Unlock investor site — what to build, and the rules to build it by.

Contents

What we're building

A two-audience website that forks on entry. A neutral splash routes visitors either to the open product experience or, through a one-screen self-certification gate, to the gated investor experience (a UK financial promotion).

/  SPLASH (Zone 0 · neutral router · sells nothing)
├─ PRIMARY  "Investing in Unlock"  → inline self-certification → INVESTOR AREA (Zone 3)
└─ SECONDARY "Just here for the platform?" → PRODUCT AREA (Zone 1)

The splash states the two paths and the risk and sells nothing. The investor card is primary and carries the certification inline (category + acknowledgement + confirm) so there is no extra screen. Once certified, "Investors" navigation goes straight in.

The four zones (non-negotiable)

Governed by the Unlock Financial Promotion Playbook. A s.21 FSMA breach is a criminal offence. The structure exists to make one rule provable: we may only communicate an inducement to invest to a person who has validly self-certified as high-net-worth or sophisticated, before they see the inducement.

Boundary rule: content moves down the zones; persuasion never moves up. Any returns/deal/"opportunity" language reachable by an uncertified visitor breaks the exemption.

The gate

• One screen. Gateway notice + statutory self-certification on the same screen. Inline on the splash investor card in the prototype.
• Statutory form. The HNW (Art 48) and self-certified-sophisticated (Art 50A) statements are prescribed legal forms — reproduce verbatim, never paraphrase. Transcribe from FPO 2005 Sch.5 (current = SI 2024/301). Recommended: capture the binding statement inside the SeedLegals Instant Investment flow; the site gate then only controls who reaches Zone 3.
• Thresholds (post-27-Mar-2024): HNW = income ≥ £100,000 or net assets ≥ £250,000 (excl. home/pensions). Sophisticated = one of: ≥2 unlisted-company investments in 2 years; director of a £1m+ turnover company; angel-network member; relevant PE/SME-finance experience.
• Production must enforce server-side. The prototype gates client-side (localStorage) which is bypassable and ships the promotion to every visitor. Production: a Supabase session/record gates the Zone 3 route, and the certification record is stored (who, category, criterion, statement version, timestamp) with a reasonable-belief check.

Mandatory compliance

Seven disclaimers — bind in verbatim (present across Zone 3, behind an always-available "Important information" link + a persistent risk bar)

1. Capital is at risk. The value of EIS investments can fall as well as rise, and investors may not get back the full amount invested.
2. This is decision support, not financial advice. Unlock surfaces structured analysis; the decision is yours.
3. Unlock operates outside the FCA perimeter by design. What we provide is structured decision support, not regulated financial advice.
4. These figures are modelled, not guaranteed. Assumptions are visible alongside each projection.
5. Tax outcomes depend on individual circumstances and may change in the future. The figures above illustrate general planning logic and are not personalised tax advice.
6. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
7. From April 2027, under the Finance Act 2026 (enacted law, Royal Assent April 2026), defined-contribution pensions become part of the estate for inheritance tax purposes.

Prohibited phrases — never use, anywhere

"22p per pound" (wrong SEIS loss figure; correct ≈ 27.5p) · "7.8× average EIS return" (unsourced). Additional-rate EIS loss figure ≈ 38.5p in the £.

Canonical EIS line

"EIS income tax relief is 30% of the amount invested, up to £1,000,000 per tax year (£2,000,000 for Knowledge Intensive Companies)."

Narrative arc (Zone 3)

Answer-first (SCQA): the gated area opens with the headline answer in the first four sentences, then the body supports it as a pyramid (one governing thought per section, MECE, no repeats). Eleven movements, ending on the response/terms:

0  SCQA opener        — answer in the first 4 sentences
1  The gap            — the advice gap = where the returns sit
2  What you'd be backing — product, condensed (link out to Zone 1)
3  Why it's unsolved  — incumbents + the empty conflict-free quadrant
4  Proof              — founder origin compressed + 5 named founding investors
5  Why we win         — owned data universe + AI-native
6  Why now            — regulatory / competitive / round windows
7  Market             — TAM / SAM / SOM
8  The bet + EIS model — downside ≥ upside, interactive
9  Returns & exit     — traction, economics, comps, two horizons
10 Terms + how to act — terms, what you get (Sandbox), reserve
   (Risks · Team · FAQ as supporting groups)

Product-first ordering, persistent sub-nav with scroll-spy, a thin scroll-progress aid on the long page.

Voice & QC rules

• Zero em-dashes. Binding brand rule. Use commas, colons, periods, or restructure. (Zone 3 copy is em-dash-free; Zone 1 still needs the sweep.)
• Mamet economy. One job per sentence. Cut double clauses, hedges, and meta-narration. Every sentence must be necessary; sections reorder-tested.
• No pressure / pitch-deck language. No "exceptional", "exclusive opportunity", "carefully curated", "tailored solutions", "these terms aren't repeated". Dated, factual urgency only.
• Voice = specific, conflict-honest, outcome-focused. Exact figures and named entities; name the structural conflict plainly; every claim ties to what the reader can decide.
• SCQA for investor-facing (Zone 3); StoryBrand SB7 for the customer-facing product (Zone 1). Don't conflate.
• Figures labelled "illustrative, not a forecast" wherever shown; downside placed at ≥ upside prominence.

Design system (maps to shadcn/ui)

unlockdd.com is already a Lovable + shadcn/ui build. Reuse its tokens (shadcn HSL form):

--background: 80 27% 95%;   /* #F3F6EF sage */
--foreground: 270 3% 13%;   /* near-black ink */
--primary:   157 100% 37%;  /* brand green ≈ #00BD74 */
--accent:    157 100% 27%;  /* darker green */
--destructive: 0 84% 60%;
--border: 0 0% 85%;  --ring: 157 100% 37%;  --radius: .5rem;

Type: Inter (400–800). Components map cleanly: cards → Card; pills/chips → Badge (unify the two systems); tabs → Tabs; gate → RadioGroup + Checkbox + react-hook-form/zod; tables → Table; risk bar → Alert; nav → NavigationMenu + Sheet (mobile). Replace the glyph icons with lucide-react. "Pimp up" with Framer Motion (route transitions, scroll reveals, KPI count-ups), gated by useReducedMotion.

A colour↔greyscale toggle exists in the prototype (bottom-right) for the hierarchy test — greyscale is scoped to a class with the green token swapped to a dark neutral so buttons keep contrast.

Interactive EIS model (logic to preserve)

A React component (recharts is the lower-effort fit). Inputs: ticket (£10k–£250k), outcome multiple (0 = fails, 1 = holds, 3 = works, 6 = strong). Additional-rate illustrative.

effectiveCost  = ticket × 0.70           // after 30% EIS income relief
netLossIfFails = effectiveCost × 0.55    // loss relief; ≈ ticket × 0.385
exitValue      = ticket × outcome        // CGT-free after the qualifying hold

Render a value path across Years 0–5; show the effective-cost reference line; on failure show the loss-relief floor ("net loss ≈ £X, not £ticket"); on success show Y2 (BPR/IHT-free) and Y3 (CGT-free) markers. Always label "illustrative, not a forecast"; most early-stage companies fail; capital at risk.

Lovable build checklist

Supabase certification table sketch:

investor_certifications (
  id uuid pk, user_id uuid → auth.users,
  category text check (category in ('hnw','sophisticated')),
  criterion text, statement_version text not null,
  acknowledged boolean not null, ip inet, user_agent text,
  certified_at timestamptz default now(), expires_at timestamptz
)  -- RLS: user_id = auth.uid()

Must survive the port: the entrance fork; the one-screen gate; gated Zone 3; product-first ordering; the interactive EIS model; all verbatim disclaimers; no inducement pre-gate.

Open items before any external launch