InformalBox6398

I have the opposite problem. And may be able to help you.

I was a senior developer at a UK startup. The MVP I built helped them raise £9M in series A. I've also launched multiple products myself, including a Shopify app.

Right now I am trying to launch an AI startup. I want to do it without raising VC so would like to have some gigs on the side. I tried UpWork but don't have time to build up a profile, nor compete against the rest of the world.

When I look for developer jobs here, they are always long contracts or permanent. I don't want that; I need flexibility.

I had thought about specialising in Shopify. I think it's well thought-out as a platform, and though I prefer to get involved in more complex stuff, I wouldn't mind doing small tasks like building pages, creating integrations etc

My rate is £500 / day. Happy to bill by the hour. Feel free to PM me.

I know how you feel. I had two years of crazy profitability then two more trying to revisit the highs, before getting bored and selling the business at fire sale price.

The reality is that you have raised your bar and now what seemed like success won't be enough.

BUT your business wasn't successful ONLY because of the pandemic. You got a bit of luck which augmented something you were already doing something right. The world was moving to online anyway, the pandemic just sped up that process.

For me, my 'luck' came long before the pandemic when the government introduced a new requirement for schools and my company was in a great position to exploit it. Had two years in the sun (literally) before bigger companies were able to catch up and kill my profits.

There's always an element of luck - good and bad. But now you need to figure out how you can achieve greater levels of success (if that's what you want) relying less on good fortune and more on whatever it is that you do well.

When you say a physical product, do you mean hardware? It's hard to follow your story without knowing a little about what you're talking about. Context is everything and I think sometimes the "execution is everything" mantra is correct.

In your case, it sounds like they stole your copyright, copy-pasting slogans and marketing materials. Protection for that is somewhat automatic as far as I understand it.

It's patents that are tricky to understand - for me anyway. I have taken some advice from an IP law firm and I still don't get how it maps on to software products. All software involves patching together the previous work of others, much of it often open source, so it's hard to protect with patents. People can't copy your code wholesale, but can you protect against anyone stealing your 'idea'. There really doesn't seem to be a way to define invention with software.

The lawyers gave me the analogy of Nespresso, where there was a clear 'inventive step' of using a particular kind of plastic moulding and machine to create the pressure required for making shots without a £10K machine. They've been able to defend and exploit it, but that's probably more down to being a massive company than the patent itself.

The other thing they told me was to do the protection first. Once something has been made public in any way, it's really hard to protect afterwards. As someone who just wants to test ideas as fast as possible, this doesn't sit well with me.

I am glad to hear you won, but it sounds like it's really taken a toll on you. And it doesn't sound like the thieves have benefitted much from it either. Which all just goes to confirm that the only ones who benefit from this suffering are the lawyers.

TL;DR: A small startup lab, initially focused on research, created a unique product and branded it carefully. Despite common advice that "ideas are worthless and only execution matters," they faced a situation where a much larger company, encountered during fundraising, blatantly copied their product and branding. The startup, equipped with patents, trademarks, and contracts including key clauses advised by their professor, successfully filed a lawsuit against this large company. They won the case, forcing the company to cease using their intellectual property and compensate for damages. This experience highlights the value of legal protection for ideas and the importance of mentorship and careful documentation in business ventures.

I think it's good for a semi launch. I looked first on mobile then on laptop. I agree with some of the other comments, there's a lot to like in terms of clarity of your offering and the overall vibe.

I think it looks better on laptop than on mobile where you lose the nice geometry details and it looks a bit boring.

The only things that really stood out - in a bad way - were the name and the logo. You need to get more creative with that. Ask ChatGPT for 20 name ideas and explore all the 'top level domain' options, eg .ai, .academy, .xyz etc (there are loads) if you can't find a good .com. And then use either an AI generator or something like DesignCrowd to get yourself a good logo.

I like the bold all caps, it's fun, but maybe it's a little overdone. A bit too bold - is there another cut of it? And maybe used too often.

Finally, people always want to see some things they recognise and trust. You've got some endorsements from Johnny and Jackie Random, but they could be made up. Do you have any affiliations, partnerships or press coverage so you could drop some logos in there? Even if it's just the software and resources you use.

Good luck.

Make a landing page for it and see if anyone cares. If they do, I'll help you build an MVP