ScreenStudio
8,000+ customers, ~$30K/month, #1 Product of the Year 2025 on Product Hunt
Self-taught Polish developer who started building websites at 11. Designs through code. Built Screen Studio solo before adding co-founders.
Adam Pietrasiak was frustrated making product demo videos — they went stale as UIs changed. Inspired by Stripe's polished promo videos, he wondered how much could be automated from mouse-click data. He found screen.studio available, built the MVP, and launched November 2022.
The Receipt
“Screen Studio at $29/mo is unusually and extremely expensive for a video recorder app”
“Today was the best Screen Studio sales day ever (excluding the 50% off promo day in December). Even on product hunt release day, it did not have such revenue. I often think the market will get saturated and it'll get way worse eventually, but then I think the world is quite big.”
— @pie6kThe Journey
Growth trajectory — click a dot to jump
- Nov 2022
launch Screen Studio launches on Product Hunt — 'Beautiful screen recordings in minutes.' 828 upvotes, #1 Product of the Day.
- Dec 2022
milestone Official release with 50% promo. $30,000 revenue in first month.
- Dec 2022
press HN Show HN thread: Mac-only frustration and per-use pricing concerns. Adam responds directly to both.
- Jan 2023
milestone $3,467.45 in a single day — best sales day excluding promo, beating even the Product Hunt launch day.
- May 2023
milestone 5,000+ licenses sold. 80%+ one-month retention. ~30K unique monthly website visitors.
- Sep 2023
milestone 8,000 customers in 9 months. ~$30K/month revenue.
- Jan 2024
other Maciej Gawinek and Dawid Wilewski join as co-founders for marketing and product direction.
- Jun 2024
pivot Windows version development begins after Mac demand conclusively proven. Adam commits to cross-platform.
- Feb 2025
launch Screen Studio v3.0 launches: instant shareable links. #1 Product of the Day, #1 Product of the Year. 1,709 upvotes, 4.89/5 rating.
- Mar 2025
milestone Revenue exceeds $50K/month post-v3.0 launch. Screen Studio establishes leadership in screen recording niche.
- Feb 2026
“why do I need a subscription for something I download once?”
- Apr 2026
“Screen Studio at $29/mo is unusually and extremely expensive for a video recorder app”
- Apr 2026
“The subscription model for an app I'm running on my desktop is taking the piss a bit. I'm fine paying for stuff I use, but I miss buying apps once and either using them as much as I want, or paying to upgrade.”
Outcomes & Insights
Latest outcome
February 2025
Product Hunt launch
#1 Product of the Year 2025; 1,709 upvotes; 4.89/5 across 169 reviews
Twitter virality via demo output: Screen Studio recordings are visually distinctive — viewers ask 'what recorder did you use?' creating organic word-of-mouth at scale
Product Hunt back-to-back launches: #1 Product of Day (Nov 2022) and #1 Product of Year (Feb 2025) drove bursts of press and sales
One-time pricing ($89) against subscription competitors: aligned with professional developer buyer who resists monthly billing
Build-in-public: Adam's early tweets about the build brought first 10 customers; revenue transparency posts drove community amplification
Today was the best Screen Studio sales day ever (excluding the 50% off promo day in December). Even on product hunt release day, it did not have such revenue. I often think the market will get saturated and it'll get way worse eventually, but then I think the world is quite big.
💡 What you can learn
- Screen Studio's critics were OBS users — not Screen Studio's customers.
- Pietrasiak wasn't competing with OBS.
- He was competing with bad demos.
When they pushed back
Mac-only was a deliberate bet and the main criticism. Adam focused on Mac-native experience, making cursor zoom and effects feel native. He built Windows only after proving demand on Mac.
Success patterns
See all patterns →Chat about ScreenStudio loads when this section enters view.