Hey HN,
This is the post I’ve been waiting 5 months to write.
I launched my very first real SaaS product last month, a Chrome extension called ScreenSmooth that automatically adds smart zoom-ins and buttery-smooth cursor animations to any screen recording.
Why I built it:
Every single time I needed to record a product demo, tutorial, onboarding video, or bug report, I got frustrated. Loom, Screenity, Kap, etc. were all missing the one thing that makes videos actually look professional: automatic, natural-looking zooms + smooth cursor movement. I was spending hours editing in CapCut after every recording. So I decided to fix it myself.
The build journey (the real stuff):
- I Started January 2025 as a complete beginner with Chrome extension APIs.
- Learned canvas manipulation, WebRTC screen capture, mouse-path smoothing algorithms, and AI-based action detection from scratch.
- Biggest technical challenge: making the auto-zoom feel human instead of robotic. I rewrote the easing + timing logic 4 different times until it stopped making people motion-sick.
- Second biggest headache: keeping 1080p/60fps recordings smooth on low-end laptops without crashing the browser. Had to switch from one video processing library to another at 3 a.m. one night.
- Built everything locally for speed and privacy — no cloud upload required.
I shared every single step (the wins, the bugs, the “I’m about to quit” moments) transparently on X @Sayyidalijufri.
Then one day Marc Lou (300K+ followers) randomly bought a copy, loved it, and posted about it. That single tweet sent the whole thing viral in the indie hacker community.
The results (proof inside):
Here’s exactly what the revenue has looked like over the past 7 days:
$239 in 7 days
+405% vs previous period
100% profit margin (because it’s a simple Chrome extension)
All from organic social media. no ads. no sponsorships. Lifetime revenue now over $434 and still climbing.
What I learned as a first-time founder
1. People don’t buy features — they buy “I finally look professional without editing”.
2. Transparent building in public is 10x more powerful than any marketing hack.
3. One influential user (Marc) can change everything.
I’m still shipping almost daily — yesterday just shipped v0.4 with better cursor alignment and export quality.
Link: ScreenSmooth.com - Chrome Extension Screen Recorder with Auto Zoom
Thank you for being the amazing community on HackerNews — this journey wouldn’t have happened without the motivation I get from reading all your posts
