Founder questions, answered straight.

Every niche gets a 0–100 willingness-to-pay score derived from two signals: recent Reddit thread volume in the relevant subs, and Ahrefs keyword CPC for the buying-intent terms. The blend is computed in src/lib/business/niche-search-math.ts so the math stays unit-testable without spinning up Prisma or an OpenAI client. Cosine similarity over niche embeddings handles semantic ranking when the buyer searches by intent instead of keyword. The score isn't static — the top ten are recomputed on Sliceway's monthly feed, with the other ten held as honest placeholders until there's enough signal to merit a real ranking.

The spec generator at /spec/new returns markdown, sliced into the seven sections a v0/Lovable/Cursor round-trip needs: positioning, ICP, feature cut, build vs buy, launch checklist, SEO seed, and a one-line pricing rationale. Each spec comes back from the Agent API in the form of structured markdown rather than a chatty response, so it drops straight into a code-gen prompt. Once you're signed in, the spec is persisted in SavedSpecsPanel on /dashboard — open the panel to re-export the markdown for the build tool of your choice, or carry it forward into the launch and listing generators.

At /launch you fill three fields: a unique slug, a product name, and a pickup price. POST /api/launches persists the launch and provisions your slug-routed landing page. When a buyer hits the checkout CTA, POST /api/pricing/checkout runs server-side and calls createCheckoutSession from @/lib/stripe-billing/client — that returns a Stripe-hosted checkout URL, and the browser is redirected to it. On return, the success page calls verifyCheckoutSession to confirm the payment landed before unlocking the buyer receipt. There is no Stripe SDK in this codebase, no STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, and no inbound webhook endpoint — fulfillment is read directly from the success page.

/communities (per-niche) lists the live channels where the buyers you're chasing actually hang out — Reddit subs, Discords, and newsletters, with brief context on each so you don't cold-pitch the wrong format. /seo (per-niche) writes ten long-tail article titles for organic capture during the launch window, each tuned to the slice you're shipping rather than generic keyword stuffing. Together they're the two compounding channels Sliceway gives you beyond paid: warm communities for early feedback, and organic search for sustained traffic. Both are available in every tier, including the Free one.

The listing drafter at /listing/new produces an Acquire-style six-section listing for marketplace-style channels — positioning, features, shipping cadence, price, audience, and a single objection rebuttal — formatted as markdown you can paste into Acquire, BetaList, or a similar directory with minimal editing. The Agent API returns the same shape on every request so the output is consistent across reruns. Once you're signed in, the listing is also persisted in SavedListingsPanel on /dashboard, alongside the spec it was generated from, so you can compare iterations and copy the final cut over without losing the previous draft.

Posting to /api/starred-niches saves a niche to your dashboard so you can come back to it without re-scanning the full list. PATCH updates the per-niche note (a free-text string capped at 280 characters in src/app/api/starred-niches/route.ts so it stays a reminder, not a document). DELETE unstars the row. Every operation is scoped with where: { userId: user.id } after a requireAuth() check, so rows stay strictly per-user — there is no shared starred-niche list, and you can't see another founder's selections.

Three tiers, all billed through Sliceway's Stripe Connect account so the founder doesn't need to bring their own. Free: zero, no card, one spec, full read of the niches and stack feeds, plus saved starred niches — gated only by signup. Founder: a $29 one-time payment for the first month's throughput — unlimited specs, the launch + listing generators stitched in, and the slug-routed landing page hosted. Studio: $99 per month for teams shipping more than one product a quarter — five seats included, per-product Stripe Connect routing, and a four-business-hour support SLA. Each paid tier bills via the Stripe checkout redirect, the same flow described above.

No. Sliceway routes every checkout through its own Stripe Connect account, and pays out to the platform on the same payment. That keeps the founder off the Stripe dashboard for compliance and onboarding — there's no secret key to copy in, no KYC hand-off, no webhook tunnel to babysit. You see the charge in your Stripe receipts just like any other buyer-side checkout, and Stripe emails the receipt to the buyer directly. The price the buyer sees on the launch page is exactly the amount the checkout process was set up to authorize.

One spec at /spec/new — full Sliceway markdown export, the same shape paid tiers get. Read every niche + stack entry on the marketing site. Save starred niches to revisit after you sign in. The Free tier does not include checkout, launch-page hosting on a slug-routed URL, the listing drafter, /communities or /seo playbooks, or any of the agent-backed generators beyond the first spec. There is no time limit on Free — founders can ship their first v0 against the spec, see what their demand looks like, and upgrade only when they're ready to take money.

Refunds go through Stripe's standard buyer-side flow: a buyer opens the email receipt Stripe sent them, clicks Request a refund, and the platform owner processes it from the Stripe dashboard. The verification path on Sliceway's success page reads the same Stripe session data as checkout, so a refunded session will read as "unpaid" on a re-check and the buyer receipt stays consistent. Cancellations on Studio's $99/month recurring tier are handled the same way — at Stripe's billing portal, so the subscription state lives where Stripe owns it, not in Sliceway's database. No special-cased refund logic lives on Sliceway's side.