We forge it into a product spec, a clickable prototype and a real price. Builders bid. Backers fund it. You keep a share.
18,402ideas forged
1,247builders online
$4.81Mraised in escrow
What we forge
Heat 1 of 9Raw idea
What problem keeps coming back?
Say it like you would to a friend. No tech words needed.
Or start from one of theseWho has this problem?How often does it bite?What do they use today?
Private modeYour idea is hashed and timestamped on-chain as proof you had it first. Only builders you invite can read the full text.
Forging
Pouring your idea into the mold
Heat 2 of 9Problem X-ray
Problem X-ray
Heat 3 of 9Shape
Pick a shape
Three ways to build the same fix. Each has a different price and a different first user experience.
Feature board
Tap Must, Nice or Later to move a card. Must-haves set the first build price.
First build, must-haves only0 h
Heat 4 of 9Prototype
Tap through it
Tap the buttons inside the screen
Heat 5 of 9Build plan
Build plan
Heat 6 of 9Name and brand
Stamp a name on it
Three names with marks and palettes. Domain checks are sample data.
Heat 7 of 9Builder match
Builders are bidding
Heat 8 of 9Launchpad
Heat 9 of 9Ownership
Who owns what
You brought the problem and the customers. Bounded 15 to 60%.
Takes part of the fee as equity. Bounded 10 to 45%.
Whatever is left after inventor, builder and Foundry. Kept between 5 and 40%.
Fixed. Pays for escrow, AI checks and disputes.
Plain-language IP template. Demo only, nothing is signed.
After funding
Milestone forge
In escrow
Launchpad marketplace
Explore ideas
Mine
Your forge
Forge heat9 day streak
Answer one builder question a day to keep your idea hot. Builders rank hot ideas higher.
Your ideas
Ideas you backed
Next drop
Foundry Friday opens in 2 days
Twelve new ideas go live with prototypes. Backers who join in the first hour get founder pricing.
Mine, every Monday
Backed ideas
Build updates, milestone votes and payouts from everything you back, plus new problems that match your taste.
Payouts received
Line: total paid to you. Bars: build updates that week.
This week's build updates
Payout statements
Monday digest
Problems that match what you back
The grand mission
Every useful idea gets built.
Most good software ideas die in a notes app because the person who has the problem cannot code and cannot pay an agency. Foundry is the on-ramp.
Inventors become foundersA baker in Nairobi or a student in Hanoi can own a share of the tool they dreamed up.
Builders get steady paid workScoped, pre-funded jobs with escrow. No chasing invoices.
Backers fund what they wantPre-order the tool you need, vote on each milestone, get your money back if it stalls.
Three years out
Year 1: The forge opens10,000 ideas forged, 600 funded, human builders with AI copilots. Escrow on Base.
Year 2: Agents pick up the hammerAI agents write most of the first build. Builders review, harden and ship. Prices fall by half.
Year 3: The world's idea pipelineAny problem described in any language becomes a working product within a week. Millions of non-coders own software.
Pass it on
"I can't code. I just shipped an app anyway. Bring your problem to Idea Foundry."
Blueprint
How Idea Foundry works for real
1. The mission
Every useful idea gets built. Anyone with a real problem describes it in plain words, and Foundry turns it into a priced, prototyped, funded product built by vetted builders, with the inventor keeping a share even if they never write a line of code.
2. Why people can't resist it
Instant ownership. Seeing your own problem as a tappable prototype with your name on the cap table in under five minutes is a rush. It turns a complaint into a project.
A real price, not a shrug. "About $3,800 and five weeks" makes a dream concrete and fundable. Builders bidding against each other feels like being chosen.
Skin in the game for everyone. Backers pre-order something they want and vote on each milestone, so they share the campaign like it is their own.
3. How it works for real
Intake and clarifying questions. A fast cheap model (Gemini Flash or DeepSeek via OpenRouter) classifies the problem, detects the product type and picks the two questions with the highest information gain.
Problem X-ray. A frontier model (Claude or GPT) with web search estimates market size, finds alternatives and their gaps, and scores novelty. Every number carries a source link and a confidence label.
Shape and feature board. The frontier model proposes three product forms with tradeoffs and a feature list sized in build hours, calibrated against past Foundry builds.
Prototype. A code-gen model (Claude Sonnet, Qwen Coder or DeepSeek Coder) writes real HTML and JS for the chosen form, rendered in a sandbox inside a device frame. The same code seeds the real build.
Build plan and price. Hours times regional builder rates, plus model usage and hosting estimates, with a range rather than a single number.
Name and brand. The LLM proposes names, a domain API checks availability, and an SVG mark generator draws logos and palettes.
Builder match. Embeddings of the spec matched against builders' verified past builds (repos, live URLs, client reviews). Builders pass KYC and a paid test task before they can bid.
Launchpad and escrow. An escrow smart contract on Base holds USDC per milestone. Backers log in with email; a smart wallet keeps crypto invisible, card payments convert to USDC. x402 handles per-request payments for AI checks run by third-party agents.
Milestone release. The builder submits proof (build URL, repo commit, test video). A vision model plus an automated test agent check it against the spec, then backers vote for 72 hours. Funds release only when both pass.
Later: AI builds. Coding agents produce the full first build, a human builder reviews, hardens and owns support. Builder fees fall, review fees stay.
4. Cost per use
Intake, questions, X-ray (frontier + flash)
$0.06
Product shapes and feature sizing
$0.04
Clickable prototype code-gen (3 screens)
$0.18
Brand marks, domains, plan
$0.03
AI milestone check (per proof)
$0.40
Full forge, one idea
about $0.31
Free: unlimited X-rays and one prototype a week (lighter models). Paid: Foundry takes 5% equity on funded ideas plus a 6% fee on escrow released. Inventor Pro at $9 a month adds private mode for unlimited ideas, full prototypes and investor exports.
5. Growth loop
Every campaign is a shareable page with a live prototype. Inventors share it with the people who have the problem (the bakery's WhatsApp customers, the study group). Those people back it, try the prototype, then bring their own problems. Builders share finished builds as portfolio pieces, which pulls in the next inventors.
Backers come back every Monday to a feed of build updates, milestone votes and payout statements from everything they back, and a digest of new problems that match their taste. Each payout and each shipped milestone makes the next backing easier to say yes to.
6. Risks and guardrails
Idea theft. Each idea gets a timestamped hash on-chain at intake. Private mode hides the full text from everyone except invited builders, who sign an NDA-style IP agreement template before reading.
Securities law. Revenue share units may be regulated securities in many countries. Launch with pre-orders and lifetime deals only, add revenue share per jurisdiction with legal review and caps.
Scams and no-shows. Builder KYC, verified past builds, a paid test task, milestone escrow and refunds of unreleased funds if a builder vanishes for 21 days.
Bad or harmful ideas. A policy classifier blocks spyware, scraping of private data and gambling clones. Humans review anything flagged.
Overpromising. Estimates always show a range and a confidence level. Market numbers are labelled as estimates with sources.
7. MVP build order
Intake, clarifying questions and Problem X-ray with one frontier model call. Share link per idea.
Product shapes, feature board and price estimate from a calibrated hours table.
Code-gen prototype in a sandbox frame for two forms: mobile web app and chat bot.
Builder waitlist with manual vetting and a simple bid form.
Launchpad with pre-orders only, escrow contract on Base testnet, email-login smart wallet.