The most convenient markdown editor opened in a new browser tab

Jakub Mikita — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 13:52:24 +0000

If you're like myself, who prefers to type on a keyboard rather than writing on paper, you probably know that having another opened app is a hassle. Either you need to keep the window open or wait until it boots again.

It was so annoying that I decided to build my own product, And my team executed it flawlessly, starting with the branding and ending with the implementation.

MadNotes solves the issue above. It provides a place for your brain dump. Nowadays, we do most of our work in the browser. That was the perfect place to put the notepad. But not another web app that's 2137th tab you need to search for! No, no. It opens in each new tab and acts like a homepage. Done writing? Just close it. Need to add one more thing? Open a new tab, it's not loading anything from a remote location, so it doesn't slow down your browser. It's just there. I'm personally using it for the daily to-do list and meeting notes.

Lately, we released an initial version - Chrome, Firefox, Edge extensions, and a standalone web app. Now we're working on the PRO version that will allow syncing the notes across multiple devices, provide the light theme, and a few more customization options. Did I mention the full End2End encryption? Yeah, that's by default.

Let me know what you think about the app! I'm very open to hearing your thoughts and feature requests. Thanks! 🙌

How a stupid idea became a startup aka. #YetAnotherNotepadApp

Jakub Mikita — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 17:58:23 +0000

It's not a story of "ohhhh, I have an idea", then release, then millions of $ of revenue. This is a story of "we can do it better", a struggle to release, and a small new business.

I'm a developer (duh), and I like writing on my keyboard more than writing with a pen. But at the same time, I like that a piece of paper and a pen can always be there, right on the spot, contrary to an app which I need to open, wait until it boots, and then I can start writing. No one has time for that bulls*it.

I needed something as quick as grabbing a pen. And I found it. A browser extension that replaces new tab with a blank canvas - a notepad. How cool is that?

All good, I've been working with it for a couple of months and loved the experience. But there's always a "but". It was just a single note, so I often had 38 kilometers of a document to scroll, and it didn't sync to other devices 👎

This is where I jump out of my office and scream "let's create own app!!!11oneone".

The idea was simple, I found a decent markdown editor lib and asked my wife - a graphic designer - to make it beautiful. It was just a matter of installing an NPM package, throwing a couple of lines of CSS, and making it available across all of my devices using Chrome sync storage.

But we started brainstorming this idea more and more. That, in no time, became a "let's make it public" idea. And then "make it public and create a pro version for a silly price". And then... here we are.

We went through a full branding, designing, and coding process, spending over 200 hours as a team for a dumb app like many others. And we're not even finished. But what keeps us rolling is that we believe in it. I still want a great-looking and working notepad, even if I'd be the one and only user. But maybe there are others like me 🤔

We worked on the App in the meantime of doing the client work. That was tough. We had to drop the ball for several days straight, multiple times, to be able to come back to it and continue working for a few hours. But we finally did release a demo version!

If you're keen to see what we're up to, check out MadNotes, that's the name.

I thought maybe I could share some personal insights with dev.to community if anyone would be interested in how we do it, what problems we're facing and how we resolve them. Let me know if you do! I'm also happy to answer any questions.

DEV Community: Jakub Mikita

The most convenient markdown editor opened in a new browser tab

How a stupid idea became a startup aka. #YetAnotherNotepadApp