DEVELOPER STORIES

Not many apps have been on iPad longer than Goodnotes, and that’s partly because founder and CEO Steven Chan was a fan of iPad from its very first day. “I waited until 10 p.m. for it to arrive,” he laughs. “For me, the release of iPad was a magical moment. Being able to touch your apps on a big screen was incredible.”

In the years since, Goodnotes — now Goodnotes 6 — has continued to take full advantage of that screen space and the iPadOS ecosystem. It’s an iPad App of the Year, an App Store Editors’ Choice, and the go-to note-taking app for professionals, students, artists, musicians, and hobbyists all over the globe.

Available on: iPhone, iPad, Mac
Team size: 300
Based in: London
Awards: App Store iPad App of the Year (2022), App Store Editor’s Choice

It’s been a long road for what started as a side project from a solo developer who, ironically enough, was trying to avoid work. “I was about to graduate and didn’t want a job right away,” says Chan, with a laugh. The idea for Goodnotes came when he noticed how, at the end of each semester, his paper notebooks would end up at the bottom of a box or trash bin. “I always felt that was a shame,” he says, “so I started experimenting with taking notes digitally. But I was very particular about it: I wanted my notes to look perfect.”

Chan developed the app by himself for five years. (“I was using Goodnotes to develop Goodnotes,” he laughs.) But the 2015 release of Apple Pencil changed things dramatically. “That’s when I realized I couldn’t do everything myself and needed to bring on more engineers,” he says. (He had to get creative elsewhere, too: Without an Apple Pencil of his own, Chan went to a nearby Apple Store to run some field tests. “I connected my iPad to an Apple Pencil there,” Chan laughs. “I’d do some testing, then go to the food court to fix bugs, then go back to the store.”)

Steven Chan, Goodnotes founder and CEO

Today, Chan doesn’t need to resort to quite that level of improvisation: Goodnotes now employs a team of roughly 300 people, spread out around 40 countries.

The app has grown too. Though there’s legacy code under the hood, Chan and team add new features using SwiftUI and optimize the app with Xcode Instruments. Notes and data are synced through CloudKit, which Chan says offers not only more control over the process but keeps costs down and offers collaborative benefits. “We actually were among the first to support CloudKit collaboration for personal note-taking,” he says. “It was pretty magical.”

The M-series chips in iPad power Apple Intelligence features like Writing Tools and Image Playground. “We wanted to be one of the first apps to integrate those APIs in a way that felt native,” says Chan. “The idea is: How can the app be more like a collaborator? How can we delegate tasks?”

Still, all the growth hasn’t changed the mission Chan started by himself all those years ago. “As a tech company, we’re thinking about how to apply the technology to help people solve problems,” he says, “and I think we’re doing a good job.”

Originally published June 9, 2025