The image is a screenshot of a dashboard from Slap, a tool that integrates Notion with email management, as indicated by the tagline "Turn Notion into your customer support platform" at the top left. The Slap logo, featuring a stylized hand icon in pink, blue, and purple, accompanies the tagline. The top right corner includes navigation icons for "Documentation" (a question mark), "Contact Support" (a chat bubble), and a user profile for "laura@getslap.co" with a dropdown arrow, suggesting user settings or logout options. The main section of the dashboard is labeled "DASHBOARD FOR Laura's Workspace," with "Laura's Workspace" in a dropdown menu, indicating the possibility of switching between workspaces. Below this, two tabs are visible: "Syncs" (selected, highlighted in purple) and "Users" (unselected, in gray). A brief description under the tabs reads, "A sync makes the link between a mailbox and a notion database. Learn more here," with "Learn more here" in purple, likely a clickable link. To the right of the tabs, there’s a purple button labeled "Add a New Sync" with a chain-link icon, suggesting the option to create a new connection between a mailbox and a Notion database. Below this, a table lists existing syncs with the following columns: "Mailbox," "Labels," "Notion Database," "Status," and "Actions." Two syncs are shown: The first sync has the mailbox "laura@getslap.co," the label "Support," and links to a Notion database named "Tickets" (with a small Notion icon). Its status is "Active" (in green with a checkmark), and the "Actions" column has an ellipsis ("...") indicating a dropdown for additional options. The second sync also uses the mailbox "laura@getslap.co," the label "Sales," and links to a Notion database named "Leads" (with a Notion icon). Its status is also "Active" (in green with a checkmark), with an ellipsis in the "Actions" column. The overall design is clean and minimalistic, with a white background, purple accents for interactive elements, and a focus on functionality for managing email-to-Notion syncs. The interface is user-friendly, aimed at streamlining customer support or sales workflows within Notion.

Screenshot from Slap

Building and launching

We had the idea in mid-August 2024 and immediately started building a prototype.

We released a beta within two months (October 10th, 2024), but the official launch was at the end of December 2024. That’s when we passed the Google Security Assessment (CASA TIER 2) and began transitioning from a free beta (focused on collecting feedback) to a paid product.

The first 100 sign-ups

When we launched the beta, it took us two months (by December 12th, 2024) to get our first 100 sign-ups. However, not all of them completed the full onboarding or tested the product.

The first 100 sign-ups came mainly from Reddit where we were quite active.

Project status

In total, we have had around 500 sign-ups since the beginning of the project. Currently, we have around 20 paid customers.

Below is a Google Analytics screenshot for getslap.co visitor stats. But our website is not really the most pertinent metric for us as some people sign up directly in our app which is a different domain

The image is a screenshot of an analytics dashboard displaying user activity metrics over a specified period, from January 1 to May 23, 2025. The dashboard appears to be from a web or app analytics tool, showing four key metrics at the top, each with a percentage change compared to a previous period: Active Users: 4.2K, with a 99.4% increase (green upward arrow). Event Count: 16K, with a 102.5% increase (green upward arrow). Key Events: 0, with no change indicated. New Users: 4.2K, with a 98.6% increase (green upward arrow). Each metric is presented in a dropdown format, suggesting the ability to switch between different data views (e.g., "Active users" is selected). To the right of the metrics, there are icons for additional actions: a circular arrow (likely for refreshing the data) and a checkmark with a dropdown arrow (possibly for saving or sharing the view). Below the metrics, a line graph visualizes the data over time, with the x-axis labeled with months (Jan 01, Feb 01, Mar 01, Apr 01, May 01). The y-axis on the right side ranges from 0 to 250, though the specific metric being graphed isn’t explicitly labeled. The graph shows two lines: A solid blue line representing the "Custom" period (January 1 to May 23, 2025). A dashed blue line representing the "Preceding period" (likely a comparable timeframe before January 1, 2025). The solid blue line exhibits significant fluctuations, with several sharp peaks and dips. Notable spikes occur around mid-January, early March, mid-April, and early May, where the values approach or exceed 200 on the y-axis. Between these peaks, the values often drop to near zero, indicating periods of low activity. The dashed blue line (preceding period) shows a similar pattern but with generally lower values, suggesting an overall increase in activity in the custom period compared to the preceding one. At the bottom left, the date range "JAN 1 - MAY 23, 2025" is displayed in a dropdown, indicating the ability to adjust the timeframe. On the bottom right, a link labeled "View reports snapshot" in blue with an arrow suggests access to a more detailed report or a static view of the data. The overall design is clean and minimalistic, with a white background, blue accents for the graph and interactive elements, and green for positive percentage changes, emphasizing growth in user engagement metrics.

Google Analytics for getslap.co

Below is another screenshot from Google Analytics - this time from our app, giving an idea of the usage of the app.

In the last 7 days (mid-May 2025), 2.2K emails have been synced with or sent from Notion by our users and 1.4K new email threads have created a page in Notion.

The image is a screenshot of an analytics report titled "Event count by Event name," likely from a tool tracking user interactions within a software platform, such as Slap or Notion, given the event names. The report covers the "Last 7 days," which, based on the current date of May 29, 2025, spans from May 22 to May 28, 2025. The title is in a dropdown format, indicating that other event-related views might be selectable, and there’s a green checkmark with a dropdown arrow on the right, possibly for saving or sharing the report. The data is presented in a table with two columns: "EVENT NAME" and "EVENT COUNT." Each event name is followed by its count over the 7-day period, along with a percentage change compared to a previous period, indicated by arrows (green for increases, red for decreases, and neutral for no change). The events are listed as follows: notion_comment_created: 2.2K events, with a 12.5% increase (green upward arrow). This suggests users frequently added comments in Notion. notion_page_created: 1.4K events, with a 5.6% increase (green upward arrow), indicating a rise in new page creation within Notion. sync_updated: 61 events, with a 15.3% decrease (red downward arrow), showing fewer updates to syncs between mailboxes and Notion databases. sync_created: 34 events, with a 19.0% decrease (red downward arrow), indicating a decline in new sync creations. user_added_to_org: 39 events, with a 56.0% increase (green upward arrow), reflecting significant growth in adding users to an organization. user_created: 23 events, with a 15.0% increase (green upward arrow), showing a moderate rise in new user account creations. sync_deleted: 21 events, with a 0.0% change (no arrow), indicating no change in the number of sync deletions compared to the previous period. At the bottom left, the timeframe "Last 7 days" is displayed in a dropdown, suggesting the ability to adjust the date range. On the bottom right, a blue link labeled "View events" with an arrow points to additional details or a more granular view of the events. The design is minimalistic, with a white background, blue text for event names and links, and green/red indicators for percentage changes. The layout is clean and focused on providing a quick overview of event activity, likely for a team monitoring user engagement or system usage within a Notion-integrated platform.

Google Analtyics for getslap.co

The business model

The business model is quite standard: Monthly SaaS subscription and pay per user.

The pricing is $10/user (a user is required only if you need to reply to an email directly from Notion).

Marketing struggles

I’d say our main struggle has been not having an established community yet.

Both of us have worked primarily on the product side, not on sales or marketing. And we’ve always worked for others (as freelancers, but still for others). So we never dedicated time to building personal brands or a community of people we could exchange with professionally, who could offer feedback, challenge ideas, or support us with product launches, etc.

It’s only now that we truly see how crucial that is. We now have to work harder because when we communicate, our message still only reaches a few people. Whereas, if you already have a digital presence, I think it’s a bit easier to reach more people directly.

As many builders, we knew from the very beginning that marketing would be the hardest part. But that’s also why we built Slap in the first place. While we knew we could build a product that works, we didn’t know if we would manage to sell it. That’s where we are learning the most.

Marketing hits and misses

Cold emailing
I started with cold emails sent to Notion consultants. Below is the first cold email version I sent.

Email from Laura, co-founder of Slap, to a Notion expert, praising their 5-star reviews and inviting them to a beta call next week. Signed with a wave emoji.

My first cold email version

What worked?
I actually managed to get replies and scheduled demos by sending a relatively small number of emails (around 100-150), which was cool because I was expecting to have to send thousands.

Those demos gave us super valuable feedback, and after that round of demos on V1, we actually worked on a V2 to make adoption much easier.

What didn't work?
While the reception of the product was really good, it didn’t result in paid accounts.

I think there were two reasons for that:

Notion consultants are super busy, and the product wasn’t for them to use directly but for their clients. Plus, I wasn’t offering anything to the Notion consultants (I’m now working on a referral program).

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Of course, the website was important for us as an entry point, and so we have invested in SEO.

What worked?
Our blog posts (example) bring in (some) traffic, and they’re also super practical resources I can use and reuse to post on other platforms or to answer questions.

Typically, on Reddit, I try to be useful and not just push and re-push my product all the time. So I add a link to a blog post that offers a solution to a problem. That’s a way to promote Slap without annoying the Reddit community with purely sales/marketing content.

What didn’t work?
I can’t say we get a lot of organic traffic so far.

I think we still have a big issue with the keywords used (people searching “customer support notion” usually want to contact Notion’s own support, not build a customer support platform in Notion). So rethinking our keyword strategy is one of our next tasks.

Reddit
Since I had no community at all on social media (LinkedIn, etc.) and was not part of any builder community, I thought the anonymity of Reddit could work well.

What worked?
It was great for finding early adopters. My feeling is that people on Reddit are willing to test new products and take risks with them. So I found it was great to get users started.

Still today, between 7 and 8% of the traffic on our website comes from Reddit. I think it’s a sign of the time I invested there (example).

What didn't work?
Many of the sign-ups coming from Reddit were not our target market.

Even if some of them did convert into paying accounts, we noticed most sign-ups were with personal email addresses, and this is not where our product brings the most value (we’re focused on teams of 2-20 people using Notion for professional use).

Online communities and social media
I also started to join other platforms and communities (Notion Creators, BlueSky, No Code communities, etc.).

I’m starting to build connections, but it takes time - it’s not as if we’ve had anything go viral there yet. I view this more as a long-term investment.

Notion integrations gallery + launch platforms
I’ve launched Slap on several launch platforms - like these:

We ranked 3rd Product of the Day on TinyLaunch without putting much effort into it. I’ve seen a few visits from these, but nothing major.

Being listed in the Notion integrations gallery, on the other hand, brings us steadier traffic.

Notion Templates
I’ve built several Notion templates (compatible with Slap) that I can use as lead magnets and where I promote the product.

In total, they've garnered around 5K views and 1.2K downloads. The best performing one (4.9/5 star review) is the Customer Support Platform one.

I’m having a hard time tracking exactly how many people discovered us this way, but I think it’s a cool way to get targeted traffic (if you’re looking for a ticketing system template in Notion, chances are you’re a good potential user for Slap).

It was a good investment because we use these templates for both product integration and marketing.

LinkedIn
I very recently started to not just post on LinkedIn, but also to actively connect with people there (mainly people in the Notion business, but also users).

That got us a great opportunity to showcase the product in a session organized by Notionology. Molly, who organized the session, trains top Notion consultants and has a super impressive contact list.

The demo went well, and Molly found the product interesting enough to share it with her community in a newsletter. That got us a peak in sign-ups, and excitingly, mostly sign-ups that seem to be within our target market!

Customer Support
Seriously, taking the time in customer support to really answer the questions from users and leads, and to collaboratively find solutions for their use cases with them is, first, something I love, and second, a way to build a connection with our users and earn great referrals.

We even got a fantastic testimonial from a client featured on our homepage:

Testimonial from Leigh Share of WePixel on using Slap with Notion: simplifies client requests, centralizes communication, saves time, reduces friction.

Testimonial from a client

One client I helped with other questions spontaneously decided to make a post about our solution on LinkedIn with a cool video to showcase how he uses Slap.

This is gold-standard content I can then reuse in newsletters, on our website, and on social media.

I believe customer support is key when getting started (not just to get good referrals but also to collect valuable feedback). So if you need a simple way to provide excellent support, check out Slap! Ha ha 🙂🙂

What’s next?

Notion referral program
I’m starting a sort of “manual” referral program to encourage Notion consultants to demo and suggest the product to their clients.

Product Hunt launch
We (finally) plan to make our launch on Product Hunt after we’ve released an improved version of the onboarding experience.

Where to find Laura Piraux

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