Terms of Use

Key points

• FounderWorld is free while it is in development. You will not pay anything unless you choose a paid plan and accept its terms separately.
• FounderWorld is an early-stage service. Features can change, and access is not guaranteed.
• You own what you add. We use it only to run, secure, support and improve FounderWorld and to show your profile to the people you share it with, as section 10 and our Privacy Notice explain.
• You can export your saved Network and delete your account in the app. Deletion is permanent. We do not keep backups yet, so export your saved Network regularly.
• When you save information about other people, you are responsible for handling it lawfully and fairly.
• Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer (see section 15).

1. Who we are

FounderWorld is the founder connection platform. It helps you remember who you met, keep the context of the conversation, and find the right person again.

FounderWorld by Nuovus is operated by the Team at Nuovus ("Nuovus", "we", "us" or "our"). You can contact us at contact@nuovus.ai. "You" means the person using FounderWorld.

These terms cover the founderworld.io website, the waitlist, the contact form and the FounderWorld web app, which you can use in a browser or add to your home screen. Together, we call these "FounderWorld".

2. Accepting these terms

You accept these terms when you join the waitlist, create an account or otherwise use FounderWorld. If you use FounderWorld for an organisation, you confirm that you can accept these terms for it.

Please read these terms with our Privacy Notice at founderworld.io/privacy. It explains how we handle personal information. If the two differ on personal information, the Privacy Notice applies.

3. Who can use FounderWorld

• You must be 18 or over.
• FounderWorld is for founders, investors and other people who meet them professionally. Use it for your work, career and business relationships.
• During early access we may limit who can join, for example to people who have been invited. We may decline a waitlist or account request, but never for an unlawful reason.

Some parts of these terms depend on whether you are a consumer or a business user. You are a consumer if you use FounderWorld mainly for purposes outside your trade, business, craft or profession. Otherwise you are a business user. Because FounderWorld is built for professional relationships, most people will be business users. The law decides which you are, not these terms.

4. The waitlist and early access

• Joining the waitlist does not guarantee access, a release date or any feature.
• We use your waitlist details to run the waitlist and to tell you about access, as the Privacy Notice explains.
• You can ask to leave the waitlist at any time. Email contact@nuovus.ai.

5. Your account

• You sign in with a link or code we send to your email address. Keep your email account secure, because anyone who can read it may be able to sign in.
• You can create an account with an invite from a member, or when we admit you.
• Give accurate details and keep them up to date. Do not create an account for someone else or pretend to be someone else.
• One person, one account. Do not share, sell or transfer your account.
• If you think someone else has used your account, tell us at contact@nuovus.ai as soon as you can.
• If you can invite other people, invite only people you reasonably think will want to hear from you. Do not post invite links or codes publicly or hand them out in bulk.

6. An early-stage service

FounderWorld is in development. Features may be incomplete, may change or may contain errors, and the service may sometimes be unavailable. We do not promise that a feature you can see today will stay. If an event outside our reasonable control delays or disrupts FounderWorld, we will tell you and take reasonable steps to limit the effect.

We may change, suspend or withdraw parts of FounderWorld for a good reason, such as security, a legal duty, preventing misuse or developing the product. If a change will significantly affect how you use FounderWorld, we will tell you in advance where we reasonably can.

If we decide to close FounderWorld, we will email you at least 30 days before access ends and give you the chance to export your saved Network and ask us for a copy of your profile first. If we must close it sooner for security or legal reasons, we will still help you export your saved Network where we can do so safely.

Your saved Network means the people you have saved, with their contact details, notes, companies and where each record came from. You can export your saved Network in the app. You can ask us for a copy of your profile and other information by emailing contact@nuovus.ai.

We protect your information as our Privacy Notice describes. At the moment we do not keep backups, so if our systems fail, information you have not exported may be lost and we may not be able to restore it. Please export your saved Network regularly.

FounderWorld helps you remember and find people. We do not promise introductions, investment, customers, hires or any other result. We do not check the accuracy of what members say about themselves, so use your own judgement about the people you meet.

7. Your profile and what you share

• You choose what goes on your profile and whether to share it. Your profile settings show who can see it. There are two options: Private and Anyone with the link. New profiles are private: until you choose to share it, only you can see your profile in the app, except as the Privacy Notice describes.
• When you share your profile by QR code or link, anyone with that link can see what you chose to share, and they may save it.
• Only put information on your profile that you are happy for the people you share it with to see and keep.
• Keep your profile accurate. Do not misstate your role, company, stage, investment focus or experience.

8. Connection context and information about other people

You can save the people you meet to your Network in FounderWorld, including people who are not members. With each person, you can save the connection context: where you met, what you discussed, why it mattered and what should happen next. Only you can see the people you save and their connection context in the app, with two exceptions that the Privacy Notice explains:

• If you save a member who has also saved you, or you join from a member's shared profile, you both see that you are connected.
• We analyse notes and connection reasons across all members to produce aggregate reports. We redact personal details first and keep only aggregate counts.

That information is about real people. When you add it:

• Keep it accurate, relevant and respectful. Record what helps you follow up, and no more.
• Do not add sensitive information about someone, such as their health, religion, sexuality, political views or criminal record.
• Only add details you obtained fairly, for example from the person, from a card they gave you or through FounderWorld. Do not add details that were bought, scraped or taken from someone else's private records.
• Do not share someone's information outside FounderWorld in a way they would not expect. Do not put other people's private information on your profile.
• If someone asks you to correct or remove information about them, deal with the request fairly and lawfully.

If you use FounderWorld for your business or profession, data protection law, including the UK GDPR, may treat you as responsible for the personal information you store about other people. You are then responsible for meeting those duties, for example having a lawful reason to keep the information and responding to requests from the people it is about. The Privacy Notice explains how we handle the information you store.

If we reasonably believe information breaks this section, we may ask you to change or remove it. If you do not, or the breach is serious, we may suspend or close your account under section 16. Where we reasonably can, we will tell you first.

9. Acceptable use

Do not use FounderWorld to:

• break the law or infringe anyone's rights, including privacy and intellectual property rights;
• send spam, bulk unsolicited messages or marketing that the law does not allow;
• harass, threaten, stalk, abuse or discriminate against anyone;
• impersonate anyone, or misrepresent who you are, your role or your organisation;
• build a lead list, meaning collect people's details to sell, rent or pass on, or for mass recruiting, sales or fundraising outreach;
• scrape, copy or extract data from FounderWorld with bots or other automated tools, or compile a directory of members;
• try to access another person's account, saved people or connection context;
• probe, overload or disrupt FounderWorld, or get around its security, unless we have agreed in writing; or
• upload viruses or other harmful code.

10. Your content

"Your content" means what you add to FounderWorld: profile details, photos and logos, the people you save and their connection context, and anything you send us.

• You keep ownership of your content.
• You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free permission to host, store, copy, process and display your content only as needed to run, secure, support and improve FounderWorld, as the Privacy Notice describes, and to show your profile to the people you share it with.
• This permission ends when you delete the content or your account. It continues only for copies we must keep for legal, security or dispute reasons, as the Privacy Notice explains, for the other records listed in section 16, and for details other members saved from what you shared with them.
• You confirm that you have the right to add your content and that it follows these terms.

We do not sell your personal information, and FounderWorld has no ads.

11. Our intellectual property

FounderWorld's software, design, name and logo belong to us or our licensors. While you follow these terms, we give you a personal, non-transferable permission to use FounderWorld for its intended purpose. Do not copy, modify, reverse engineer or resell FounderWorld, or use our name or logo, except where the law allows or we agree in writing.

12. Feedback

If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them to improve FounderWorld without paying or crediting you. You give us a permanent, worldwide, royalty-free licence to do so. Please do not send confidential information as feedback. We will not publish your name with your feedback without your permission.

13. Other services and links

FounderWorld relies on other providers for things such as hosting, sign-in emails, security checks and analytics. The Privacy Notice names them. When you read contact details from a photo, FounderWorld tries to do it on your device first. If it can't, it may send the photo to a third-party AI provider to read it, as the Privacy Notice describes. We remain responsible for FounderWorld, including the parts our providers run for us.

We link to other websites for convenience. We do not control those sites, and their own terms apply.

14. Fees

FounderWorld is free while it is in development.

If we introduce paid plans, we will show the price and terms clearly before they apply. You will pay only if you choose a paid plan and accept its terms separately. We will not move you from free to paid without your clear agreement. If a feature you use for free moves to a paid plan, we will give you reasonable notice and the chance to export your saved Network. Any paid plan will include the cancellation and other rights the law gives you.

15. Refunds

FounderWorld is currently free, and we do not take payments. If we offer a paid service or digital content and you buy it, but we do not provide it or it is not reasonably what we described, we will refund what you paid in full.

To claim, email contact@nuovus.ai with your order details. If you are entitled to a refund, we will pay it within 14 days of agreeing that you are, using the payment method you used, and we will not charge you for it.

This refund is in addition to your other legal rights. Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

16. Ending or suspending your use

You can stop using FounderWorld at any time. You can delete your account in the app or by emailing contact@nuovus.ai. Deletion is immediate and permanent, and there is no recovery period, as the Privacy Notice explains. If you want a copy of your saved Network, export it first. For a copy of your profile, email contact@nuovus.ai before you delete your account.

Deleting your account removes your account, profile, saved Network, uploaded photos and logos, invite access and share links. Some records remain:

• People who saved you keep the details they saved in their own Network, no longer linked to your account. Any mutual connection ends.
• Deleting your account does not remove a waitlist entry or messages you sent us through the contact form. Email contact@nuovus.ai if you want those deleted too.
• We keep a limited record of the deletion and other limited records, as the Privacy Notice explains.

We may suspend or close your account if:

• you seriously or repeatedly break these terms;
• we reasonably need to for security, to protect other people or to comply with the law; or
• we close FounderWorld under section 6.

Except in urgent cases, we will tell you first, explain why and give you a chance to respond. If we close your account for a reason other than a serious breach by you, we will give you the chance to export your saved Network and ask us for a copy of your profile first. If you think we made a mistake, contact us at contact@nuovus.ai.

Sections that by their nature should continue after your use ends will continue. These include sections 10, 12, 15, 17, 19 and 20.

17. Indemnity (business users only)

If you are a business user, you will cover our reasonable losses and costs from a claim brought by someone else, to the extent that the claim arises from your breaking section 8, section 9 or the law when using FounderWorld. We will tell you promptly about the claim, let you take part in the defence and take reasonable steps to limit the loss. This section does not apply to consumers.

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms for a good reason, such as a change to FounderWorld, a change in the law or clearer wording. We will post the new version on this page with a new "Last updated" date.

If a change could significantly affect you, for example by reducing your rights or adding to what you must do, we will email account holders and people on the waitlist at least 30 days before it applies, unless the law or an urgent security need requires a faster change. If you do not agree, you can stop using FounderWorld and delete your account before the change applies. If you keep using FounderWorld after that date, the new terms apply. A change will not reduce your legal rights as a consumer.

19. Other legal points

• We may transfer this agreement to another organisation, for example if FounderWorld is sold or restructured. We will tell you, and the transfer will not reduce your rights under these terms. If you object, you can stop using FounderWorld and delete your account.
• You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our written agreement.
• Only you and we have rights under these terms. No one else can enforce them.
• If a court finds part of these terms invalid, the rest still applies.
• If we do not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.

20. Governing law and courts

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

If you are a business user, only the courts of England and Wales can decide disputes about these terms or FounderWorld.

If you are a consumer, you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring a claim there. Wherever you live, you keep the mandatory consumer protections of the place where you live.

21. Complaints and contact

If you have a question or a complaint about FounderWorld or these terms, email contact@nuovus.ai. We will try to resolve it quickly and fairly.