Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using PitchSpark ("the Platform"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not use the Platform. These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you and PitchSpark.

2. Description of Service

PitchSpark is a platform that connects startup founders with investors and connectors. The Platform provides tools for creating and sharing startup pitches, discovering investment opportunities, facilitating introductions, and enabling communication between participants in the startup ecosystem.

3. Account Registration

• You must be at least 18 years old to create an account
• You must provide accurate and complete registration information
• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials
• You must promptly notify us of any unauthorized access to your account
• You may not create accounts for others without their permission
• We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms

4. User Conduct

When using the Platform, you agree not to:

• Submit false, misleading, or fraudulent information about yourself or your startup
• Harass, threaten, or abuse other users
• Use the Platform for any unlawful purpose
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other user accounts or Platform systems
• Scrape, crawl, or use automated tools to extract data from the Platform
• Distribute spam, malware, or other harmful content
• Impersonate another person or entity
• Interfere with or disrupt the Platform's operation

The foregoing impersonation prohibition applies to you as a user and does not restrict PitchSpark's own use of platform-operated personas or automated accounts as described in Section 5a.

5. User Content

You retain ownership of content you submit to the Platform, including pitches, profiles, and messages ("User Content"). By posting User Content, you grant PitchSpark a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, display, reproduce, and distribute your User Content solely for the purpose of operating and improving the Platform.

This license also covers displaying and distributing the public details of your approved pitch (company name, one-line summary, sector, stage, region, amount raising, PitchSpark score when it is 70 or higher, and the public pitch link) through third-party services, including AI assistants that use our MCP server, to promote the Platform and your pitch. Once delivered, those services handle that information under their own terms, not ours. See our Privacy Policy for details.

You represent that you have the right to share any content you submit and that it does not infringe on any third party's rights. We reserve the right to remove content that violates these Terms or is otherwise objectionable.

5a. Platform-Generated Content

To maintain an engaging and active experience, PitchSpark may post comments, roasts, reactions, or votes on the Platform that are generated by automated systems, artificial intelligence, or platform-operated personas ("Platform-Generated Content"). Platform-Generated Content is created for engagement purposes and does not represent the views of real investors, founders, or connectors.

Competition votes cast by platform-operated accounts are intended to keep competitions active. We maintain internal audit records of platform-operated engagement activity, though individual comments and votes are not externally distinguishable from user-submitted ones. Any displayed vote totals may include both user-submitted votes and platform-contributed votes.

You acknowledge that not all comments, reactions, or engagement signals visible on the Platform originate from verified human users. PitchSpark uses Platform-Generated Content sparingly and in service of the user experience; we do not use it to materially misrepresent user sentiment or to manipulate the outcome of any final award, prize, or introduction.

6. Payments and Subscriptions

Certain features of the Platform may require payment. By purchasing a subscription or paid feature, you agree to the following:

• Prices are as displayed at the time of purchase and may change with notice
• Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled before the renewal date
• Refunds are handled in accordance with our refund policy
• You are responsible for any applicable taxes

7. Intellectual Property

The Platform, including its design, features, code, and branding, is owned by PitchSpark and protected by intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works based on the Platform without our written consent. The PitchSpark name, logo, and related marks are trademarks of PitchSpark.

8. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. PitchSpark does not guarantee:

• The accuracy or completeness of information provided by other users
• That the Platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure
• The success of any investment, partnership, or business relationship formed through the Platform
• The suitability of any user, startup, or investment opportunity

You are solely responsible for conducting your own due diligence before making any investment or business decisions based on information found on the Platform.

9. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, PitchSpark and its officers, directors, employees, and affiliates shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of the Platform. Our total liability for any claim arising from these Terms shall not exceed the amount you paid to PitchSpark in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.

10. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PitchSpark from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your use of the Platform, your violation of these Terms, or your infringement of any third-party rights.

11. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. You may also delete your account at any time. Upon termination, your right to use the Platform will cease immediately, though certain provisions of these Terms (such as indemnification and limitation of liability) will survive.

12. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. We will notify you of material changes by posting a notice on the Platform or by email. Your continued use of the Platform after such changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

13. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising from these Terms shall be resolved through binding arbitration or in the courts of competent jurisdiction.

14. Doc Vault & Confidential Documents

Draft — pending legal review

The Platform offers a "Doc Vault" that lets founders share documents within a specific founder–investor conversation, optionally subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), a passcode, view-only access, and an expiry date. By using the Doc Vault you acknowledge and agree that:

• NDAs are between users. Any NDA presented in the Doc Vault is an agreement between the sharing user and the receiving user. PitchSpark facilitates presentation and record-keeping of the NDA but is not a party to it and is not responsible for its enforcement.
• Electronic signature. Typing your name to accept an NDA is your electronic signature under the U.S. ESIGN Act and UETA and is legally binding. We record the acceptance, including a timestamp, your IP address, and a hash of the exact text you accepted.
• Honest DRM, not copy protection. View-only documents are watermarked with the viewer's identity and access is logged, but screenshots, photographs, and other copying are not prevented. Treat all shared materials as confidential.
• Retention & purge. Documents may expire and have their file contents purged on the schedule chosen by the sharer; access logs and NDA acceptance records are retained for audit and enforcement as described in our Privacy Policy.
• Your responsibility. You are solely responsible for the documents you share and for your handling of documents shared with you. Do not upload anything you are not authorized to disclose.

15. Live Roast Organizers

Live Roast lets approved third parties ("Organizers") host their own in-person pitch roast events on the Platform. If you apply to host or host a Live Roast event, this section and the Organiser data terms you accept when you apply apply to you in addition to the rest of these Terms.

• Eligibility and approval. You must be 18 or older and, if you apply for an organization, authorized to bind it. The legal name, contact email, postal address and privacy policy link you give us must be accurate and kept up to date; we show them to your guests. We approve Organizers at our discretion, may reject any application, and may require you to accept updated terms before you host or export guest data again.
• Guest data. You receive the name and email address of guests who join your events. From receipt you are an independent controller of that data, not our processor, and you are responsible for your own compliance with data protection and marketing laws, including publishing your own privacy policy.
• Lawful marketing only. Guests are told at signup that you may send them marketing; they do not tick a box to agree. You may send marketing only as the law where each guest lives allows, and never to a guest the export marks as not available for marketing. Every marketing email must identify you and include your postal address and a working unsubscribe link, and you must honour every unsubscribe or objection within 10 business days.
• No resale. You may not sell, rent, share or give guest data to anyone else, including sponsors, except service providers acting for you under a written contract. PitchSpark receives no payment for guest data.
• Security and deletion. You must keep guest data secure, tell us within 72 hours of any breach affecting it, delete a guest's data within one month of their request or of our passing one on to you, and delete all guest data when you no longer need it.
• Moderation. You run the room. You must review roast lines before they are shown, approve only lines that meet our Roast Room moderation policy (no doxxing, threats, attacks on protected characteristics or personal attacks, and no line naming anyone other than the founder on stage), and remove any line that breaks it. Automated flags are advisory; you are responsible for what you approve.
• Venue and age. You are responsible for your venue, its licenses and permits, the safety of your event, and compliance with the laws that apply to it, and for keeping your events to people aged 18 or older.
• Our rights. We may remove any content, reject any sponsor, unpublish or end an event, turn off its public archive, and suspend or terminate your Organizer access or your account, with or without notice, if you breach these Terms or where we consider it necessary to protect guests, founders or the Platform.
• Indemnity. In addition to section 10, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless PitchSpark from any claims, damages, losses or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your events, your venue, your sponsors, your marketing, or your use of guest data.
• California. We charge no fees to Organizers located in California.

16. Sponsors and Advertising

Live Roast events may include commercial breaks paid for by a sponsor. A sponsor may be added by PitchSpark for any event or by an Organizer for its own event. If you sponsor an event or add a sponsor to your event, you agree that:

• Labelling. Every sponsor segment is labelled "Sponsored", with the sponsor's name, on the venue screen and on guests' phones for its whole duration, and is never presented as a pitch, a roast line or a PitchSpark result.
• Review. PitchSpark reviews every sponsor and its content before it airs and may reject or remove any sponsor or segment at any time. A sponsor added by an Organizer does not air until we approve it.
• Banned categories. We do not accept sponsors for gambling or betting; tobacco, vaping or nicotine; cannabis or CBD; weapons; adult content; crypto token sales, "guaranteed return" investment products, or any offer of securities (including solicitation for the founders on stage); payday or high-cost lending; multi-level marketing; prescription drugs or unproven health claims; or political parties, candidates and campaigns.
• Alcohol. Alcohol sponsors are allowed only where alcohol advertising is legal at the venue and only if the spot is not aimed at anyone under 21, which the person adding the sponsor must confirm.
• No guest data. Sponsors receive no guest names, email addresses, or other information about guests, and no per-guest statistics.
• No conflicts. A sponsor may not be a founder or company pitching on stage, or a judge, at the same event.

17. Live Roast Guests

You can join a Live Roast event from your phone without a PitchSpark account. By taking part you agree to this section and to sections 4, 8, 9 and 13 of these Terms. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle your information, including sharing your name and email address with the event's Organizer. You must be 18 or older to take part.

• Your roast lines. You keep ownership of the roast lines you submit. You grant PitchSpark and the event's Organizer a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, reproduce and distribute each line that is approved: at the event, on the venue screen and on guests' phones; without your name, in the post-event summary sent to the founder of the pitch; and, if the Organizer turns on the public Roast Archive for that event, online in the archive under your first name and last initial for as long as the line is published. You also allow PitchSpark to use your lines to operate and improve the Platform, including our pitch scoring. We do not sublicense the words of your lines to anyone else. You can ask us to remove a published line at any time.
• Conduct. Roast the pitch, not the person. Do not submit lines that dox anyone, threaten anyone, attack anyone for a protected characteristic, make personal attacks, or name anyone other than the founder on stage, and do not submit spam, advertising or unlawful content. The event's Roastmaster decides which lines are shown; automated checks are advisory. We or the Organizer may refuse or remove any line and remove you from an event.
• Organizers and venues. An event hosted by an Organizer is that Organizer's event. PitchSpark provides the software and is not responsible for the venue or for how the Organizer runs the event or uses your details.
• Demo mode. Admins and Organizers can run a demo event with a simulated crowd to rehearse. Everything in a demo event, including guests, reactions, ratings, predictions and roast lines, is simulated and is not real activity. Demo events are labelled "DEMO – simulated crowd" on every screen, and their results are not presented as real results.

18. Contact

If you have questions about these Terms, please reach out through our Contact page or email us at legal@pitchspark.io.