Privacy

01Information We Collect

We collect information in three main ways: what you give us, what is created when you use Bootstrap Your Business, and a small amount of technical information created when you use the service.

Account Information

When you create or use an account, we may collect:

• your email address;
• the name you want us to call you;
• sign-in and account information;
• records showing you agreed to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy; and
• information about account access or help requests.

Passwords and sign-in details are handled by our sign-in provider. We do not need to see or store your password in a form anyone can read.

Founder and Business Information

Bootstrap Your Business is built to help founders understand and grow their businesses. So you may choose to tell us about yourself, your goals and your business, including:

• work and life experience;
• skills, strengths and interests;
• business ideas and directions you might take;
• how much time and money you have to start;
• limits from where you live or how you live;
• income goals or business goals;
• information about customers, your market, competitors, or tests of your idea;
• business decisions, guesses, proof and notes;
• your progress in the Founders Journey;
• First Steps, what matters most right now, and things you have set aside as Not Yet; and
• information you type into Bootstrap Your Business Apps, worksheets and other working tools.

You decide what information to enter. Do not enter information you do not have the right to use or share.

AI Business Partner Information

If you use the AI Business Partner, we may collect and store:

• messages you send to the AI Business Partner;
• the AI Business Partner's answers;
• short summaries of your chats;
• parts of your Founders Journey and business details that help the AI Business Partner remember where you are;
• information about tools or features used during a chat; and
• a small amount of usage information needed to run and improve the AI Business Partner.

We may use your AI Business Partner chats to help it remember where you left off in Bootstrap Your Business. Something the AI Business Partner says does not become a fact about you or your business just because the AI said it.

Payment and Subscription Information

If we offer paid services and you buy something or start a subscription, the payment is handled by Stripe, an outside payment company.

Stripe may collect your card details, billing information, and other information it needs to take the payment.

Bootstrap Your Business may receive a small amount of billing information, such as:

• customer or subscription ID numbers;
• which product or plan you have;
• whether your subscription is active;
• renewal or cancellation information; and
• whether a payment went through.

We do not plan to store full card numbers on Bootstrap Your Business systems.

Technical Information

When you use Bootstrap Your Business, we and the companies that help us may automatically receive a small amount of technical information, such as:

• IP address (your internet address);
• browser and device information;
• the date and time of each visit or request;
• pages or features you used;
• sign-in and session information;
• security and error records; and
• other information we reasonably need to run, protect and fix the service.

02How We Use Information

We may use information to:

• create and keep your account;
• check it's you and protect your account;
• run the Founders Journey;
• save your work so you can come back to it later;
• provide Apps, worksheets, tools and other Bootstrap Your Business features;
• provide the AI Business Partner;
• fit our guidance to the information and proof you give us;
• keep your Founders Journey, Apps and AI Business Partner connected, so you don't have to repeat yourself;
• handle purchases and manage subscriptions;
• help you when you contact us;
• send you news, tips, offers and other marketing about Bootstrap Your Business and Freedom Compass Ventures by email;
• find and fix errors so the service works well;
• protect Bootstrap Your Business, our users and our systems from misuse or security threats;
• understand how our services are working;
• follow the law; and
• enforce our Terms of Use and other policies.

We never use your information to quietly move you forward in the Founders Journey. You decide when you move on.

03AI and Automated Services

Bootstrap Your Business uses artificial intelligence (AI) and other automatic technology for some features.

When you use an AI feature, the information needed to answer you may be sent to an AI company. This may include:

• your message or request;
• parts of your Founders Journey that matter to the question;
• business information you gave us before that matters to the question;
• the earlier part of the chat; and
• results from tools or research used to answer you.

Our current AI Business Partner may use services from OpenAI.

We have turned off training with our AI provider, so your messages are not used to train their AI.

We try to send AI companies only what they reasonably need to do what you asked. Where we can, we set their features so they store less of your information.

Information made by AI may be wrong or incomplete. Bootstrap Your Business treats AI as a helper for your own judgment, not as the final word on your business or your Founders Journey.

04Research and Third-Party Tools

Some Bootstrap Your Business features may use outside companies to do research, look up information, handle data, run our systems, or do other things you asked for.

We send those companies only what they reasonably need to do the job.

Those companies may handle information under their own terms and privacy policies.

05How We Share Information

We may share information with companies that help us run Bootstrap Your Business, such as companies that provide:

• cloud hosting;
• databases;
• sign-in;
• AI services;
• research services;
• payments;
• email or messages;
• security;
• error tracking; and
• other technical systems.

Right now these may include companies such as Supabase, Vercel, OpenAI, and Stripe (for payments).

We may also share information:

• when the law, a court order, or a valid legal request requires it;
• when we reasonably need to protect the rights, safety or security of Freedom Compass Ventures, our users, or others;
• if the business is merged, bought, funded, or sold, or something similar happens; or
• when you tell us to or agree to it.

We do not sell personal information to data brokers.

We do not use personal information for ads targeted by other companies.

06Cookies and Similar Technologies

Bootstrap Your Business may use cookies (small files saved by your browser) and similar tools that we need to:

• keep you signed in;
• keep your session secure;
• remember important settings;
• protect the service from misuse; and
• help the website and app work normally.

We do not currently use advertising cookies to build profiles for ads targeted by other companies.

If the way we use cookies changes in a big way, we will update this Privacy Policy.

07Data Storage and Security

Bootstrap Your Business uses outside companies to store and handle information.

We use reasonable steps, in how we work and in our technology, to protect information from being seen, lost, misused, changed or shared without permission.

These steps include access controls that keep each founder's records separate from every other founder's records.

No internet service or storage system can promise perfect security. You are responsible for protecting your email account, your devices, and anything else you use to sign in to Bootstrap Your Business.

08Data Retention

We keep information for as long as we reasonably need it to:

• provide Bootstrap Your Business;
• keep your account and saved work;
• do the things described in this Privacy Policy;
• settle disagreements;
• enforce agreements;
• keep security and operating records; and
• meet legal or business requirements that apply.

Different kinds of information may be kept for different lengths of time.

Some records may need to be kept after other account information is deleted. For example, we may keep records showing you agreed to our legal terms, records of purchases, security records, or other information when we reasonably need it for legal, accounting, fraud-prevention, or rule-following reasons.

When we no longer reasonably need information, we may delete it, remove anything that shows who it belongs to, or otherwise get rid of it.

09Your Choices and Requests

You can contact us to ask us to:

• tell you what personal information is linked to your account;
• fix wrong account information;
• delete personal information where we reasonably can;
• close your account; or
• answer questions about how your information is handled.

If you are signed in, Account Settings lets you do some of this yourself. You can download a copy (a JSON file) of the business and Journey information saved in Bootstrap Your Business, including your AI Business Partner chats. You can also remove your saved business and product data, such as Journey progress, business details, app work and chat history, and still keep your sign-in account. That removal does not delete your sign-in details or the records we keep showing you agreed to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You can stop marketing emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any marketing email or by contacting support@freedomcompassventures.com. If you unsubscribe, we will still send messages needed to run your account, such as sign-in links, security notices and receipts.

To close your account, fully erase who you are from our records, or make a privacy request you can't do in Settings, email support@freedomcompassventures.com.

We may keep some information when the law requires it, or when we reasonably need it for legal, security, fraud-prevention, accounting, dispute or similar reasons.

Depending on where you live, the law may give you more privacy rights.

To make a privacy request, contact support@freedomcompassventures.com.

We may need to check that it's really you before we complete a request.

10Children's Privacy

Bootstrap Your Business is for people who are building, or thinking about building, a business. It is not meant for children under 13.

We do not knowingly try to collect personal information from children under 13.

If we learn that we collected personal information from a child under 13 when a parent's permission was needed, we may delete the information or take other fitting steps.

If you think a child has given us personal information, contact us at support@freedomcompassventures.com.

11Business and Third-Party Information

Bootstrap Your Business may let you enter information about customers, possible customers, employees, contractors, competitors, business partners, or other people.

It is your job to make sure you have the right, under the law, to share and use information about other people.

Do not enter sensitive personal information about another person unless you really need to, it fits the feature you are using, and you have the right to share it.

12External Links and Services

Bootstrap Your Business may link to websites or services run by other companies.

We are not responsible for how other websites or services handle privacy, what they show, or how secure they are. Read their policies before you give them information.

13Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Bootstrap Your Business changes.

When we make important changes, we may update the effective date and tell you in other ways when it makes sense.

If you keep using Bootstrap Your Business after an updated policy starts, the updated policy may apply, along with any step the service asks you to take to agree to it.

14Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how Bootstrap Your Business handles information, contact:

Freedom Compass Ventures LLC

Email: support@freedomcompassventures.com