5
To 4 million of you,
Five years ago today, we released the first version of Scribe on Product Hunt. As they say, if you're not embarrassed by your first product, you didn't do it right—and believe me, looking back now, we are deeply embarrassed. That first version wasn't even internet-enabled! It saved locally on your desktop and was as clunky as they come.
But we put it out there for free because we needed to see if anyone cared about this thing even a fraction as much as we did.
Then, something magical happened.
We started seeing downloads trickle in—first dozens, then hundreds. More importantly, we began receiving notes from users. Not just quick "thanks" messages, but sometimes entire essays of feedback, feature requests, and stories about how Scribe was helping them:
Zain asked to invite his team to collaborate ✔️
Andreea asked to embed guides in other tools her team was using. ✔️
Stefan suggested we create a default workflow name with a date so he could save guides without renaming them. ✔️ (People really got into it!)
And, of course, everyone and their mother asked us to actually connect it to the internet.
I still remember those early demos when I'd explain what Scribe did, only to be met with skeptical looks. "No way, prove it to me," they'd challenge. I'd record a process, hit stop, and watch as their skepticism turned into visible gasps of surprise, followed by delight—and then sometimes frustration: "Where was this last week when I spent 10 hours doing documentation?!" or "How did I not know about this my whole life?"
Within a couple weeks of release, we saw blog posts about Scribe in eight different languages. Our small team would celebrate milestones like hitting 50,000 users—"That's enough to fill a stadium!" we'd exclaim. "That's bigger than my hometown!"
To those early adopters who stuck with us through our most raw and unpolished days: you are Hall of Famers in the halls of Scribe. You're the reason we kept going. Your feedback drove our furious shipping pace as we tried to build something truly worthy of your enthusiasm.
Today, we're proud to say we're now empowering 4 million users to do their best work—from early-stage startups to nearly the entire Fortune 500. That's a community roughly the size of Minneapolis-St. Paul! (Yes, we keep doing that.) We no longer know every user by name, but each one of you has shaped Scribe into what it is today.
In many ways, reaching 4 million feels the same as those early milestones: it's still about people. It's still about that amazing feeling when someone tells us, "Let me share what Scribe did for me in my life and my job, how I was able to do so much more and uplevel my team."
The only difference is now these stories are multiplied across millions. Sometimes it's hard for the human brain to fathom numbers this large, but what excites me most is knowing that for every thank-you note we receive, there are countless others out there getting value from Scribe every day.
Our community remains an incredible bunch: smart, determined, always looking to raise the bar of how work gets done. You hold organizations to a higher standard, and you certainly hold us to one.
Here are a few of your recent notes:
From Peter: “Scribe has been a total game-changer...Whether I’m onboarding teammates or documenting processes for the millionth time, Scribe helps me do it once and share it forever. Thanks for making my work life smoother, smarter, and just a little more fun. 😄”
From Molly: “I didn’t have a roadmap when I started. And I knew how much of a difference that could make for the next person. In high-growth, high-turnover environments, this isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.”
From Alexandra: “We’ve seen a 30% drop in onboarding questions and way fewer follow-up calls. If you’re still walking people through the same steps over and over, there’s a better way.”
From Vicky: “I wish I'd known about Scribe back in 2018 when I was still taking screenshots to create SOPs at work via Word!”
From DaWanna: “OMG!! Scribe is my best friend in the world.”
To DaWanna, right back at you.
Scribe's mission is to unlock human potential by reimagining how we do work. Today's 4 million milestone reaffirms our collective commitment to this mission—and to you, our users.
We're more optimistic than ever about the future. Incredible advances in Generative AI have enabled us to raise the bar on new features coming soon. Of course, they were all inspired by you. We can't wait, as always, to hear what you think.
Until then, thank you for your incredible support. We wouldn’t be here without you.
Onwards and upwards,
Jennifer
