---
title: "How Notion helped a college “tools guy” build a business serving 150+ clients"
description: "Tem Nugmanov turned his reputation as a college “tools guy” into Optemization, a consultancy built around improving companies’ collaboration and productivity tools. The business began when an entrepreneur asked him to help move a startup to Notion, and five years later it had served more than 150 clients, including Discord, CashApp, and Metalab, while becoming a million-dollar agency. For Blank Street, Optemization rebuilt the Notion workspace with individual team pages, cross-functional databases, and automated processes to support onboarding, store expansion, and information access. The redesigned workspace became the coffee chain’s digital office, housing its newsletter, resource hub, and location information, while Tem reports that the consultancy now makes over $80,000 a month. He attributes the company’s development to starting before he felt ready, maintaining self-belief, and returning to hands-on building."
---

# How Notion helped a college “tools guy” build a business serving 150+ clients

[Notion](https://yomu.fyi/company/notion) · Jun 13, 2025

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

Tem Nugmanov turned his reputation as a college “tools guy” into Optemization, a consultancy built around improving companies’ collaboration and productivity tools. The business began when an entrepreneur asked him to help move a startup to Notion, and five years later it had served more than 150 clients, including Discord, CashApp, and Metalab, while becoming a million-dollar agency. For Blank Street, Optemization rebuilt the Notion workspace with individual team pages, cross-functional databases, and automated processes to support onboarding, store expansion, and information access. The redesigned workspace became the coffee chain’s digital office, housing its newsletter, resource hub, and location information, while Tem reports that the consultancy now makes over $80,000 a month. He attributes the company’s development to starting before he felt ready, maintaining self-belief, and returning to hands-on building.

## Context

Tem became known for creating efficient processes and automating tasks in the clubs and organizations he led at NYU. Blank Street later needed its technology stack and Notion workspace to keep pace with rapid growth, support employee onboarding, and help the company open new stores.

## Approach / What changed

Optemization helps companies improve their collaboration and productivity tools. For Blank Street, Tem and his team created individual team pages, cross-functional databases, and automated processes, then redesigned the Notion workspace as a central digital office containing operational and cultural information.

## Takeaways

- Optemization originated from a paid request to help an entrepreneur’s startup switch from another tool to Notion.
- Blank Street initially made a $99 Notion template its digital headquarters before engaging Optemization two years after launch.
- After noticing that management was pulling him away from hands-on work, Tem returned to building customer databases to set a standard for his team and reconnect with the work.

**Tags:** [Notion](https://yomu.fyi/topic/notion), [Productivity](https://yomu.fyi/topic/productivity)

- Source: [Notion](https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/how-notion-helped-a-college-tools-guy-build-a-business-serving-150-clients)
- Source URL: https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/how-notion-helped-a-college-tools-guy-build-a-business-serving-150-clients
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-09T05:21:24.601Z

[Read original post](https://www.notion.com/en-gb/blog/how-notion-helped-a-college-tools-guy-build-a-business-serving-150-clients)