An Internet search engine
for the safe for work and legal
Internet content,
searches people want to do,
and results they want to find
where keywords/phrases work
from poorly down to not at all.

So my work is for a part of
search served at best poorly now.
Thus, my work is not really
in competition with anything
else out there now.

Keywords/phrases often work very
well, and there my work is
rarely as good.

While the broad idea for the
users and the UI are simple
and intuitive, the business model,
UI/UX, data from the user,
database in the server farm,
and the manipulations of all that
data are wildly different from
anything else in search.

Can read all you want on the
Internet about various ways
to build a search engine and
still won't get even a hint
about how my search engine works,
not the UI and not the core
server side software.

Broadly part of the idea
is to give the user search results,
that is, Internet content, that has a
useful approximation to the meaning
the user wants. So, the search
engine is trying to get at or
approximate meaning.

For this meaning,
there's some math
involved -- original with me,
right, with some theorems and
proofs, typed into Knuth's TeX,
and with some advanced prerequisites.
I especially thank A. Kolmogorov.

From my Ph.D. and published papers,
I'm supposed to be able to
do such research in math, and
I have.

Of course the users will not be
aware of anything mathematical --
the math is all buried in the
deepest part of the server side
software.

The key part of the whole project
is just the math:
If stare at the theorems and
proofs of the math, then
can get convinced that it
should work quite well for
its intended part of search.

Given the math, the
software is routine and even
next to trivial.

Maybe it is appropriate to call
the project a case of information
technology, but the software is
so simple that it's not fair
to say that it is a software project.
Instead, plainly, it's a math project,
with some original math,
but might be called an applied math
project.

The work is intended to do very
well honoring user privacy.

The revenue is from just the
most obvious source -- ads
from ad networks. And I have
some ideas for especially good
ad targeting, still doing well
on user privacy, I intend to
implement later.

The core software has looked
solid for a long time;
it runs as just some
Windows console applications
that communicate via
TCP/IP sockets and
de/serialization of
instances of a few simple Visual Basic
classes.

The timings of the core software
look quite good and much
better with some
selected use of solid state disks --
write rarely, read frequently.

There are good log files
for the Web site and
also the core software.
Fairly simple
processing of the log files
should give a good view
of what the users are doing
and the performance of the
server farm.

What's left to do is
putting a Web site in front
of that core software.
The software for the Web
pages is also nearly done:
I should be able to get the last
bugs out of the Web pages this
weekend. The Web pages are so
simple that they should present
no performance challenges.
E.g., the most complicated
Web page sends for only
about 400,000 bits.

Fixing the last bugs in the
Web pages,
then the alpha version
of all the software should be done.
Then I will give a critical review
and do the beta version.

I wrote no prototype code;
when the beta version looks
good and is nicely free of bugs,
that will be the production
version 1.0.

The code I wrote is as solid
as what a team I was on
at IBM's Watson lab
wrote and shipped as
IBM Program Products,
IBM's highest quality software
product category.

My Web pages are so simple
and small (exactly 800
pixels wide but a user
could get by seeing
only the left 300 pixels of width)
that they should look
good on any screen from
a work station down to
a smart phone.

As we know very well by now,
Internet search is just super
important, in the US and
around the world.
Well, a significant fraction of
search is served at best poorly,
and my guess is that
nearly all Internet users
will want a good search engine
for that fraction and will
be able to see that my work
is by far the best for that fraction.
So, that's the source of my
confidence that my project might
be successful.

If the project works at all well,
then I shouldn't have any trouble,
say, buying a new car!

While I'm a solo founder and
did all the work, on this project
I'm an entrepreneur, not
a programmer. If this
project is successful, then
I will want to hire some
people for some routine
programming,
and I will train them
and, then, let the first
such batch set up a training
program, e.g., with video
lectures, for later programmers.
But looking at the job ads, it's clear
I'd never get hired as a programmer.

Moreover, the venture capital
people and YC want nothing
to do with me and won't until
I have traction.
But for the amount of traction
they want, I would have revenue
enough not to need or be willing to
accept equity funding.
No, I don't have
four kids and a pregnant wife.

Also I'm terrified of the
idea of reporting to a BoD.
I just can't think of a
realistic BoD that could
understand the core work.
When at an eary Board meeting
I gave the math for the ad
targeting to be done,
most of the Board members
would get so upset they'd
leave a smelly trail
all the way to the
little boy's or little girl's room.
I'd have hose off and
totally
redecorate the Board
room and everything on the
path to the little rooms.
They'd try to execute their
fiduciary responsibilities
and, too soon, totally
blow their fuses.

One
of the more unpleasant
experiences in life is
listening to a math lecture
with theorems and proofs
where really do want and need to
understand but don't have
even 1% of the essential
prerequisites.

My guess is that any
usual startup BoD would have
my company totally dead
in less than 18 months.
They might try to save
the company by, say,
selling cupcakes on-line!

So, I am 100% owner and should
stay that way.

It's been noted more than once
in recent months
that it's now possible for
a solo entrepreneur to bring up
a successful Internet based
business. Actually, so far
I've seen no reason to hire
people. Instead, it's my
business and up to me to
make it go.