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Daniel Ruskin started his career when he was a mere 14 geezerhood old as an engineer for Coinbase . As he tells it , he was a teenager “ who know how to code and wanted to make coolheaded thing . ”
Obviously too vernal to get a money box account , Ruskin did free lance development workplace he found on reddit in central for bitcoin . There he go out that Coinbase was hiring , and boldly sent the head of operations a cold-blooded email asking if he could work for the crypto interchange .
“ foresighted story short , I end up spell much of the early package that power the Coinbase platform , ” he tells TechCrunch . “ I did n’t save the v0 codebase … but I did compose a lot of software that bring us from 1 to 10 . ”
After four years at Coinbase , Ruskin settle to go to college and then to police school day . He started a few startups along the way , including an election security ship’s company where hedrafted and wona patent on its engineering .
Frustrated with how “ unintelligible ” the patent process was , Ruskin in December 2024 launched a new Salt Lake City - based ship’s company calledInventex .
Ruskin , now 26 , says Inventex wants to ease the process of preparing and file patent applications by using a serial publication of AI agent augmented by license attorney . He believes that Inventex can help companionship get letters patent - pending “ 10x faster ” — in 24-hour interval , rather than months that a traditional firm might take .
The concept quickly attracted investors and after just one calendar month , Ruskin had raised $ 2.4 million in a pre - seed turn to acquire Inventex . Conviction Capital , Coinbase co - founder Fred Ehrsam , and Cambrian Ventures co - led the financing , which also included involvement from Boost and others . The money was evoke via safe at a $ 10 million valuation .
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Inventex intakes the necessary technical data leave by its client such as code , design papers , and technological specifications . It then distinguish what its customers have invented that meet the legal requirements for patentability . This include searching for anterior art or what has been done before in that particular customer ’s technical field , as well as “ how our customer is dissimilar , ” Ruskin said .
The company then drafts and files patent applications on behalf of the company in the United States and abroad .
Maksim Stepanenko , who worked with Ruskin at Coinbase , tells TechCrunch that Ruskin imposingly start up leading fundamental payments substructure task at the crypto society “ shortly ” after he started while still a mellow school student . So when he take heed about what Ruskin was doing with Inventex , he sign on as a pocket-sized angel investor as part of the pre - seed financing .
“ He ’s serious-minded , fast - moving , and outstandingly good at navigating complex systems , ” enunciate Stepanenko , who is the founding father of a inauguration called Operator . “ I ’ve been watch his oeuvre ever since [ ferment with him at Coinbase ] and was excited to put up his new company . [ He ’s ] one of the most softly telling people I ’ve worked with . ”
‘More inbound than we can handle’
Besides speed , Ruskin take Inventex ’s approach gets its customers high - quality patent of invention too .
“ We o.k. tune models specifically to each proficient expanse , and our agents are rightful experts in each technological field our customer cultivate in , ” he say . Traditional patent of invention attorneys , Ruskin believe , often do not understand the contour of the inventions they are protecting . The technical - expert agentive role are overseen , and refine , by licensed attorneys .
Ruskin is confident that Inventex has the correct model to be modern in this complex subset of legal services .
“ Our competitors sell software as task - based automation to traditional law business firm , and deployment is cumber by their incentives such as a billable - 60 minutes good example , and the tolerant scheme of bear for expertness versus solution , ” he suppose . “ We upend this by ply the terminal - to - remainder service . ”
Inventex ’s model is also generalizable , Ruskin claims . For lesson , he said Inventex is currently using one of its instrument to automatize MSPB ( U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board ) complaints for the tens of thousands of federal employee that were of late lay off .
“ Traditional firms ca n’t bear out that kind of workload , ” he said .
It ’s early day yet but Inventex has about $ 250,000 of annual recurring revenue in the pipeline , concord to Ruskin , including two publicly traded companies and numerous inauguration . Dirac is one that has given license to be bring up .
“ We have more inbound than we can handle , ” Ruskin tell .
Building unicorns
Ruskin also has expertise in the fintech space . He joined Checkr , a Robert William Service for gig platforms to give their hands , in 2022 . There , Ruskin tell , he helped start Checkr Pay , “ a startup within a startup . ” During his time there , Ruskin charter a squad of three engineers and “ built and set in motion a neobank in about three to four months . ” ( Checkrraised $ 250 millionat a $ 4.6 billion rating in 2021 . ) Ruskin left that company in 2023 to finish law school at New York University , where he graduated in the top 10 % of his division in 2024 .
It was during his time at Checkr Pay that Ruskin grow to know Cambrian Ventures ’ solo GP Rex Salisbury , who described the young entrepreneur as the party ’s “ high velocity engineer . ”
“ expect the former Coinbase team and they ’ll tell you the same matter , which is pretty remarkable give he was still in high school , ” Salisbury told TechCrunch . “ Daniel assist build up two unicorns ( Coinbase and Checkr ) before graduating college and has since gone on to graduate natural law shoal and pass the patent bar . [ He ’s a ] middling rarefied combination of talent . ”
He add : “ At this early microscope stage , you do n’t valuate a fellowship strictly on what it is , but on what it can be . It ’s already noteworthy what Daniel has built , but give his velocity what really excites me is how quickly he ’s executed to build more . ”
Making patents more accessible
Inventex has grown 2x per month since December primarily through word - of - lip referrals and partnership with VCs . The company charges customers a monthly fee to progress a patent portfolio . The fee include invention discovery , drafting , filing , and letters patent prosecution .
currently , it has three full - time employees ( all engineers ) and several contract patent attorney .
Inventex ’s closest competitor are patent of invention drafting dick likeEdgeandSolve , according to Ruskin .
Before Inventex , Ruskin found Motif in July 2024 , which had the same concept , but with a co - founder that “ did n’t work out . ”
Looking forrader , Ruskin is considering provide Inventex ’s drafting toolkit as a white - labeled product for law business firm so they can license its tools “ to get their client better patent of invention , faster . ”
“ This aligns with our longsighted - term vision for the field of patent law . Right now , 90 % of the billable fourth dimension for an initial letters patent filing is spent on muster in a revelation ; 10 % is spent on strategy , ” he said . “ This will flip out in five years — drafting will take 10 % of the fourth dimension , and strategy will be the differentiated service provide by firms . This in the end bring the cost to file a letters patent down , and makes the system more accessible to innovators of any sizing . ”
