How Mark Jivko Built the Ultimate Screen Annotator

Jakob here 🖐

In my newsletter Fake Mayo I share stories (interviews) of how founders got their first customers.

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After 17 years in software engineering and a decade as a CTO, Mark Jivko knows that the best tools are often the ones that disappear. While filming a YouTube dev log for his latest project in Tenerife, Mark realized that existing screen annotation tools were cluttered and unintuitive. He needed a seamless way to highlight code and manage his webcam overlay without fumbling through complex shortcuts.

Following his philosophy of "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication," Mark spent a month hand-coding Draw on Screen. Eschewing AI-generated "vibe-coding," he built a robust ecosystem using Electron.js, Next.js, and PHP, resulting in a source-available app that works across all operating systems.

The tool features a unique Heads-Up Display wheel, allowing users to control everything via a simple right-click. Since its launch on BetaList, Draw on Screen has grown primarily through word-of-mouth, reaching its first 100 users in just two weeks. For Mark, the project isn’t about obsessing over metrics; it’s about creating a product that "proves itself" by solving a real-world problem.

By focusing on first-principles reasoning and daily iteration, he has turned a personal necessity into a powerful asset for presenters everywhere.

Read the full story
https://www.fakemayo.com/p/how-mark-landed-his-first-100-users-in-just-14-days

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