Terms of Use

Acceptance of Terms

Welcome to StartupTortoise, operated by Soft Innovators, registered in England and Wales under company number 06890751.

StartupTortoise provides an online platform and services that connect users seeking advice and guidance (the “Startups ”), with users providing advice and guidance (the “Experts”). This page (together with the documents referred to on it) sets out the terms between you, the user or visitor, and StartupTortoise under which you may access and use our website. These terms apply to all registered users of, and visitors to, our site.

In these Terms, “you” and “your” refer to the individual or entity that uses the Site, Application or Services. “We”, “us”, or “our” refer to StartupTortoise. In addition, in these Terms, unless the context requires otherwise, words in one gender include all genders and words in the singular include the plural and vice-versa.

Please read these terms carefully. Your use of our site means that you accept, and agree to abide by, these terms. If you do not agree with these terms, please refrain from using our site.

THE SITE, APPLICATION AND SERVICES COMPRISE AN ONLINE PLATFORM THROUGH WHICH EXPERTS MAY CREATE PROFILES (AS DEFINED BELOW) IN ORDER TO ARRANGE MEETINGS AND OFFER INFORMATION AND ADVICE TO STARTUPS. YOU UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT STARTUP TORTOISE IS NOT A PARTY TO ANY AGREEMENTS ENTERED INTO BETWEEN MEMBERS (AS DEFINED BELOW). STARTUP TORTOISE HAS NO CONTROL OVER THE CONDUCT OF MEMBERS OR OTHER USERS OF THE SITE, APPLICATION AND SERVICES OR ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION THERETO, AND DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY IN THIS REGARD.

Definitions

“Member” means a person who completes the StartupTortoise account registration process, and includes without limitation; Experts and Startups.

“Expert” means a Member who offers advice and guidance to other Members and creates an Expert Profile via the Site.

“Startup” means a Member who seeks advice and guidance from Experts and requests to arrange meeting with them.

“Expert Profile” means an introductory page about the Expert who is providing their Services via the Site, Application, and Services.

“Meeting” means a scheduled appointment for interaction coordinated via the site between an Expert and a Startup in connection with, and subject to, the terms of the Expert Profile.

Accessing Our Site

Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site or to modify these Terms, including the Admin Fee without prior notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our site, or our entire site, to users who have registered with us.

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

Eligibility

The Site, Application and Services are intended solely for persons who are 18 or older. Any access to or use of the Site, Application or Services by anyone under 18 is expressly prohibited. By accessing or using the Site, Application or Services, you represent and warrant that (i) you agree to be bound by these Terms and (ii) that you are 18 or older and able to form legally binding contracts.

Meetings and Financial Terms

Terms for Experts

If you (as an Expert) have received a meeting request from a Startup, you will be required to either confirm or cancel the request within 48 hours of when the request is made (as determined by StartupTortoise in its sole discretion) or the request will be automatically cancelled. When you confirm a Meeting request, StartupTortoise will notify the Startup via Application message or e-mail and mark the request as a scheduled meeting.

The amount due and payable by a Startup relating to a meeting time with you is referred to as “Consultation Charges ”. Consultation Charges are quoted in each Profile, in UK pounds and in a price per hour format. Please note that it is Experts, and not StartupTortoise, which set all Consultation Charges.

In consideration of the Services, StartupTortoise charges you a fee (the “Admin Fee”) based on a percentage of Consultation Charges collected on your behalf. The current applicable percentage is five percent (5%). The Admin Fee is deducted from the Consultation Charges payable to you in respect of a meeting. Admin Fees are non-refundable.

Please note that StartupTortoise does not currently charge fees for the creation of the Expert Profile. However, you acknowledge and agree that StartupTortoise reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to charge you for and collect fees from you for the creation of Profiles. Please note that StartupTortoise will provide notice of any such collection via the Site, Application and Services, in accordance with these Terms, prior to implementing such a feature.

Terms for Startups

You (as a Startup), not StartupTortoise, are solely responsible for honouring any Scheduled Meeting. If you choose to enter into a transaction with an Expert by arranging a Meeting via the Site or Application, these Terms and other terms, conditions, rules and restrictions associated with such Meetings as set out in the Expert Profile may apply. You acknowledge and agree that you, and not StartupTortoise, will be responsible for performing the obligations of any such agreements, and StartupTortoise is not a party to such agreements and disclaims all liability arising from or related to any such agreements.

You agree to pay StartupTortoise all Consultation Charges due in connection with any Scheduled Meeting. In order to initiate a Meeting Request, you understand and agree that StartupTortoise reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to obtain a pre-authorization of your credit card/PayPal account or charge your credit card/PayPal account a nominal amount, not to exceed one UK pound (£1), in order to verify your credit card/PayPal.

StartupTortoise will process and collect the Consultation Charges payable in accordance with these Terms and the terms of the Expert Profile within 24 hours after the end time of scheduled meeting. Please note that StartupTortoise cannot control any fees that may be charged to a Startup by his or her bank related to StartupTortoise’s collection of the Consultation Charges, and StartupTortoise disclaims all liability in this regard.

Taxes

You understand and agree that you are solely responsible for determining your applicable Tax reporting requirements in consultation with your tax advisors. StartupTortoise cannot and does not offer Tax-related advice to any Members of the Site, Application and Services.

User Conduct

You understand and agree that you are solely responsible for compliance with any and all laws, rules, regulations, and Tax obligations that may apply to your use of the Site, Application, Services and Content. In connection with your use of our Site, Application and Services, you may not and you agree that you will not:

breach any applicable local, state, provincial, national, or other law or regulation, or any order of a court, including, without limitation, zoning restrictions and Tax regulations;
use manual or automated software, devices, scripts robots, other means or processes to access, “scrape”, “crawl” or “spider” any web pages or other services contained in the Site, Application, Services or Content;
use the Site, Application or Services for any commercial or other purposes that are not expressly permitted by these Terms; copy, store or otherwise access any information contained on the Site, Application, Services or Content for purposes not expressly permitted by these Terms;
infringe the rights of any person or entity, including without limitation, their intellectual property, privacy, publicity or contractual rights;
interfere with or damage our Site, Application or Services, including, without limitation, through the use of viruses, cancel bots, Trojan horses, harmful code, flood pings, denial-of-service attacks, packet or IP spoofing, forged routing or electronic mail address information or similar methods or technology;
use our Site, Application or Services to transmit, distribute, post or submit any information concerning any other person or entity, including without limitation, photographs of others without their permission, personal contact information or credit, debit, calling card or account numbers;
use our Site, Application or Services in connection with the distribution of unsolicited commercial email ("spam") or advertisements unrelated to lodging in a private residence;
"stalk" or harass any other user of our Site, Application, or Services or collect or store any personally identifiable information about any other user other than for purposes of transacting as a Member;
impersonate any person or entity, or falsify or otherwise misrepresent yourself or your affiliation with any person or entity;
use automated scripts to collect information or otherwise interact with the Site, Application or Services;
use the Site, Application and Services to find an Expert and then complete a transaction independent of the Site;
as an Expert, submit any Listing with a false or misleading information, or submit any Listing with a price that you do not intend to honour;
post, upload, publish, submit or transmit any Content that: (i) infringes, misappropriates or violates a third party’s patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, moral rights or other intellectual property rights, or rights of publicity or privacy; (ii) violates, or encourages any conduct that would violate, any applicable law or regulation or would give rise to civil liability; (iii) is fraudulent, false, misleading or deceptive; (iv) is defamatory, obscene, pornographic, vulgar or offensive; (v) promotes discrimination, bigotry, racism, hatred, harassment or harm against any individual or group; (vi) is violent or threatening or promotes violence or actions that are threatening to any other person; or (vii) promotes illegal or harmful activities or substances;
systematically retrieve data or other content from our Site, Application or Services to create or compile, directly or indirectly, in single or multiple downloads, a collection, compilation, database, directory or the like, whether by manual methods, through the use of bots, crawlers, or spiders, or otherwise;
reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our sites in contravention of the provisions of these terms;
access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt: (i) any part of our sites; (ii) any equipment or network on which our sites is stored; (iii) any software used in the provision of our sites; (iv) any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.
attempt to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any StartupTortoise system or network or breach any security or authentication measures;
avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, impair, descramble, or otherwise circumvent any technological measure implemented by StartupTortoise or any of our providers or any other third party (including another user) to protect the Site, Services, Application or Collective Content;
forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting, or in any way use the Site, Services, Application or Collective Content to send altered, deceptive or false source-identifying information;

StartupTortoise will have the right to investigate and prosecute violations of any of the above to the fullest extent of the law.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Site, Application, Services, and its Content are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our sites for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation (if applicable) to material posted on our sites.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our sites must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the materials on our sites for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

No Endorsement

StartupTortoise terms require Members to provide accurate information and any other posted materials, we do not attempt to confirm, and do not confirm, any Member’s purported identity or credentials. You are responsible for determining the identity and suitability of others who you contact via the Site, Application and Services.

By using the Site, Application or Services, you agree that any legal remedy or liability that you seek to obtain for actions or omissions of other Members or other third parties will be limited to a claim against the particular Members or other third parties who caused you harm and you agree not to attempt to impose liability on, or seek any legal remedy from StartupTortoise with respect to such actions or omissions.

Copyright Policy

Startup Tortoise respects copyright law and expects its users to do the same. It is StartupTortoise’s policy to terminate in appropriate circumstances the Accounts of Members who infringe or are believed to be infringing the rights of copyright holders

Site Changes and Updates

We aim to update our sites regularly, and may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our sites, or close it indefinitely. Any of the material on our sites may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

Disclaimers

If you choose to use the Site, Application and Services, you do so at your sole risk. You acknowledge and agree that StartupTortoise does not have an obligation to conduct background checks on any member, including, but not limited to, Startups and Experts, but may conduct such background checks in its sole discretion. The Site, Application, Services and content are provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind.

StartupTortoise makes no warranty that the Site, Application, Services, collective content, including, but not limited to, the Experts Profile or any information provided via scheduled meetings will meet your requirements.

StartupTortoise makes no warranty regarding the quality of any Expert Profile, the services or advice or the accuracy, timeliness, truthfulness, completeness or reliability of any content obtained through the Site, Application or the Services.

No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from StartupTortoise or through the Site, Application, Services or collective content, will create any warranty not expressly made herein.

You are solely responsible for all of your communications and interactions with other users of the Site, Application or Services and with other persons with whom you communicate or interact with as a result of your use of the Site, Application or Services. You understand that StartupTortoise does not make any attempt to verify the statements of users of the Site, Application or Services. StartupTortoise makes no representations or warranties as to the conduct of users of the Site, Application or Services or their compatibility with any current or future users of the Site, Application or Services. You agree to take reasonable precautions in all communications and interactions with other users of the Site, Application or Services and with other persons with whom you communicate or interact as a result of your use of the Site, Application or Services, including, but not limited to, Experts, regardless of whether such communications or interactions are organized by StartupTortoise.

Limitation of Liability

You acknowledge and agree that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, the entire risk arising out of your access to and use of the Site, Application, Services and content, Expert Profiles or scheduled meeting via the Site, Application and Services, and any contact you have with other users of StartupTortoise whether in person, by phone, online or other means remains with you. Neither StartupTortoise nor any other party involved in creating, producing, or delivering the Site, Application, Services or collective content will be liable for any incidental, special, exemplary or consequential damages, including lost profits, loss of data or loss of goodwill, service interruption, computer damage or system failure or the cost of substitute products or services, or for any damages for personal or bodily injury or emotional distress arising out of or in connection with these terms, from the use of or inability to use the Site, Application, Services or collective content, from any communications, interactions or meetings with other users of the Site, Application, or Services or other persons with whom you communicate or interact as a result of your use of the Site, Application, Services, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence), product liability or any other legal theory, and whether or not StartupTortoise has been informed of the possibility of such damage.

Links from Our Sites

Where our sites contain links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Suspension and Termination

We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of these terms through your use of our sites. When a breach of these terms has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

Failure to comply with these terms constitutes a material breach of the terms upon which you are permitted to use our sites, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

Immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our sites.
Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our sites. Issue of a warning to you.
Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.
Further legal action against you.

Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.

We exclude liability for actions taken in response to breaches of these terms. The responses described in these terms are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Jurisdiction and Applicable Law

The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country.

These terms of use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

Variations

We may revise these terms at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our sites.

Your Concerns

If you have any concerns about our site, please contact support@StartupTortoise.com

Thank you for visiting our site.