Anonymity & Takedown Policy

Members can review investors they have dealt with and share term sheets they have received. This is some of the most useful information in the Guild and it is also the most dangerous — it makes statements about identifiable people and firms who never agreed to our Terms and have no account here.

This policy covers that material, and it applies to everyone: authors and subjects.

Write about what happened to you. Specifically:

• First-hand only. Review an investor you personally dealt with. Not what you heard, not what a friend experienced.
• Separate fact from opinion.“They pulled a signed term sheet after diligence” is a factual claim and it needs to be true. “I found them unserious” is your opinion and you are entitled to it. Write opinions as opinions.
• Only state facts you believe to be true. If you are not sure something happened the way you remember, say so, or leave it out.
• Firms and professional conduct, not private lives. Review how someone behaved as an investor. Do not write about their family, health, relationships, immigration status, or anything else that is not their professional conduct.
• No contact details.Do not publish anyone’s personal phone number, home address, or private messages.
• No slurs or threats. The Acceptable Use Policy applies here in full.

A review that breaks these rules gets removed, whether or not anyone complains about it.

Redact what you can: your co-investors’ names, anything identifying a third party who is not the investor being reviewed, and anything you are not certain you may share. Never upload someone else’s confidential document.

You are indemnifying us for this under section 18 of the Terms. That is not a formality. Take the decision seriously.

When you mark a review anonymous, we hide your name from other members. Your review appears without attribution.

We keep that link because we have to: to enforce the rules above, to respond to a legal demand we cannot refuse, and because a system where nobody can be held to what they wrote becomes worthless very quickly.

Other members may also work out who you are from what you write. A review that names the round, the date, and the sector can identify you to anyone who was in the room. Anonymity from us is limited; anonymity from a determined reader is not something we can offer at all.

We will disclose an anonymous author’s identity in these circumstances and no others:

• When we are legally compelled. A valid subpoena, court order, or binding legal demand. We will require it to be valid and properly served, we will object to one that is overbroad or defective, and we will narrow what we produce to what is actually demanded.
• To prevent serious harm. Where we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to prevent death, serious injury, or a serious crime.
• To defend ourselves. Where someone brings a claim against us over your content and we cannot defend it without identifying you.
• Where you have abused the system. Fabricated reviews, coordinated attacks, multiple accounts, or reviews written to damage a competitor. Anonymity is for people telling the truth at personal risk, not cover for a campaign.

A complaint from a named investor is not on this list.Being unhappy about a review, however senior or well-connected you are, does not entitle you to learn who wrote it. We will not trade an author’s identity for goodwill, funding, or a quiet life.

If we receive a legal demand for your identity, we will tell you before we respond, wherever we are lawfully permitted to and can reach you, and we will give you a reasonable opportunity — normally at least 14 days, unless the demand runs shorter — to seek your own legal advice or move to quash it.

Where a gag order or statute forbids us from telling you, we will tell you as soon as that restriction lifts.

If you are an investor, firm, or other person named in member content and you believe it is false, unlawful, confidential, or otherwise should not be there, write to legal@foundersguild.org with the subject line “Takedown request”.

Tell us:

• who you are, and your relationship to the person or firm named;
• the specific content, with a link or enough detail for us to find it;
• the specific statements you say are wrong — quoted, one by one, not the review in general;
• why each one is wrong, and any evidence you can share;
• what you want: removal, correction, or a reply published alongside it;
• a statement that what you have told us is accurate, and that you are the person named or authorized to act for them.

You do not need a lawyer to do this and we do not treat a letter from one as more credible than one from you.

We acknowledge within 3 business days and decide within 14 business days. If we need longer, we tell you why and give you a date.

A member of our staff with authority to act decides — currently the Executive Director, or a trustee where the Executive Director has a conflict. It is one named person, not a committee, and they will tell you what they decided and why.

We may:

• Remove it, where it breaks the rules in section 2, where it appears unlawful, or where the dispute cannot be resolved any other way;
• Ask the author to correct it, where a specific claim looks wrong but the review is otherwise legitimate;
• Publish your reply alongside it, under section 9;
• Restrict it to a narrower audience, or suspend it while we look into it;
• Leave it,where it is one person’s honest account of their own experience and you simply disagree with it.

Because that is our standard, we may remove content without concluding that it is false, and we may leave content up without concluding that it is true. Removing something is not an admission by us or by the author.

We reserve the right to remove anything, at any time, for any reason. We also reserve the right to decline — a review being unflattering is not a reason to take it down, and we will say so plainly.

If you are named in a review, you may write a response and we will publish it directly beneath, clearly marked as coming from you, without editing it for content. We will check that it complies with the Acceptable Use Policy and nothing more.

In most cases this serves you better than removal. A review with a substantive reply under it is read very differently from one without.

We will tell you what was removed and why. If you think we got it wrong, reply within 30 days and say so; a different person from the one who made the original decision will review it and answer within 14 business days. That decision is final.

Removing your content is not by itself a reason to remove you from the Guild. We keep those decisions separate, unless the content was part of a pattern.

If you believe material here infringes your copyright, send a notice to legal@foundersguild.org and to The Founders Guild, 100 Ralston Road, San Gregorio, CA 94074, United States, marked for the attention of the Copyright Agent, including:

• your physical or electronic signature;
• identification of the work you say is infringed;
• identification of the material you want removed, and where it is;
• your address, telephone number, and email;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law;
• a statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information is accurate and that you are the owner or authorized to act for them.

We will remove or disable the material and tell the member who posted it. They may send a counter-notice; if they do, we will forward it to you, and unless you tell us within 10 business days that you have filed a court action, we may restore the material.

We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. Knowingly misrepresenting that material is infringing carries liability for damages under 17 U.S.C. §512(f).

Takedown requests, copyright notices, and anything else in this policy: legal@foundersguild.org

By post: The Founders Guild, 100 Ralston Road, San Gregorio, CA 94074, United States