If you read my last post, you know how this all started: I built a tool that scraped 2 million profiles a day from đť•Ź, made over $500K in license sales, and landed myself a cease-and-desist from their legal team. For a while, it felt like my world had flipped upside down.
The cease-and-desist was no joke—a 13-page legal document outlining every way I’d violated their Terms of Service and federal laws. I had to bring in a lawyer just to figure out what my next move should be. The stakes were high, and the penalties they hinted at? Let’s just say they weren’t small.
There were nights I couldn’t sleep, running through the worst-case scenarios in my head. Should I shut the whole thing down and walk away? Should I try to transfer ownership to someone else and distance myself from it entirely? Or should I dig in, fight, and see if there was a way to keep the project alive?
My lawyer wasn’t thrilled about the fight option. “It’s a great tool,” he said, “but the way it operates is a gray area—leaning toward black.” His advice was to lay low, comply with the cease-and-desist, and avoid further escalation.
But then, something unexpected happened.
A few days after the legal drama started, I got another email from 𝕏—not from their legal team this time, but from someone high up in the company. At first, I thought it was another warning, maybe a follow-up threat to reinforce their position. But the tone was completely different.
The gist of the message?
We’ve reviewed what you built, and while it’s clear there are compliance issues, there’s no denying the ingenuity behind it. We’d like to explore a conversation about how this technology—and your skills—could fit into 𝕏’s future roadmap.
I stared at the email for what felt like hours. Was this real? Was I about to go from being a legal target to a potential collaborator?
The conversations that followed were surreal. We talked about the mechanics of the tool, the problems it solved, and how businesses were leveraging it to scale their outreach. They were curious, not combative. At one point, someone even joked, “You might’ve broken a few rules, but you clearly understand how to get things done.”
And they weren’t wrong.
For a while, I thought about walking away entirely—selling the rights to the tool, transferring ownership, and wiping my hands of the whole thing. But this? This felt like an opportunity I couldn’t ignore.
Right now, nothing’s set in stone. But what I can say is this: Instead of fighting me, 𝕏 is talking about working with me. About taking the innovation behind my tool and turning it into something that aligns with their vision for the platform.
I’m not sure where this will lead, but one thing’s for sure—it’s a massive reminder of how quickly things can turn around.
To everyone who’s been following this wild ride, thank you for your support and encouragement.
You’ve kept me grounded through all the chaos, and I’m excited to see where this goes.
Might not be here in next few days.
