Terms of Service

1. The service

Founders of Equity provides a research index about founder and billionaire paths, curated deep profiles, and Pattern Engine, an AI-assisted research tool that can use the FOE dataset and optional public web context. Features vary between guest, free, and any future paid access level.

The service is operated in Sweden by a private individual using the Founders of Equity trading identity. The service is available to consumers and business users. Where mandatory consumer law applies, it takes priority over conflicting terms in this document.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 16 years old and provide an email address you control. You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping access to your email secure. Do not share credentials or allow another person to use your account to evade access limits. We may suspend or terminate access for abuse, fraud, non-payment, security risk, or a material breach of these Terms.

3. Plans, pricing, and billing

Guest and free access can include limited profile and Pattern Engine capacity. Any future paid plan, price, billing interval, included features, taxes, and renewal terms will be displayed before checkout. Paid subscriptions are intended to renew monthly unless canceled. Payment processing and subscription management are handled by Stripe.

Paid checkout is currently unavailable until Founders of Equity has configured complete public legal seller information. When paid plans are enabled, customers will receive the legally required pre-contract information before an order is placed. Failed, unpaid, or canceled subscriptions can result in a return to free access.

4. Consumer withdrawal and cancellation

Consumers who buy a digital service at distance may have a statutory 14-day withdrawal right. Before paid checkout is enabled, the purchase flow will provide the legally required withdrawal information and a withdrawal function on this website at Withdrawal request. The function will be available on the same service where the contract is made.

A consumer may request immediate access during the withdrawal period. In that case, the customer must actively confirm the request before Stripe checkout opens. Where permitted by applicable law, a customer who withdraws after requesting immediate performance may be charged for the service supplied before the withdrawal takes effect. This statement does not remove any non-waivable consumer right.

Once billing is enabled, customers can cancel recurring subscriptions through the billing portal. Unless mandatory law provides otherwise, cancellation ends renewal and access continues until the end of the paid period. Business users do not receive consumer rights that apply only to consumers.

5. Acceptable use

• Do not scrape, harvest, bulk download, or redistribute the database without written permission.
• Do not bypass access controls, rate limits, paywalls, or usage limits.
• Do not probe, overload, reverse engineer, or attack the service or its infrastructure.
• Do not use Pattern Engine to create unlawful, fraudulent, deceptive, harassing, or rights-infringing content.
• Do not submit secrets, passwords, confidential information, or unrelated third-party personal data into prompts.
• Do not resell access, automated extraction, or curated deep-profile content without written permission.

We may throttle, block, remove content, or suspend access when we reasonably detect abuse or a security risk.

6. Content, data, and AI

Rankings, net worth figures, and profiles are estimates and curated research. They can be incomplete, delayed, disputed, or wrong. Pattern Engine can hallucinate, mis-cite, omit context, or produce an answer unsuitable for your purpose. Use the service for research and education, not as investment, tax, legal, accounting, medical, or other professional advice.

You keep rights in your prompts to the extent you have them. You grant Founders of Equity a limited right to process prompts, startup context, and feedback only to operate, secure, support, and improve the service. You confirm that you have the right to submit any material you provide.

7. Intellectual property and permitted use

The site design, software, curation, database structure, editorial text, Pattern Engine presentation, and Founders of Equity branding are owned by the operator or its licensors. Limited quotation with clear attribution for personal research is permitted. Commercial redistribution, resale, or systematic copying of curated profiles, timelines, or protected database content requires written permission.

Third-party names, marks, and source materials belong to their owners. Founders of Equity is not affiliated with or endorsed by Forbes, listed individuals, or their companies unless stated explicitly.

8. Service changes and third parties

We may change, suspend, or discontinue features, sources, providers, quotas, and access levels for security, legal, quality, or operational reasons. External services, including payment, hosting, source, and AI providers, are governed by their own terms and availability. We are not responsible for external websites or sources linked from the service.

9. Disclaimer and liability

The service is provided on an "as available" basis without a promise that all content is accurate, complete, uninterrupted, or suitable for a particular purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Founders of Equity is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses arising from use of, inability to use, or reliance on the service. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including mandatory consumer rights.

10. Suspension, termination, and account deletion

You may stop using the service at any time. You may request account deletion as described in the Privacy Policy. We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these Terms, non-payment, fraud, security risk, or to protect other users and the service.

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms when the service or applicable law changes. The last-updated date will change. For material changes affecting active paid subscribers, we will provide additional notice where required by law before the change takes effect.

12. Governing law and contact

These Terms are governed by the laws of Sweden, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where mandatory law in your country of residence provides stronger consumer protection. Disputes are handled by Swedish courts unless mandatory law requires a different forum. Questions can be sent to foundersofequity@gmail.com.