We build miraiGen.™Cube, a server with an AI on board — a box that lets everyone in a company hand their own work to an AI.
All through development it ran on my personal subscription. It worked, so I assumed that was fine.
Re-reading the terms, it was not allowed
The provider's terms of service say this: you may not share your account login details or API key with anyone else, and you may not make your account available to anyone else.
Our box is used by several people in a company. Passing one personal plan around the office is simply not an available shape. Nothing to do with whether it works — it stops here.
The oversight was ours. The terms are published and were there to read at any time.
Switching to pay-as-you-go raised a different problem
So we made it work with an API key too. That form of contract is intended for building into systems, so the sharing problem does not arise.
But the shape of the billing changes. An API key is billed by what you use. The volume you could use freely inside a subscription becomes expensive once you buy it as API usage alone. This is a tool everyone touches daily, so the figure is both larger and harder to predict — and from the buyer's side, that means the cost after purchase is invisible. For something we intend to sell, that cannot be left alone.
We added support for paying by the seat
The provider also offers business plans: Team from two seats, Enterprise from twenty. They are built for several people from the start, and priced by the number of seats.
So we changed the box so that each person connects with their own seat. The sharing problem disappears, and the cost follows headcount. For the company adopting it, that is a figure that only grows when a person is added — a shape you can plan around.
If you are the only user, a personal plan is fine. A sole trader or a one-person company running itself like an organisation with AI — Cube performs just as well there. The problem arises only when one plan is passed around several people.
In summary
- A product has to comply with the terms, not merely work.
- Pricing drives the purchase decision. "By usage" and "by headcount" lead a buyer to different conclusions
