I honestly think he screwed up by hedging his play in the end. If he decides to go down that path he should say something like "dont worry, you'll get paid" on

I honestly think he screwed up by hedging his play in the end. If he decides to go down that path he should say something like "dont worry, you'll get paid" on a first contact email or even during an interview only. He started with something that could have been bold but in the end looked like windows 8: look we have this super cool new interface totally redogned from ground up (but dont worry we still have all the bloatware somewhere in there)