Terms & Conditions

Startup Ignition provides a connected family of offerings for early-stage entrepreneurs and startup teams:

• Ventures: A venture capital fund that invests in innovative startups.
• Bootcamp: A quarterly in-person bootcamp held in Utah, offering intensive training and mentorship for entrepreneurs.
• Academy: An online community providing courses, live workshops, and a platform for entrepreneurs to interact and share ideas.
• ToolSuite (SIT): A digital platform delivering educational content, a community, online tools, an AI-powered assistant, and peer mentorship for early-stage entrepreneurs and startup teams.

Our resources are intended for informational and self-directed educational use only.

To register and use the Services, you must be at least 18 years old and capable of entering into binding legal agreements. You may need to register for a user account to access certain features. You agree to:

• Provide accurate and complete registration information;
• Maintain the security and confidentiality of your account credentials;
• Be responsible for all activity that occurs under your account.

SIT and other paid Services may offer monthly and annual subscription tiers, with the following policies:

• Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled before the renewal date.
• All sales are final. Refunds are not guaranteed and may be issued only at our sole discretion.
• Subscription upgrades or downgrades take effect at the end of the current billing cycle.

Credit consumption for the Recruit Participants feature follows a separate refund model described in Section 14. Credits reserved for participant recruitment are refunded to your balance for unfilled places when a study completes, is cancelled, or is auto-released. This is the only feature for which credit refunds are provided as a matter of course; other credit consumption (e.g., AI tool usage) remains non-refundable except at our sole discretion.

You agree to use the Services only for lawful purposes and in a way that does not infringe the rights of, restrict, or inhibit anyone else's use and enjoyment of the Services. To maintain a positive and productive environment:

• Treat all members with professionalism and respect.
• Harassment, hate speech, obscene or offensive content, or disruptive behavior will result in immediate removal without refund.
• You are solely responsible for the content you share. We reserve the right to remove or restrict access to content that violates our values or applicable laws.

All content, videos, courses, AI tools, software, graphics, logos, images, and other resources made available through the Services are the exclusive property of Startup Ignition Academy, Inc. and/or its licensors, and are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws.

• You may not reproduce, distribute, or repurpose any materials without express written permission.
• Unauthorized use of our intellectual property will result in account termination and possible legal action.

The AI-powered chatbot, assistants, and tools within the Services are experimental and provided for informational purposes only.

• They do not constitute legal, tax, financial, or investment advice.
• You acknowledge that responses generated by AI may be incomplete, incorrect, or outdated.
• You agree not to rely on AI outputs for decisions without consulting appropriate professionals.

Startup Ignition and its representatives do not provide legal, tax, financial, or investment advice.

• All materials and content are offered as general education only.
• You should consult with qualified professionals such as attorneys, CPAs, or financial advisors before making decisions related to your business.
• Use of the Services does not create a client-professional relationship with any individual associated with Startup Ignition.

By using the Services, you consent to our data practices:

• Public-facing elements (such as your profile and forum posts) may be visible to other members.
• We use reasonable security measures but cannot guarantee absolute data protection.
• In the event of a breach, we are not liable for resulting damages.
• Upon cancellation or expiration of your membership, we may delete your data, progress, or content associated with premium features. No guarantees of data preservation are made beyond active membership.
• Override Notifications for Critical Community Messages: From time to time, the founders of Startup Ignition may send important community-wide messages via email to all users, including those who have opted out of email notifications. This override will be used sparingly and only for messages deemed essential to the shared entrepreneurial experience—such as significant platform updates, urgent industry insights, critical announcements, or educational commentary intended for all members. By joining the platform, you acknowledge and accept this limited exception.

Startup Ignition takes the privacy and confidentiality of your ideas and business concepts seriously. We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to help protect your data and prevent unauthorized access.

You retain full ownership of any ideas, concepts, or business information you enter into the Services. Startup Ignition does not claim any rights, title, or interest in your submitted ideas or materials, and we do not train our AI systems on user-generated inputs.

However, you acknowledge and agree that:

• No system can guarantee absolute confidentiality, data integrity, or exclusivity.
• Startup Ignition cannot ensure that your idea or any similar idea will never appear independently on the market.
• Startup Ignition, its affiliates, officers, employees, contractors, or partners shall bear no liability or responsibility for any perceived or actual similarity between your ideas and any existing or future products, services, or ventures created by others, whether internal or external to Startup Ignition.
• By submitting information through the Services, you expressly release Startup Ignition and its representatives from any and all claims or damages arising from such similarities or from unauthorized use, access, or disclosure that is not the result of our gross negligence or willful misconduct.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that your ideas are submitted voluntarily and at your own risk, and you agree that Startup Ignition's role is limited to providing educational and analytical tools—not a confidentiality or nondisclosure service.

We strive for reliable uptime but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. The Services are provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis. Startup Ignition makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, as to the operation of the Services or the information, content, materials, or products included therein.

• We may suspend or restrict access for maintenance, updates, or unforeseen technical issues.
• No compensation or refund will be issued due to downtime, outages, or errors.

You voluntarily access and participate in the Services at your own risk. By using the Services, you release and hold harmless Startup Ignition, its founders, employees, contractors, and affiliates from any and all claims, liabilities, or damages—known or unknown—arising from:

• Your use or misuse of the Services;
• Your reliance on content, advice, or tools provided;
• Any business or personal outcome related to your use of the Services.

You further agree not to bring legal claims or lawsuits against Startup Ignition or its representatives based on your experience or outcomes while using the Services.

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• Startup Ignition shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including lost profits, data, or business opportunity, including damages resulting from mistakes, omissions, interruptions, deletion of files or email, errors, defects, viruses, delays in operation or transmission, or any failure of performance.
• Our total liability, if any, will not exceed the amount you paid to us in the prior 3 months before the event giving rise to the claim.

For avoidance of doubt, Startup Ignition's total liability arising from the Recruit Participants feature is limited as set forth in this Section, regardless of the amount of credit you consumed in connection with that feature.

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Startup Ignition, its owners, officers, employees, agents, and affiliates from any claims, demands, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising out of:

• Your use of the Services;
• Your violation of these Terms;
• Any content you submit or actions you take on or through the Services.

The "Recruit Participants" feature within SIT allows you to source third-party research participants to engage with your interview links, via a relationship between Startup Ignition and a third-party research panel partner. By using this feature, you agree to the following terms in addition to the rest of these Terms:

a. Content Compliance. You warrant that the content of any study you launch through the Recruit Participants feature — including white-hat scripts, interview prompts, generated videos, demographic targeting, custom screener questions, and any other study materials — complies with all applicable laws, ethical research standards, any required institutional approvals (including any Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval that may apply to your research), and SIT's Recruit Participants policies (as published within the application). SIT performs an automated AI pre-flight content review on every study before submission to the research panel partner. This review is a guardrail, not a guarantee, and does not relieve you of responsibility for your study content.

b. Account-Level Responsibility. All studies launched through the Recruit Participants feature are submitted under SIT's institutional account with the research panel partner. You acknowledge that any policy violation, account hold, suspension, or termination attributed by the research panel partner to your study content or activity may result in suspension of your access to the Recruit Participants feature, with no refund of credits already consumed. SIT may also impose temporary or permanent restrictions on your account in connection with such events.

c. Indemnification. In addition to the general indemnification in Section 13 of these Terms, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Startup Ignition, its founders, employees, contractors, and affiliates from any claims, demands, losses, liabilities, costs, or fees (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising from or related to: (i) the content of any study you launch through the Recruit Participants feature; (ii) any policy violation attributed to your study by the research panel partner; (iii) any account hold, suspension, or termination of SIT's account with the research panel partner caused, in whole or in part, by your study; or (iv) any claim by a recruited participant arising from your study content or your interaction with their responses.

d. Pricing and Credits. Use of the Recruit Participants feature is paid for in SIT credits. Credits are reserved at study launch and consumed per completed survey. Unused credits are refunded to your workspace balance when the study completes, is cancelled by you, or is auto-released due to underfilling. Credit prices, tier definitions, and the underlying participant rewards are determined at SIT's sole discretion and may change at any time, including via updates to the Rates table within the application's super-admin settings.

e. Discretionary Termination. SIT may suspend, cancel, refund, or otherwise terminate any study at our sole discretion, including (without limitation) for: policy violations, low-quality content, technical failures, account-level issues with our research panel partner, fraud or abuse, or compliance with legal process. We will use reasonable efforts to notify you in such cases, but advance notice is not guaranteed.

f. Participant Quality and Outcomes. Participants recruited via the panel partner are bound by their own contracts with the panel partner and are not employees, contractors, or agents of Startup Ignition. SIT does not warrant participant quality, response accuracy, fill rates, response times, transcript quality, or any business outcome you may derive from recruited responses. SIT shall not be liable for any business outcome you derive — whether positive or negative — from recruited responses or from any decisions you make based on those responses. The Recruit Participants feature, like the rest of the Services, is an educational and research tool only and does not constitute legal, financial, or business advice (see also Section 8).

g. Submission Quality and Flagging. You may flag a recruited submission you believe is low-quality or off-topic. Flagged submissions enter a review queue managed by SIT. SIT — not you — makes the final decision on whether to formally reject a submission with the research panel partner. This is to protect SIT's standing with the research panel partner, on which all SIT customers depend. If SIT upholds your flag, the credit for that submission will be refunded; if SIT does not uphold the flag, no refund will be issued and we will provide a brief explanation.

h. Independence of the Research Panel Partner. The research panel partner is a separate, independent entity. Startup Ignition is not affiliated with the panel partner beyond a service-provider relationship. Use of the Recruit Participants feature is subject to availability of the partner's services and may be paused, restricted, or discontinued at any time, including without notice and without liability to Startup Ignition.

i. Data Sharing. Your use of the Recruit Participants feature involves sharing limited study information with our research panel partner. The data shared, retained, and processed is governed by our Privacy Policy. By launching a study, you consent to such sharing.

j. No Use for Lead Generation. You may not use the Recruit Participants feature for lead generation, marketing list-building, sales prospecting, or any purpose other than legitimate research and product validation. Studies that solicit participants to sign up for, purchase, download, or otherwise engage with third-party services or products are prohibited and may be cancelled at our discretion without refund.

We may update or revise these Terms at any time.

• Updated versions will be posted with a revised "Effective Date."
• If a revision is material, we will provide at least 30 days' notice prior to the new Terms taking effect.
• Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Services at any time, for any reason, with or without notice, including:

• Violations of these Terms;
• Misuse of our platform or community;
• Inactivity or expired membership.

If your account is terminated due to violation of these Terms, no refund will be issued.