Acceptable Use Policy

The Guild works because members are candid with each other about things they would not say in public — what a round really cost them, which investor behaved badly, what is actually going wrong inside the company. That candor is fragile. It survives only if everyone here can trust everyone else.

This policy is the floor. It is part of your agreement with The Founders Guild— incorporated into the Terms of Service— and breaking it is a breach of them. It applies everywhere we operate, including foundersguild.org and intelligentmachineguild.org.

Do not:

• harass, bully, threaten, intimidate, or stalk anyone, here or anywhere else you reached them through the Guild;
• attack or demean anyone on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic;
• make unwanted sexual advances, or continue any contact after being asked to stop;
• publish private information about someone — home address, personal phone number, private messages, immigration or medical status — without their consent;
• incite others to do any of the above, or organize a pile-on.

Disagreement is fine. Blunt criticism of an investor, a company, or an idea is the point of this place. The line is between attacking an argument and attacking a person.

Do not:

• misrepresent who you are, what you have built, your role, your funding, your traction, or your affiliations, whether in your application, your profile, or a conversation;
• impersonate another person or organization, or imply you speak for the Guild;
• create more than one account, share yours, or use someone else’s to get in or to get around a removal;
• write a review of an investor you have not actually dealt with.

Specifically, do not:

• screenshot or quote investor reviews, term sheets, or member discussions outside the Guild, including to a journalist or on social media;
• scrape, bulk-export, or systematically copy the member directory or any other member data;
• record a session that was not announced as recorded, or attribute what someone said at a closed session;
• upload a document you are contractually forbidden to share — most term sheets carry a confidentiality obligation, and it is on you to know whether yours does.

Members introduce each other to customers, hires, and investors constantly, and that is good. What is not welcome is treating the membership as a lead list.

Do not:

• send bulk or repeated unsolicited pitches to members;
• use the directory to build a prospecting list, or export member contact details into a CRM or outreach tool;
• promote multi-level marketing, token sales, or investment schemes, or solicit investment from members in a way that is not permitted by securities law;
• post referral spam, affiliate links, or unrelated advertising.

One thoughtful, relevant message to a member you have a genuine reason to contact is not solicitation. Fifty copies of it are.

Do not post anything that:

• is unlawful, or promotes or facilitates unlawful activity;
• infringes someone’s copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy, or publicity rights;
• you know to be false, or that states as fact something about an identifiable person or company that you do not believe to be true;
• contains malware, or a link intended to phish credentials or compromise a device;
• is sexually explicit, gratuitously violent, or promotes self-harm, terrorism, or hatred;
• contains material non-public information about a publicly traded company, or is intended to manipulate a market.

Investor reviews have their own rules, and they are stricter. Read the Anonymity & Takedown Policy before writing one.

Do not:

• probe, scan, or test the security of the Guild, or try to get around authentication, rate limits, or access controls;
• access an account, record, or file you are not authorized to see;
• use bots, scrapers, or automated access, except a well-behaved search-engine crawler on public pages;
• interfere with the service, overload it, or take any action that imposes an unreasonable load on it;
• reverse-engineer or decompile any part of it.

What we do depends on what happened. We may remove content, issue a warning, restrict what you can do, suspend you, or end your membership. For anything involving harassment, threats, safety, or a serious breach of confidence, we will usually go straight to removal.

Removal for cause does not come with a refund. Where we can, we will tell you what rule you broke and give you a chance to respond, but we are not obliged to, and we will not delay acting on something urgent in order to hold a hearing.

If the conduct is criminal or someone is in danger, we will involve law enforcement.

If something here is wrong — someone is behaving badly, content is false or harmful, or you have been treated in a way that is not acceptable — tell us at legal@foundersguild.org.

Tell us what happened, where, and when, and include links or screenshots if you have them. We treat reports confidentially, we do not tell the person who reported to the person reported on, and we do not tolerate retaliation against someone for making a report in good faith.

If you are in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. We are not an emergency service.