Privacy Policy

1. Scope of This Policy

This Privacy Policy describes how Founders League Institute, an Ohio nonprofit corporation (the "Institute," "we," "us," or "our"), collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information in connection with the Ohio Founders League (the "League") and the websites, portals, and related services we operate, including the MyVenture, MyCampus, and Scout portals (collectively, the "Platform").

This Policy applies to founders, team members, campus leads and other university personnel, Scouts, judges, mentors, and visitors to our public website. It does not apply to the practices of founding universities, sponsors, or other third parties, whose handling of your information is governed by their own policies. By using the Platform you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this Policy.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of information, depending on how you interact with the Platform:

• Account and identity information: your name, email address, university affiliation, role (founder, campus lead, Scout, or official), Scout display name, and, if you sign in through a third-party provider, the identifier and profile information that provider shares with us.
• Venture information: the venture's name, description, industry, stage, profile, formation and ownership details, founder and team member names and roles, and responses to the discovery assessment.
• Reported performance data: weekly metrics such as customer conversations, users, revenue, deals, and product updates; challenge completions; and boss fight submissions, including written descriptions, links, and files you upload as evidence.
• Scout activity: notional credit allocations, holdings, trades, portfolio value, and leaderboard placement.
• Campus lead activity: ventures registered or nominated on behalf of a university, outreach notes, and communications sent through the MyCampus portal.
• Communications: messages you send to us or through the Platform, including campus lead outreach to founders and support requests.
• Technical information: IP address, browser and device type, pages visited, timestamps, and similar log data collected automatically when you use the Platform, together with the session cookie described in Section 6.

Campus leads may enter a founder's name, email address, and venture details on the founder's behalf. Ventures registered in this way are not scored or displayed publicly until the founder signs in, reviews the profile, and accepts it.

3. How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

• create and administer accounts, authenticate users, and deliver single-use sign-in codes;
• operate the League, including computing Traction Scores, stages, badges, leaderboards, cohort comparisons, the Scout market, and season results;
• verify eligibility and the accuracy of reported information, conduct audits at stage gates, and investigate suspected violations of our Terms and Conditions;
• match ventures with mentors, judges, and events, and communicate schedules, deadlines, and results;
• send transactional and service communications, such as report reminders, audit notices, nominations, and notices regarding changes to our terms or this Policy;
• send League news and announcements, from which you may opt out as described in Section 8;
• publish season results, recognize winners and participants, and promote the League and its participants;
• maintain the security and integrity of the Platform, prevent fraud and abuse, and enforce our terms;
• analyze aggregate participation and performance to improve the League and to report to founding universities, sponsors, and the public in de-identified or aggregate form; and
• comply with legal obligations and respond to lawful requests.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use personal information for targeted advertising.

4. Information That Is Public

The League is a public competition, and certain information is displayed publicly on the Platform by design. This includes each venture's name, description, university, founder names, stage, profile, Traction Score, challenge completions, badges, boss fight outcomes, audit outcomes and the written reasons for them, leaderboard placement, and activity feed entries. Scout display names, portfolio values, returns, and leaderboard placements are also public. Information that is public on the Platform may be viewed, copied, and shared by anyone, and may be reported on by the media.

Raw weekly metric values you report, the contents of boss fight evidence files, and your email address are not displayed publicly, but may be shared as described in Section 5.

5. How We Share Information

We share personal information with the following categories of recipients:

• Founding universities and campus leads: the campus lead for your university, and university personnel the university designates, can view the profiles, scores, reported metrics, and status of ventures affiliated with that university and the participation of Scouts affiliated with it, and can export that information for university reporting.
• Officials, judges, and mentors: League officials review your submissions in connection with verification and audits; judges and mentors assigned to your venture receive your venture profile, reported data, and submitted materials.
• Sponsors and partners: we may share participant and venture information with sponsors and partners in aggregate or de-identified form, and, with your consent or where you have opted in, contact information for purposes such as investor introductions.
• Service providers: vendors that host the Platform and its database, deliver email, provide authentication, and support our operations, who are permitted to use the information only to provide services to us.
• Legal and safety: government authorities, courts, or other parties when we believe disclosure is required by law, legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the Institute, our participants, or others.
• Successors: a successor organization in connection with a merger, reorganization, or transfer of the League, subject to this Policy.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The Platform uses a single first-party session cookie to keep you signed in. This cookie is strictly necessary for the Platform to function and contains a signed identifier only; it does not contain your password or track you across other websites. Our hosting provider collects standard server logs. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking pixels. If you sign in with a third-party provider, that provider may set its own cookies subject to its policies. You can block cookies in your browser settings, but you will not be able to remain signed in.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal information for as long as needed to operate the League, to maintain the historical record of seasons, results, and prizes, to resolve disputes, and to comply with legal obligations. Public season results, including venture names, founder names, scores, and placements, are retained indefinitely as part of the League's historical record. Sign-in codes expire after a short period and are deleted. Evidence files submitted for boss fights are retained for the duration of the season and a reasonable period thereafter to support audits and dispute resolution. We may retain de-identified or aggregate information indefinitely.

8. Your Choices and Rights

You may review and update your account and venture information through the Platform at any time. You may opt out of League news and announcements by following the instructions in those messages or by contacting us; you will continue to receive transactional communications necessary to administer your participation.

Depending on where you reside, you may have rights under applicable law to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, to obtain a copy of it, or to object to or restrict certain processing. You may exercise these rights by contacting us at the address in Section 12. We will verify your identity before responding and will respond within the time required by applicable law. Because the League is a public competition, we may be unable to delete information that is part of the public record of a season, that we are required to retain, or that is necessary to resolve a dispute; where that is the case, we will explain the basis for our decision.

Participants located outside the United States should be aware that the Platform is hosted in the United States and that their information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those in their jurisdiction.

9. Security

We use administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including encrypted transport, signed session tokens, role-based access to portal data, and hosting with providers that maintain independent security certifications. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for safeguarding access to your email account, which is used to sign in to the Platform.

10. Student Records and University Data

The Institute is not an educational agency or institution and does not receive education records from universities under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Information about founders on the Platform is provided voluntarily by the founders themselves or, with respect to ventures registered by a campus lead, by the university acting under its own authority and policies. Universities are responsible for ensuring that any information they enter on the Platform is provided in compliance with applicable law and their own policies.

11. Children

The Platform is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under eighteen (18) years of age, and individuals under eighteen may not register. If you believe a person under eighteen has provided personal information to us, please contact us and we will delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy and Contact

We may update this Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page indicates when the current version took effect. For material changes we will provide notice through the Platform or by email. Your continued use of the Platform after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

Questions, requests, or complaints regarding this Policy may be directed to Founders League Institute at hello@ohiofoundersleague.org.