Background
Building Lowerated has been a long, often uncertain journey, and looking back, I can see how each step—both the successes and setbacks—has shaped where we are today. Lowerated started from a simple, almost innocent idea, but has since evolved into a project I truly believe can transform the film-making industry through AI. But to really understand this, let me start from the beginning.
The Inception: The Advanced Statistics Class
It all began about three years ago during an advanced statistics class. My teacher, a guy I still remember clearly, mentioned something that hit me hard: “The star rating systems for products don’t really work unless you know the context of the reviews. Statistically, it’s flawed.” That one comment made me think. I kept asking myself, why aren’t these systems better? Is that also the case with movie rating systems? Why do we rely on numbers that don’t really capture what makes a movie good or bad? That was the start of everything.
I had an idea: I wanted to create something that could genuinely appreciate art. Not just movies, but also books and music. I was passionate about all three, but I knew my focus had to be on movies, where I felt the current systems were the most broken. So, I started an Instagram account to share my appreciation. Every month, I posted about the top five movies, one book, and five songs. It was a small way to get people engaged with art in a more meaningful way, and it kept growing. By the end of the first year, I realized I should be posting clips of the movies too. And that was a game changer.
Today, that Instagram account has grown into a community of 58,000 people (September - 2024) with over 18 million views per month.
It's viewed more than 88 million times. it's surreal to think about how far it’s come, but that was just the beginning.
The Evolution of the Name: From "Imprexive" to "Lowerated"
Naming the project was a journey in itself. Initially, I thought of calling it Imprexive—a take on "Impressive" but with double 'S' replaced by 'X' because, well, I thought it looked cool. But it didn’t feel quite right. I kept thinking about what the platform was meant to do—rate movies that are underrated. That’s when the name Underrated came into the picture. However, when I tried to register the domain, it was already taken. After some brainstorming, the name evolved into Lowerrated, and then with a single "R", as "Lowerated" which captured the essence of rating movies that are underappreciated or overlooked. And that’s how Lowerated was born.
The initial logo for Lowerated was designed by my friend, Abdullah Basharat. It was a solid starting point, but later, I handed it over to my uncle, Rehanuddin Khattak, for refinement. He made a few key changes, including simplifying the name by removing the double "R" and leaving just one. The logo’s icon was also altered, inspired by some figure—possibly a musician or a Greek god—though to this day, I’m still not entirely sure what it was.
The tagline wasn't really discussed. I just thought it rhymes well with lowerated, let's keep it. It never changed. "Lowerated - Where art is appreciated"
Early Collaboration and Learning the Hard Way
Back when the idea was still developing, a few friends were interested in working with me, and we started to approach it as a software engineering project. I had no background in full-stack development, but I knew if I wanted to make this a reality, I needed to learn. So I stayed up nights teaching myself MERN stack—MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js. I remember the thrill of getting that first login/sign-up feature working. It was basic, but it felt like progress.
I showed the early work to my friends who were on the project with me, and they helped too—designing website layouts, changing button colors. I still remember Abdullah Basharat, one of my friends, who created the first logo for Lowerated (current one is different), and Yasin Jodat, who worked on the backend with MongoDB. But that version of the project never took off. It didn’t feel right. Eventually, the code was repurposed for a semester project in Web Engineering class, where it actually earned me good grades, but the website itself was honestly terrible.
Facing Doubts: People Didn’t Believe in the Vision
During those early days, I shared my idea with friends, family, and even professionals, but most of them didn’t get it. When I told my parents, they didn’t fully understand what I was trying to do. I spoke to a supervisor about my rating algorithm, and he didn’t agree with the idea of even keeping it as a rating tool. I had to build it myself because no one else believed in it the way I did.
The closest people, the friends I thought would be on board, didn’t understand either. I remember explaining the concept to a friend for over an hour, but in the end, they said, “I still don’t get who’s going to use it.” That kind of feedback was frustrating at the time, and honestly, it made me angry. But now I’ve accepted that some people just won’t see the vision until the results are in front of them. They won’t understand it until they see the success, the numbers, and the impact it can have.
There was also another buddy of mine that i won't mention the name of, who was my partner at the time. I unofficially gave him 30% of the company. He was invested in the project with me at first, but then he started having concerns. He came to me one day and said, “I don’t want to be associated with the project because there’s music in it, and I feel it’s Haram. I don’t want to risk my afterlife by being part of it.” That hit me hard. I respected his decision, but it meant that I had to rethink things. I wrote him a document and unofficially took back his 30%. The company wasn’t even registered at the time, but I was so concerned about NDAs and ownership that I handled it seriously, even though it was still in its early stages.
Haider Zaidi has been with Lowerated from the early days, not because he had a passion for movies, but simply because he believed in the passion i had for the idea. He’s still with us today, working as an AI engineer. In the beginning, Haider wrote the script to scrape movie data from IMDb and book data from Goodreads, but we eventually realized we didn’t need it at the time. Despite that, his contributions have been invaluable. He’s been instrumental in working with me on the latest backend, and our collaboration has been nothing short of amazing.
Despite these challenges, the experience taught me a lot. Even after paying someone to build a rating website for me, or hiring a designer to create a Figma prototype, none of it clicked. It was in January 2024 when everything finally started making sense, and we devised the real plan for Lowerated.
The Only Constant Support: Muhammad Ali
Throughout this journey, one person has always been by my side—my brother. He’s the one who gets it. From the beginning, we’ve brainstormed together, discussed ideas late into the night, and even built business plans. He’s edited videos, designed posters, and helped with every marketing and business strategy we’ve ever had. He’s been my rock through all of it, and honestly, the only person I fully trust to understand the vision of Lowerated because we have the same circumstances and we have to succeed. It's not an option.
Looking Ahead: To My Future Self
In January 2024, we devised the real plan for Lowerated. After being fired from my job as an AI engineer, closest people's betrayal, and hitting what felt like the lowest point of my life, I found clarity. I realized that the film industry is fragmented, with too many problems that could easily be solved with AI. My degree is in data science and I know that many people might not fully understand what I’m building until it’s done, and I’m okay with that now. I don’t need validation from anyone but myself and the people who truly believe in me.
This post isn’t just a story about how Lowerated began; it’s a letter to my future self. I’m not done yet. There’s still so much more to build and accomplish. But to my future self, reading this after we’ve made it, I just want to say:
We did it. I knew we could.
Here’s to the journey ahead and everything we’re going to achieve.
Lowerated is more than just a project now. It’s my life’s work, my mission, and I’m determined to see it through.
Read this at 2:30 AM on a weekday, and it was amazing. Don't give up man! Your story is an inspiration :)
More power to you brother🙌🏽