Locus Founder FAQ — your questions, answered
Everything people ask before they start a workspace — what Locus does, what it costs, who owns what, and how much you stay in control. Expand any question below, or follow the link for the full answer.
Getting started
What is Locus Founder?
Locus Founder is an AI cofounder for internet businesses. You describe an idea in plain language — over text or the web — and the agent builds the real thing: a website on its own domain, cold outreach from your inbox, ads, a CRM of everyone interested, and Stripe wired in to take payments. It does the work between the idea and the customer, and you stay in command of every decision that reaches one.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Locus is a conversation — if you can send a text message, you can run a workspace. There's nothing to install and nothing to learn, though there's a full web workspace for when you want to see everything at once.
How do I start?
Tell the agent what you want to build, in a sentence, the way you'd tell a friend. It asks the few questions it needs, then gets to work — the first thing you usually see is a real website, live on a domain, within the hour.
Which channels can I use?
iMessage, Telegram, and the web — whichever you already live in. The agent keeps the same memory across all three, so you can start an idea on your laptop and approve a customer reply from your phone.
How it works
What can the agent actually do on its own?
It ships a website, writes and sends cold outreach from your inbox, runs and tunes ad campaigns, keeps a CRM of every lead, and collects payments through Stripe. It also kills what isn't working — a losing ad gets cut, not babysat.
How much control do I have?
Full control. Nothing that reaches a customer — a message, an ad, a price, a charge — goes out without your explicit approval; you tap to approve it or rewrite it in the chat in a sentence. The agent has initiative, you have the final word.
How fast does something go live?
Usually a real website is live on a domain within the first hour. Outreach starts within a day, most founders see their first customer reply within the first few days, and aim for a first dollar inside the first week.
Won't the AI go off and do something I don't want?
The failure mode we design hardest against is an agent that's too timid, not too reckless — Locus is built to take the obvious next step and show its work. The approval gate is the backstop: anything customer-facing waits for you, and you can pause a workspace at any time.
Pricing & billing
What does Locus cost?
Every workspace opens with a free 24-hour trial — $5 of agent credit to spend, and nothing is charged until you subscribe. After the trial, Founder Monthly is $25 your first month, then $50/month, and Founder Annual is $500/year (two months free). Each plan includes a generous monthly agent credit allowance.
What happens after the included credit runs out?
Once the month's included credit is spent, agent activity — the APIs, models, and compute it uses — is billed at cost plus a margin of up to 30%. You can top up anytime; auto top-up exists but is optional and off by default, so the bill never surprises you.
Is there a revenue share?
Only once a business is clearly working. When a business clears $1,000 of revenue in a calendar month, Locus takes 5% of whatever it earns above that line — the first $1,000 every month is entirely yours.
How do customer payments work?
Money your customers pay settles straight into your own Stripe account — it never sits with us. Locus adds a 1% fee on each successful charge.
Can I cancel?
Yes, anytime. Cancel during the 24-hour trial and you're never charged. After that you keep access through the end of the period you've paid for.
Your business & your data
Who owns the business Locus builds?
You do — the domain, the customers, the content, the Stripe account, all of it. Locus is the cofounder, not the owner.
Can I take my business elsewhere?
Yes. Everything exports in one click — your domain, your customer list, your Stripe account. If an idea doesn't work out, or you'd rather run it yourself, you walk away with the whole thing.
What about money and taxes?
Customer payments land in your own Stripe account, so you handle your own taxes — but we make that part painless and send a 1099 where one applies. Locus is not a tax advisor; for your specific situation, talk to an accountant.
How is my data handled?
Your workspace data is yours and is not sold. The full detail — what's collected, which sub-processors are involved, and how to request deletion — lives in our Privacy Policy, linked in the footer.
Trust & support
What if my idea flops?
You'll find that out in a weekend, not a year — that's the point. Locus tests an idea fast and cheap, and if it doesn't have legs, you've spent a little money and a little time and still keep everything you built.
Is a real person ever involved?
Locus is agent-run by design, but there are real people behind it. For anything the agent cannot resolve, email founders@paywithlocus.com and a human will help.
Where can I check if Locus is up?
The Status page (linked in the footer) runs a live check against Locus systems every time you load it, so you always see the current state — not a stale dashboard.
Want the bigger picture? Read our guide on the best way to build an internet business.