We recently connected with Steve Vitolo and have shared our conversation below.

Steve, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The idea for Scriptation came to me while I was working as a script coordinator on a TV pilot. Every night, we were distributing a 50-page script to over 100 people after every revision, which just seemed like a massive waste of paper and super inefficient. I wasn’t the one making the script changes, but I was the one printing them out and overseeing the distribution, so I felt somewhat responsible.

I thought there had to be a better way, especially since the iPad had come out a few years earlier. But just going digital wouldn’t be enough—people would still have to manually transfer all their notes from one draft to the next. That’s when it hit me: what if you could make notes on a PDF and then have those notes automatically transfer to the next draft?

So, I started asking around, talking to people in different departments to see if they’d be up for going digital with my idea. The responses were mixed until I mentioned that their notes could transfer automatically, and everyone was suddenly on board.

I posted on Facebook asking if anyone knew a software engineer who was familiar with PDF annotation apps, and I found someone. We started developing the app while I was still working on TV shows, so it was a side project for a while. Every time a show got canceled, which happened a lot, I’d dive back into working on Scriptation full-time.

Eventually, we had a prototype, and I got some advisors to test out the beta version. When it was ready, I put Scriptation on the App Store for $10 just to see if anyone would be interested—and they were. The app spread pretty quickly because it was so demonstrable. Someone on set would use Scriptation, hit a button that would transfer their notes in seconds, while everyone else was still fumbling with paper. Pretty soon, everyone wanted to know what they were using.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I went to Boston University with the goal of becoming a TV writer, and I started in the industry as a production assistant. I worked tough jobs with long hours for very little pay, but I kept at it until I made it into the writer’s room. My first job in a writer’s office was as a writer’s production assistant on Hannah Montana. From there, I worked my way up to becoming a writer’s assistant and script coordinator, eventually landing freelance scripts on shows like Hot in Cleveland, Crowded, and Black-ish.

While my background is in TV writing, I’ve always had a passion for tech. When I was younger, I used to design websites, including a popular Seinfeld fan site in the 90s. Even back then, I was combining entertainment and technology, which has become a big part of who I am. That passion led to Scriptation, where we’ve solved one of the biggest pain points in film and TV production—managing script revisions.

What really sets us apart is that when people use Scriptation’s note transfer feature for the first time, they often describe it as magic. Hearing how much the app has helped people is what I’m most proud of. One of the first things I heard from users was how Scriptation allowed them to finish work faster and get home to see their kids. In an industry where long hours are the norm, being able to give people some of that time back is incredibly rewarding.

We’re constantly innovating and expanding our technology. We’ve built on our note transfer feature by offering a scene-by-scene comparison tool, a breakdown tool that lets you tag elements in a script, a lining tool for script supervisors, and we’re also coming out with a line learning tool for actors. I’m proud that we continue to bring new users to our platform and that we genuinely listen to our customers—they play a big role in driving our innovation.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We had to pivot our entire business model very early on. Initially, we thought we’d secure lucrative deals with studios, and that would be our main revenue stream. We even started developing our platform with an enterprise-first mindset. But during a pitch to one particular studio, I realized they didn’t even understand the script revision problem we were solving. If who you’re trying to sell to doesn’t understand the problem, there was no way they’d buy the solution.

A friend of mine who had successfully exited a business advised me go directly to the consumer by putting Scriptation in the App Store. We did that, and eventually, our consumer success was so strong that studios started reaching out to us. We ended up getting those studio deals, but not in the way we initially expected—it was the success with individual users that brought us to that point.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

When we first launched the app, I wanted to make a big splash, but with very little money and funding, I had to be strategic. I knew Rainn Wilson from playing in a tennis group with some other writers and actors, and he had heard me talk about the app. So I reached out and asked if he’d be willing to shoot an over-the-top ad with us, and he agreed. We filmed it at his house in just an hour or two, and the result was a video called Script Change Hell, which exaggerated the script revision process.

The video ended up getting picked up by a few publications, and one even compared it to a T-Mobile ad that was running at the time. For a small company like ours to get that kind of recognition was a huge win.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://scriptation.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scriptation
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/scriptationapp
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scriptation/
• Twitter: https://x.com/scriptation
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/scriptation