The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Strategic decision · 2020–2024
Skiff's $14M encrypted-workspace bet: Notion acquisition, then shutdown
A $14.2M privacy-first email and docs startup was acquired by Notion in February 2024; all Skiff services were sunset six months later.
Skiff
What the business is
A privacy-first productivity suite: end-to-end encrypted email, documents, calendar, and file storage marketed as a private alternative to Google Workspace.
How it started
Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg launched Skiff in April 2020, initially as an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Docs, later adding calendar, email, and Drive. It raised $14.2M over two rounds from Sequoia Capital, John Hennessy, Jerry Yang, Balaji Srinivasan, and others.
What happened
Skiff grew a loyal privacy-minded user base but stayed small next to the incumbents it was attacking. Notion had tracked it since 2020; in early 2024 it bought the company — and announced the product would shut down within months, with user accounts not being converted.
How it ended up
Skiff's services — Mail, Pages, Calendar, and Drive — were sunset on August 9, 2024; email forwarding ran until February 9, 2025, after user feedback extended the window from six to twelve months. Notion kept the team and technology.
Background
Skiff was a bet that privacy could sell productivity software. Launched in April 2020 by Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, it began as an end-to-end encrypted alternative to Google Docs and expanded into email, calendar, and file storage — everything encrypted, nothing monetized from user data. Backed by $14.2 million from Sequoia Capital, John Hennessy, Jerry Yang, and Balaji Srinivasan, it built a loyal audience of users who wanted a private, ad-free workspace.
The product found believers but never became a default — the hard part of displacing Google Workspace. Notion had been watching since 2020, and in February 2024 it announced it had acquired Skiff. In the same announcement, users learned the product would be shut down: accounts would not be converted, and the service would sunset after six months, later extended to twelve after user complaints.
Skiff's services — Mail, Pages, Calendar, and Drive — were sunset on August 9, 2024, with email forwarding running until February 9, 2025. The acquisition was about the team and technology, not the product's survival: the founders and their work joined Notion, and the encrypted workspace Skiff had built was absorbed into the buyer.
What has to be true
- Encryption was a feature, not a moat: users liked privacy but did not switch their daily email and docs to a small vendor at scale.
- The category was winner-take-most: against Google Workspace, staying a niche 'secure alternative' never reached the volumes a funded suite needed.
- The buyer's prize was the team and tech: Notion had no plan to keep the product running, only the people and code behind it.
What can be applied
Privacy as a wedge only works if the rest of the product is a daily-habit category winner; when the buyer's real prize is the team, the users get a sunset notice.
Aftermath
After the sunset, Skiff's founders and engineers joined Notion, which had been tracking the startup since 2020 and described the deal as a union of shared product vision. Skiff's own migration page remained the record of the shutdown: all services ended August 9, 2024, and only automatic mail forwarding survived until February 9, 2025.
Sources
- Meet Skiff, the newest member of the Notion family
- Notion acquires privacy-focused productivity platform Skiff
- Skiff – Migrating your data
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