1. Agreement

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you ("you", "Client", or "User") and Startup Roles ("Startup Roles", "we", "us", or "our") governing your access to and use of the Startup Roles website, applications, APIs, and related services (collectively, the "Service"). By accessing or using the Service you accept these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility & Accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract to use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind it to these Terms. You are responsible for safeguarding your credentials and for all activity on your account.

3. The Service

Startup Roles is a software platform that helps founders define hiring mandates, evaluate candidates, and coordinate sourcing partners ("Agents"). Agent deliverables are reviewed by Startup Roles before being released to Clients. The Service is provided "as is" and may evolve, change, or be discontinued at any time.

4. Not a Recruiting Agency

Startup Roles is a software tool. We do not act as an employment agency, employer of record, staffing firm, or fiduciary. We do not guarantee any hiring outcome, candidate quality, candidate availability, response rate, or fit. Any decision to interview, hire, reject, or contact a candidate is solely yours. You are responsible for compliance with all applicable employment, anti-discrimination, immigration, background-check, data protection, and tax laws in every jurisdiction in which you operate.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

use the Service for any unlawful, discriminatory, harassing, or fraudulent purpose;
upload content you do not have the right to share, including confidential or personal data of third parties without lawful basis;
reverse engineer, scrape, or circumvent any technical or access control of the Service;
resell, sublicense, or expose the Service to third parties except as expressly permitted;
use the Service to train competing machine-learning models or to build a competing product;
interfere with the integrity, security, or performance of the Service.

6. Your Content

You retain all rights in content you submit to the Service ("Client Content"), including job mandates, criteria, swipes, feedback, and uploads. You grant Startup Roles a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, process, transmit, display, and create derivative works of Client Content solely to operate, secure, support, and improve the Service. You represent that you have all rights and lawful bases necessary to submit Client Content and to authorize this license.

7. Candidate Data

Candidate profiles delivered through the Service may include personal data. You act as an independent data controller for candidate data you receive and are solely responsible for providing required notices, lawful basis, retention, deletion, and data-subject responses. You must not contact candidates in violation of applicable law (including GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, CAN-SPAM, PECR, and equivalent regimes).

8. AI Output

The Service uses large language models and automated systems to generate suggestions, summaries, personas, and recommendations ("AI Output"). AI Output may be inaccurate, incomplete, biased, or out of date. You must independently verify AI Output before relying on it and must not use it as the sole basis for an employment decision.

9. Fees

If your plan is paid, you authorize us (or our payment processor) to charge the applicable fees. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law. We may change pricing on prospective renewal terms with reasonable notice.

10. Intellectual Property

The Service, including all software, models, prompts, designs, and documentation, is owned by Startup Roles or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your internal hiring purposes. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

11. Confidentiality

Each party will protect the other's non-public information with at least reasonable care and will use it only to perform under these Terms. This obligation does not apply to information that is public, independently developed, or required to be disclosed by law.

12. Disclaimers

The service and all ai output, candidate data, and agent deliverables are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will Startup Roles, its affiliates, officers, employees, or suppliers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business, arising out of or relating to the service, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Our aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars (US$100).

14. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Startup Roles and its affiliates from any claims, damages, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to (i) your Client Content, (ii) your use of the Service, (iii) your hiring decisions or communications with candidates, or (iv) your violation of these Terms or any law.

15. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including suspected breach of these Terms. You may stop using the Service at any time. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive.

16. Governing Law & Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute will be resolved exclusively in the courts of London, England, and you submit to their personal jurisdiction. Nothing in this section limits any non-waivable rights you have under your local law.

17. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified by updating the Effective Date and, where appropriate, by in-product notice. Continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms: legal@startuproles.co.