You might be surprised to know that we are not searching for perfection at DorothyAI.

Yes! We are dedicated to creating the best search engine in existence. Yes! We are dedicated to delivering our customers the references they need to do their jobs effectively. Yes! We’re building a top notch team of data scientists, developers, and engineers that will revolutionize search by applying natural language processing and machine learning in new ways. Will Dorothy be perfect? No.

I’ve been advised to avoid perfection many times over this last year from mentors, former CEO’s, and accelerator speakers. Most recently, Forbes magazine included “perfection” in its list of 3 Internal Challenges You Need To Overcome To Become A Successful Startup Founder. Perfection is not something I struggle with. I am certainly too cynical to know when I’ve reached perfection, and let’s be honest: perfection is a horrible goal. “Perfect” is narrow and static. “Perfect” to me might be terrible to you.

DorothyAI mentor and university professor Byran Brian Bryant, Ph.D. thinks "Good" is very good.  

Like perfection, patent searching is extremely subjective. There’s no “perfect” reference. There are “pretty good” references that suggest the reference’s inventor intended to encompass the searched subject matter. In certain cases, there are “really good” references, where the inventor’s intent is a bit more clear or the patent drafter used similar terminology to describe the invention as was used in the search query. “Good” seems like a good compromise between “pretty good” and “really good.”

A “good” search engine is much better than the patent search industry standard, which is “passable” at best, based on our customer discovery. Plus, a “good” search engine can always get better, maybe even obtaining “great” someday. “Good” seems like a great, perhaps “perfect,” goal for our initial release. “Good” and useful and beautiful is good enough for me.

I think we’re there, and I know Dorothy will get better and better as time goes on.