Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and BootUP World, 585 Glenwood Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA ("BootUP", "we", "us"), for your use of the BootUP platform at app.bootupworld.com and related services (the "Platform").

You accept these Terms by ticking the box at sign-up or, if you already have an account, by accepting them when we ask you to. Feature-specific terms shown to you before you use a feature (for example the consent screen before signing a contract) also apply to that feature. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information.

If you use the Platform for a company, fund or other organisation, you accept these Terms for it and confirm you have authority to do so. "You" then means both you and that organisation.

You may use the Platform only if:

• you are at least 18 and can form a binding contract;
• you are not barred from it under the laws that apply to you, including sanctions laws, and you are not on a US, EU, UK or UN sanctions list or in a sanctioned territory;
• we have not previously suspended or removed your account.

• Give accurate information and keep it current. Use your real name.
• One person per account. Do not share your sign-in details; you are responsible for activity on your account.
• We recommend turning on two-factor sign-in; we require it for administrators.
• Tell us at once at support@bootupworld.com if you think your account has been misused.
• An account may hold more than one role (founder, investor, mentor). Some roles, such as mentor, need our approval before they are listed.
• A founder may invite team members to a startup and decide what each can do. The founder is responsible for the people they invite.

What it is. A software platform where founders present their companies, share data rooms, sign contracts and connect with investors; where investors discover companies, run diligence and express interest; where mentors meet founders; and where all of them connect.

What it is not.

• We do not offer, sell or recommend securities, and nothing on the Platform is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Each company is solely responsible for its own offering.
• We are not a registered broker-dealer, funding portal, investment adviser or exchange, and we do not act as any of them for you.
• We receive no compensation based on whether a company raises money, or how much, through the Platform.
• We do not give investment, legal, tax or accounting advice. Memos, scores, readiness percentages, templates and help answers are tools, not advice.
• We do not hold, transfer or take custody of investor money or securities. Investors who invest pay the company directly, or a separate investment vehicle under its own documents.
• We do not verify everything members post. Our review before a startup is listed checks quality and completeness; it is not due diligence or an endorsement.
• We are not a party to agreements between members, including contracts signed on the Platform.

Investing features. Investing on the Platform is switched off at launch: investors can express interest, but cannot commit. When we switch it on, further terms will apply and we will tell you first.

BootUP Angels. BootUP Angels LLC and its series are separate entities affiliated with BootUP. BootUP Angels may invest in, or organise investments in, companies listed on the Platform, and may receive fees or a share of profits under its own documents. If you invest through one of its vehicles, those documents govern that investment.

• Before your first expression of interest you confirm that you are an accredited investor under SEC Rule 501(a), or a qualified or professional investor under the law where you live, and choose the basis. Your declaration must be true, and you must update it if it stops being true.
• Your declaration is a statement by you, not a verification by BootUP. A company relying on an exemption that requires verification (for example Rule 506(c)) must take its own steps to verify you.
• Companies on the Platform may be raising under US private offering exemptions. If you are outside the United States, some deals may not be available to you, and you are responsible for checking that you may receive and act on them where you live.
• Private company investments are high risk and illiquid. You can lose all of your money. Do your own diligence and take your own professional advice.
• A company may ask you for more information, or decide not to accept your interest or investment, for any reason.
• Information you receive in a data room is confidential (section 8).

• You must be authorised to act for the company and to publish what you post about it.
• What you post must be accurate, complete where it matters, and not misleading. You remain responsible for every statement about your company, including memos and documents you generate with AI and publish.
• You are solely responsible for complying with securities and other laws in any offering, including the rules on who you may offer to, how you may advertise it, and how you verify investors. If your offering relies on rules that restrict general solicitation, set your raise and data room access accordingly. An investor's declaration on the Platform does not verify their status for you.
• We review each startup before it is listed. We may decline to list it, ask for changes, or unlist it, at our discretion.
• Profiles prepared by our team. We may prepare an unpublished profile of your company from material sent to us and invite you to claim it. Nothing is listed until you claim and publish it. You can tell us it is not your company, or ask us to remove it.

• Mentor sessions on the Platform are free unless we announce otherwise. Do not ask founders for fees, equity or other payment outside the Platform for sessions booked through it.
• Keep founders' information confidential and use it only to help them.
• Tell the founder before the session about any interest that could conflict with your advice, for example an investment in the company or a competitor, or an intention to invest.
• Sessions are general guidance. If you are a lawyer, accountant or other licensed professional, a session does not create a client relationship unless you and the founder agree one separately and outside the Platform.
• We approve mentors before they are listed and may remove a listing at any time.

• A founder decides who may see each file, whether downloads are allowed, and when access ends. Viewers may be asked to accept a non-disclosure agreement before access, and files may carry a watermark with the viewer's name or email.
• If you receive access to a data room or any non-public information through the Platform, you must keep it confidential, use it only to evaluate or work with that company, and not copy, share or download it beyond what the founder allows. This duty continues after access ends.
• The duty does not cover information that is or becomes public without your fault, that you already had, that you develop independently, or that you receive lawfully from someone else without a duty of confidence. You may disclose information where the law requires it, with notice to the founder where lawful. If you signed an NDA for a data room, that NDA governs where it differs.
• A founder sees which files you opened and when.
• We provide these controls, but we cannot prevent every misuse by someone with access, such as photographing a screen. We are not responsible for what another member does with information you chose to share.

• The Platform lets members create contracts from templates and sign them electronically. Templates are a starting point; they are not legal advice and may not suit your situation or jurisdiction. Have a lawyer review any contract that matters to you.
• Before you sign, you consent to use electronic records and signatures for that contract and its records. To sign and keep copies you need a current web browser, a PDF reader and an email address. Keep your account email current in Settings.
• Under laws such as the US ESIGN Act, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and the EU eIDAS Regulation, a signature or contract may not be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic. Some contracts and some countries require a qualified or handwritten signature instead (for example certain documents under Turkish law). It is your responsibility to decide whether an electronic signature suits a particular contract.
• You can ask for a paper copy at no charge, or withdraw your consent to electronic signing for future contracts, by writing to support@bootupworld.com. If you withdraw, you can no longer sign on the Platform, but you can sign on paper with the other party. Withdrawal does not affect contracts already signed.
• Each signed contract carries an audit trail (opening, consent and signature events, times, IP addresses) and a document hash. Signers can download the signed copy and its certificate, and the other parties see the same audit trail.
• BootUP is not a party to these contracts and is not responsible for their content or performance.

• You keep ownership of everything you upload or post ("Your Content").
• You give BootUP a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, adapt (for example to create previews, watermarks and AI drafts) and display Your Content, only as needed to run the Platform for you (including through the AI providers described in section 11), to show it to the people your settings and choices allow, to keep the Platform secure, to comply with law and to enforce these Terms. The licence ends when Your Content is deleted, except for copies others have lawfully received, signed contracts, and backups during their normal cycle.
• You confirm that you have the rights to Your Content and that it does not infringe anyone's rights or break any law or confidentiality duty.
• If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them freely without obligation to you.

• AI drafts can be wrong, incomplete or out of date. Review and correct them before you rely on or publish them; once you publish, they are your statements.
• Scores and memos are informational. They are not BootUP's recommendation or opinion on any investment.
• As between you and BootUP, you own the output generated from Your Content, to the extent the law allows ownership of it. Similar output may be generated for others.
• AI providers. AI features send the content they need (for example a pitch deck, the material for a memo, or a help question) to outside AI providers. We choose the provider and model for each request, based on cost, availability and quality, from those listed in our Privacy Policy. Some of these providers may keep the content and use it to improve their models, under their own terms. We do not train AI models on Your Content ourselves.
• Do not upload material that you may not share with such providers, for example information under a confidentiality duty that forbids it.

Do not:

• post false or misleading information, or impersonate anyone;
• use the Platform to offer securities unlawfully, run unregistered brokerage or advisory activity, or arrange payments that breach these Terms;
• harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone, or post unlawful, defamatory or obscene content;
• send spam or unsolicited promotions, or contact members for purposes unrelated to the Platform;
• copy, scrape or harvest data or member details, including by automated means, except through an interface we provide for that purpose;
• break or test our security, get around access controls, watermarks or download limits, or reach data you were not given;
• upload malware, or anything that would harm the Platform or other members;
• reverse engineer the Platform or build a competing product from it;
• upload sensitive personal information about anyone (for example health data or government ID numbers) unless a feature asks for it;
• use the Platform in breach of sanctions or anti-money-laundering laws.

We may remove content that breaks these Terms and act under section 18.

• Members talk to each other through messages, Q&A, Circles and updates. Be professional.
• Reporting. Report content you believe is unlawful or breaks these Terms to support@bootupworld.com, with the link to it, why you believe it is unlawful or breaks these Terms, your name and email, and a statement that your report is made in good faith. We confirm that we received it. Authorities and members can reach us at the same address, in English or Turkish.
• How we moderate. We review startups and mentors before they are listed and review reported content. Decisions are made by people on our team. We may remove or restrict content, unlist a startup, or limit or close an account.
• Reasons and appeal. When we remove or restrict your content or account, we tell you what we did and why, unless the law or a security risk prevents it. You can ask us to review the decision by replying within 6 months. You can also go to court.

The features available at launch are free. We may introduce paid plans or features later. We will show the price and any extra terms before you are charged, and you will choose whether to buy. Changes to a paid plan apply from your next billing period after notice.

Some features rely on services we do not control, such as Google or LinkedIn sign-in, calendar links and the video meeting tools mentors use. Their terms and privacy notices apply to your use of them, and we are not responsible for them.

The Platform, its software, design, text and the BootUP name and logos belong to BootUP or its licensors. Contract templates are provided under their own licences where stated. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Platform under these Terms. You may use templates to create your own contracts and documents on the Platform. No other rights are granted.

• If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent, BootUP World, at support@bootupworld.com or BootUP World, 585 Glenwood Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, with: your signature; the work you say is infringed; the content and where it is; your contact details; a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised; and a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and that you are the owner or authorised to act for the owner.
• If your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you can send a counter-notice to the same agent with: your signature; the content removed and where it was; a statement under penalty of perjury that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, address and phone number; and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your address (or, outside the US, any place where we may be found) and to accept service from the person who sent the notice. We may restore the content after 10 to 14 business days unless that person tells us they have filed a lawsuit.
• We end the accounts of repeat infringers in appropriate cases.

• You may close your account at any time in Settings or by writing to support@bootupworld.com.
• We may suspend or close your account, remove content, or limit features if you break these Terms, if your use creates legal or security risk, if the law requires it, or if your account has been inactive for more than 24 months. Where reasonable, we will tell you first and give you a chance to respond, and we will give you a way to export your content unless the law or a security risk prevents it.
• We may change or stop any feature. If we stop the Platform entirely, we will give at least 30 days' notice and a way to export your content.
• Sections 4, 8 to 12, 14 (for amounts owed) and 16 to 24, and your responsibility under sections 5 and 6 for statements you made while using the Platform, survive the end of these Terms.

The Platform is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any information on it, including information posted by members or generated by AI, is accurate or complete. Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have under consumer law that cannot be limited.

To the fullest extent the law allows:

• BootUP and its affiliates, officers, employees and agents are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, investments, data or goodwill, arising from the Platform or these Terms;
• BootUP is not liable for any investment decision, any loss on an investment, or the acts or omissions of any member;
• our total liability for all claims related to the Platform or these Terms is limited to the greater of USD 100 or the amounts you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, such as for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence. Nothing in these Terms limits any right you have under securities laws or under the documents of any investment vehicle.

You will defend and indemnify BootUP and its affiliates, officers, employees and agents against third-party claims, and related losses and costs (including reasonable legal fees), arising from Your Content, your use of the Platform, your offering or investment, or your breach of these Terms or of law. This section does not apply to consumers where local law prohibits it.

• Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware and applicable US federal law, without regard to conflict of laws rules.
• Talk to us first. Before starting a claim, send us a written notice at support@bootupworld.com describing the dispute and what you want. We will try in good faith to resolve it within 60 days. Limitation periods are paused during those 60 days.
• Arbitration. If we cannot, any dispute between you and BootUP arising from these Terms or the Platform will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its rules then in force, including its consumer rules and its mass arbitration rules where they apply, before one arbitrator, held in English and, where possible, by video. The seat is Wilmington, Delaware; if you are a consumer, any in-person hearing will take place in the county where you live. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.
• Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court, or seek an injunction in court to protect intellectual property or confidential information. A claim for public injunctive relief will be decided by a court after any arbitrable claims are resolved.
• No class actions. Claims may be brought only individually, not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective or representative proceeding. If this sentence is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim goes to court, not to arbitration.
• Opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing support@bootupworld.com within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, with your name, account email and a clear statement that you opt out.
• Courts. Any matter not subject to arbitration will be heard in the state or federal courts in Delaware, and both parties consent to their jurisdiction.
• Consumers in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Turkey and similar countries. If you use the Platform as a consumer and live in the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Turkey or another country whose law does not allow these choices, the arbitration agreement and class action waiver in this section do not apply to you; you may bring a claim in the courts where you live; and nothing in sections 19 to 22 removes the mandatory protections of the law where you live. Angel investing in your own name can count as consumer activity for this purpose.

We may update these Terms. We will post the new version with its version number and effective date and keep earlier versions available. If a change is material, we will tell you by email or in the Platform at least 30 days before it applies and, where needed, ask you to accept it. Changes do not apply to a dispute already notified. If you do not agree, stop using the Platform and close your account.

• Entire agreement. These Terms and the feature-specific terms shown on the Platform are the whole agreement between you and BootUP about the Platform.
• Assignment. You may not transfer these Terms without our consent. We may transfer them to an affiliate or a successor of the Platform.
• Notices. We send notices to your account email or in the Platform. Send notices to us at support@bootupworld.com.
• No waiver; severability. If we do not enforce a right, we do not waive it. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stays in force.
• Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delays caused by events beyond its reasonable control.
• Language. These Terms are written in English. If we provide a translation, the English version prevails, except where local law requires otherwise.
• Independent parties. These Terms create no partnership, employment or agency between you and BootUP.
• California users. The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs can be reached at 1625 North Market Blvd., Suite N 112, Sacramento, CA 95834, or (800) 952-5210.

BootUP World, 585 Glenwood Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. Email support@bootupworld.com.