After trying out a ton of different things, finally figured out the right abstractions for building this platform quickly and in a flexible way.
Somewhere in there we also built and launched a simpler product on the same tech, which was a commercial failure, but a huge success as a learning experience. Got some practice with writing copy, cold e-mailing and market research. It also made the core technology more stable and resilient.
So at last we're ready to start making the PoC.