The Story Behind row.so

I’ve always loved using Notion. It was my digital home — a place where I brainstormed, organized, and tracked everything. Over time, I started building small public resources — like lists of indie tools, AI startups, and micro SaaS projects — all beautifully formatted inside Notion.

But there was a problem.

No matter how much effort I put into designing those pages, they still felt stuck. I wanted to turn them into something more — something interactive, searchable, and alive. I wanted to share my Notion databases as public directories, not just static pages.

I searched for tools that could do this. Some were too complex, others required code, and most simply didn’t get the simplicity I loved about Notion. That’s when the pain point hit me:

“Why is it so hard to turn a Notion database into a real directory?”

That question became the seed for row.so.

row.so is a small, focused tool built for creators, makers, and curators who already love Notion — but want to go one step further. With just a few clicks, you can connect your Notion database and instantly create a searchable, filterable, and beautifully designed directory — ready to share with the world.

No code. No setup. Just your content, given a new life.

Building row.so wasn’t about chasing the next big SaaS trend. It was about solving a small, real problem that I personally felt — and realizing that thousands of other Notion users felt the same.

That’s the magic of indie hacking: finding a pain you deeply understand, and building something simple that makes it disappear.

RichardFounder, row.so