Privacy Policy

Effective date: April 5, 2013
Last updated: June 9, 2026

We at Founders Network know you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy. By using or accessing the Services in any manner, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Remember that your use of Founders Network’s Services is at all times subject to the Terms of Use, which incorporates this Privacy Policy. Any terms we use in this Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms of Use.

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) that we gather when you are accessing or using our Services, but not to the practices of companies we don’t own or control, or people that we don’t manage. We gather various types of Personal Information from our users, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize and improve our services, to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you and allow other users to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, to provide and improve the Service, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described below.

Will Founders Network ever change this Privacy Policy?

We’re constantly trying to improve our Services, so we may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time as well, but we will alert you to changes by placing a notice on the foundersnetwork.com, by sending you an email, and/or by some other means. Please note that if you’ve opted not to receive legal notice emails from us (or you haven’t provided us with your email address), those legal notices will still govern your use of the Services, and you are still responsible for reading and understanding them. If you use the Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy have been posted, that means you agree to all of the changes.

What Information does Founders Network Collect?

Information You Provide to Us

We receive and store any information you knowingly provide to us. For example, through the registration process and/or through your account settings, we may collect Personal Information such as your name, email, address, phone number and third-party account credentials e.g. your log-in for third-party sites like twitter. If you provide your third-party account credentials to us, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts (“Third Party Account Information”) may be transmitted into your account with us if you authorize such transmissions, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to our Services is covered by this Privacy Policy; for example, if you provide us account information about your AngelsList account, we will be able to access what other companies you are following on AngelsList. Certain information may be required to register with us or to take advantage of some of our features.

We may communicate with you if you’ve provided us the means to do so. For example, if you’ve given us your email address, we may send you promotional email offers on behalf of other businesses, or email you about your use of the Services. Also, we may receive a confirmation when you open an email from us. This confirmation helps us make our communications with you more interesting and improve our services. If you do not want to receive communications from us, please indicate your preference by emailing questions@foundersnetwork.com.

Information Collected Automatically

Whenever you interact with our Services, we automatically receive and record information on our server logs from your browser or device, which may include your IP address, device identification, “cookie” information, the type of browser and/or device you’re using to access our Services, and the page or feature you requested. “Cookies” are identifiers we transfer to your browser or device that allow us to recognize your browser or device and tell us how and when pages and features in our Services are visited and by how many people. You may be able to change the preferences on your browser or device to prevent or limit your device’s acceptance of cookies, but this may prevent you from taking advantage of some of our features. If you click on a link to a third party website or service, such third party may also transmit cookies to you. Again, this Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties, and we aren’t responsible for their privacy policies and practices.

When we collect the usage information described above, we only use this data in aggregate form, and not in a manner that would identify you personally. For example, this aggregate data can tell us how often users use a particular feature of the Services, and we can use that knowledge to make the Services interesting to as many users as possible.

Legal Basis for Processing (Residents of the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and Switzerland)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, Founders Network processes your personal information on one or more of the following legal bases, depending on the specific processing activity:

  • Performance of a contract — to create and operate your Founders Network account, provide the Services you have requested, and respond to your support requests. Without this basis we cannot deliver the Services.
  • Your consent — for optional integrations (Google Calendar, LinkedIn import, and future connected accounts), marketing emails, SMS or WhatsApp communications, and any cookies or similar technologies that are not strictly necessary. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
  • Our legitimate interests — to operate, secure, and improve the Services; to evaluate prospective members using publicly available business information; to prevent fraud and abuse; to conduct aggregated analytics; and to communicate with you about your membership. We balance these interests against your rights and freedoms and provide an objection mechanism (see “Your Rights Under Data-Protection Laws” below).
  • Compliance with a legal obligation — to retain records required by tax, accounting, or other applicable law; to respond to lawful requests from public authorities; and to enforce our Terms of Use.
  • Protection of vital interests or public interest — only in rare circumstances, such as responding to a safety emergency.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object; see “Your Rights Under Data-Protection Laws” below for how to exercise that right.

Information from Third-Party Integrations and Connected Accounts

Founders Network offers optional integrations that let you connect third-party accounts to enhance your experience. These integrations are strictly opt-in. You can connect, review, or disconnect any integration at any time from your account settings.

Google Account and Google Calendar

When you choose to connect your Google account, Founders Network uses Google’s OAuth 2.0 flow to request your permission to access a limited set of information. We request the following scopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email — to verify the Google account being connected and to associate the connection with your Founders Network member profile.
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.calendarlist.readonly — to display a list of your calendars so that you can choose which calendar(s) the Founders Network FN Assistant should read.
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events.readonly — to read events from the calendar(s) you select, so that we can provide calendar-aware features within the Founders Network application, including scheduling assistance and more relevant content and recommendations.

From each event we read, we store only the following fields:

  • event title;
  • start and end timestamps;
  • a numerical attendee count (a count only — we do not store attendee names, email addresses, or any other attendee-identifying information);
  • a short topical category for the event; and
  • a non-reversible signature used only to deduplicate events between syncs.

We do not store event descriptions, locations, conference links, attachments, attendee identities, organizer identities, the bodies of any related emails, or any other event metadata beyond the fields listed above.

LinkedIn Connections

If you choose to share your LinkedIn connections with Founders Network, you provide a connections file that you have exported from your own LinkedIn account. Founders Network does not connect to LinkedIn programmatically. From the file you provide we store, for each connection: first name, last name, company name, position/title, connection date, and public LinkedIn profile URL. We use this information solely to help you identify potential connections within the Founders Network member network and to suggest candidates relevant to Founders Network programs.

Your Control

You may disconnect any integration, delete its associated data, and revoke our access at any time from your account settings. Disconnecting an integration causes the stored integration data to be queued for permanent deletion within seven (7) days. For Google integrations, you may additionally revoke Founders Network’s access at any time directly through your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Will Founders Network Share Any of the Personal Information it Receives?

We neither rent nor sell your Personal Information in personally identifiable form to anyone. However, we may share your Personal Information with third parties as described in this section:

Aggregated Personal Information that’s no longer personally identifiable

We may anonymize your Personal Information so that you are not individually identified, and provide that information to our partners. We may also provide aggregate usage information to our partners, who may use such information to understand how often and in what ways people use our Services, so that they, too, can provide you with an optimal online experience. However, we never disclose aggregate information to a partner in a manner that would identify you personally, as an individual.

Affiliated Businesses

In certain situations, businesses or third party websites we’re affiliated with may sell or provide products or services to you through or in connection with the Services (either alone or jointly with us). You can recognize when an affiliated business is associated with such a transaction or service, and we will share your Personal Information with that affiliated business only to the extent that it is related to such transaction or service. One such service may include the ability for you to automatically transmit Third Party Account Information to your Services profile or to automatically transmit information in your Services profile to your third party account; for example if you provide us account information about your AngelsList account, we will be able to access what other companies you are following on AngelsList. We have no control over the policies and practices of third party websites or businesses as to privacy or anything else, so if you choose to take part in any transaction or service relating to an affiliated website or business, please review all such business’ or websites’ policies.

Agents

We employ other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share your information with them to provide products or services to you; for example, we may use a payment processor to receive and process your credit card transactions for us. Unless we tell you differently, our agents do not have any right to use the Personal Information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us, unless otherwise described in this Privacy Policy.

User Profiles and Submissions

Certain user profile information, including your name, location, and any video or image content that such user has uploaded to the Services, may be displayed to other users to facilitate user interaction within the Services or address your request for our services. Your account privacy settings may allow you to limit the other users who can see the Personal Information in your user profile and/or what information in your user profile is visible to others. Please remember that any content you upload to your public user profile, along with any Personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose online in a manner other users can view (on discussion boards, in messages and chat areas, etc.) becomes publicly available, and can be collected and used by others. Your user name may also be displayed to other users if and when you send messages or comments or upload images or videos through the Services and other users can contact you through messages and comments.

Business Transfers

We may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, customer information is typically one of the business assets that would be transferred. Also, if we (or our assets) are acquired, or if we go out of business, enter bankruptcy, or go through some other change of control, Personal Information could be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by a third party.

Protection of Founders Network and Others

We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information that we reasonably believe is necessary to comply with law or court order; enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Founders Network, our employees, our users, or others.

Google API Services User Data Policy — Limited Use

Founders Network’s use and transfer to any other application of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Specifically, we affirm that information obtained through Google APIs is:

  1. Used only to provide or improve user-facing features that are prominent in the Founders Network application interface. Specifically, Google Calendar data is used to power calendar-aware features within the Founders Network application, including scheduling assistance and more relevant content and recommendations. These features are visible in the FN Assistant chat surface inside the Founders Network application.
  2. Not transferred to any third party except (a) to the limited extent necessary to provide or improve the user-facing features described above, (b) to comply with applicable law or valid legal process, (c) as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets with notice to affected users, or (d) with your explicit consent.
  3. Not used or transferred for serving advertisements, including retargeting, personalized, or interest-based advertising. Founders Network does not run an advertising business.
  4. Not sold to any party for any purpose.
  5. Not read by any human, except (a) with your explicit affirmative consent for specific messages, (b) where necessary for security purposes such as investigating abuse, (c) to comply with applicable law, or (d) where the information (including derivations thereof) has been aggregated and de-identified.
  6. Not used to develop, improve, or train generalized artificial-intelligence or machine-learning models. Google Workspace data is not used to train any artificial-intelligence or machine-learning model that operates outside the Founders Network application, and is not shared with any third-party artificial-intelligence or machine-learning tool for training or improvement of those tools’ models.

The features that rely on Google Workspace data are subject to the additional disclosures in the section “AI Assistant and Automated Processing” below.

How we protect your personal information

Founders Network maintains administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, and destruction. These safeguards include:

  • Encryption in transit — all communication between your device and the Services is encrypted using industry-standard Transport Layer Security (TLS).
  • Encryption at rest — member data stored in our primary databases is encrypted at rest.
  • Access controls and least-privilege administration — access to production systems is restricted to designated personnel whose role requires it, and is granted on a least-privilege basis.
  • Multi-factor authentication — staff access to production systems requires multi-factor authentication.
  • Secure credential handling — account passwords are stored using one-way cryptographic hashing; we do not store passwords in plaintext.
  • Payment-card data — payment-card information is processed and stored by our PCI-DSS-compliant payment processor; Founders Network does not store full card numbers.
  • OAuth token protection — OAuth access and refresh tokens for connected integrations are encrypted at rest and revoked on disconnect.
  • Sub-processor due diligence — we execute Data Processing Agreements with each sub-processor that may process personal information on our behalf and require each to maintain appropriate security measures.
  • Logging and monitoring — we maintain application logging and error-monitoring to detect anomalous activity and support investigations.
  • Incident-response process — we maintain a written incident-response process including detection, containment, notification to affected data subjects and supervisory authorities where required by applicable law, and post-incident review.
  • Software-update discipline — we apply security updates to our application code and dependencies and to our sub-processor infrastructure on a regular cadence.

You play an important role in keeping your account secure. Please choose a strong, unique password; do not share your credentials; sign out of the Services on shared or public devices; and notify us promptly at privacy@foundersnetwork.com if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.

While we use commercially reasonable measures to protect personal information, no method of internet transmission or electronic storage is one hundred percent secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors may compromise the security of personal information at any time.

AI Assistant and Automated Processing

The Founders Network FN Assistant is an in-product chat surface that uses a large-language-model service provided by Anthropic, PBC (“Anthropic”) to assist you with content and connection recommendations within the Founders Network application.

When the FN Assistant invokes Anthropic’s service on your behalf, Founders Network sends only the minimum information necessary to answer your current request. This typically includes information from your Founders Network profile, a short window of your recent activity on Founders Network, and — only if you have connected the relevant integration — limited contextual information derived from that integration. Founders Network does not send full calendar-event descriptions, attendee identities, attachments, or the contents of any Google Workspace data outside the bounded summary described above.

Anthropic acts as our data sub-processor for the FN Assistant service. Anthropic does not retain prompts or responses sent through the Anthropic API for the Founders Network FN Assistant beyond the period required to return a response, and Anthropic does not use that data to train any of its models. This treatment includes any Google-user data, LinkedIn-connection data, or other personal information that may pass through the FN Assistant.

If you would like to use Founders Network without any AI-assisted features, you can do so by not opening the FN Assistant chat surface. The remainder of the Founders Network platform functions without invoking the FN Assistant.

EU AI Act — Limited-Risk AI System Disclosure

The Founders Network FN Assistant is an artificial-intelligence system within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the “EU AI Act”). It is classified as a limited-risk AI system because it is intended to interact directly with natural persons but does not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects on its own. The following transparency disclosures apply:

  • You are interacting with an AI system. When you use the FN Assistant, the conversational responses you see, the recommendations it produces, and the topical summaries it generates are produced by an artificial-intelligence system. The FN Assistant is not a human and does not represent the personal views of Founders Network staff.
  • The AI system does not make legally significant decisions about you on its own. All material decisions about your Founders Network membership, your access to events or features, and any introductions ultimately routed to you are reviewed by Founders Network staff or are subject to your explicit consent. The FN Assistant’s output is a recommendation, not a determination.
  • Profiling. We perform limited profiling for the purpose of recommending relevant members, events, and content, and for evaluating prospective members against community criteria using publicly available business information. You have the right to object to profiling based on legitimate interests; see “Your Rights Under Data-Protection Laws” below.
  • Right to human review. If a Founders Network decision is reached primarily on the basis of automated processing and you believe that decision significantly affects you, you may request human review of that decision by emailing privacy@foundersnetwork.com. A Founders Network staff member will review your case and respond.
  • AI training data. Founders Network does not train any foundational AI model. We use the third-party model provider Anthropic, PBC, as a sub-processor under a Zero Data Retention configuration; Anthropic does not retain or use FN Assistant prompts or responses to train its models. We do not provide FN member data to any other AI or machine-learning service for training, fine-tuning, or model improvement.
  • AI-generated content. The FN Assistant does not draft messages, posts, or other content on your behalf and post them without your review. Any content you share with other members or publish on Founders Network is composed and approved by you.

What Personal Information can I access?

Through your account settings you may access, and, in some cases, edit or delete the following information you’ve provided to us:

  • Name and password
  • Email
  • Location
  • Other account information you have given us

The information you can view, update, and delete may change as the Services change. If you have any questions about viewing or updating information we have on file about you, please contact us at privacy@foundersnetwork.com.

What choices do I have?

You can always opt not to disclose information to us, but keep in mind some information may be needed to register with us or to take advantage of some of our special features.

You may be able to add, update, or delete information as explained above. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. Some information may remain in our records after your deletion of such information from your account. We may use any aggregated data derived from or incorporating your Personal Information after you update or delete it, but not in a manner that would identify you personally.

Data Retention, Disconnection, and Deletion

Retention windows for integration data
  • Google Calendar events are retained for a rolling window of approximately thirty (30) days into the past and sixty (60) days into the future. A daily automated job permanently deletes events outside this window.
  • LinkedIn connection records are retained until you (i) disconnect the LinkedIn integration from your account settings, (ii) delete your list from within the application, or (iii) delete your Founders Network account.
  • FN Assistant chat history is retained until you delete the chat or delete your Founders Network account.
Disconnecting an integration

From your account settings, you can disconnect any connected integration with a single click. Disconnecting an integration: (i) immediately revokes Founders Network’s OAuth access token for that integration; (ii) stops all future syncing; and (iii) queues the integration’s stored data for permanent deletion from our systems within seven (7) days. For Google integrations, you may additionally revoke our access at any time directly from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Deleting your account

You may request deletion of your Founders Network account and all associated personal information at any time by emailing privacy@foundersnetwork.com. Upon receipt of a verified deletion request, we will permanently delete your account, your Founders Network profile, your FN Assistant chat history, all integration tokens, and all integration-derived data (including all Google-user data and LinkedIn-connection records) within thirty (30) days, except where retention of specific records is required by applicable law or by an active dispute, investigation, or legal hold.

Your Rights Under Data-Protection Laws

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights with respect to your personal information. We honor these rights regardless of where you live, except where local law requires a different approach:

  • Right to access — obtain a copy of the personal information we hold about you, along with information about how we process it.
  • Right to rectification (correction) — correct any inaccurate or incomplete information.
  • Right to erasure (deletion / “right to be forgotten”) — request that we delete your personal information, subject to limited exceptions (e.g., tax-record retention).
  • Right to restriction of processing — ask us to pause processing your data in certain situations, for example while we verify an accuracy claim.
  • Right to data portability — receive a copy of your information in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, and transmit it to another controller.
  • Right to object — object to processing based on our legitimate interests (including profiling) and to direct marketing.
  • Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
  • Right not to be subject to solely automated decision-making producing legal or similarly significant effects, including profiling, except where permitted by law.
  • Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — EEA residents may contact the data-protection authority of their country of residence; UK residents may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk).
How to exercise your rights

To exercise any of the rights above, email privacy@foundersnetwork.com. We will respond within thirty (30) days, or any shorter period required by applicable law. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request; we will not use any identity-verification information for any other purpose. You may also authorize an agent to make a request on your behalf, subject to verification of the agent’s authority. We will not discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising any of these rights.

International Data Transfers

Founders Network is headquartered in the United States, and our service providers may process personal information in the United States and in other countries. If you are located outside the United States, your personal information will be transferred to and processed in countries that may have different data-protection laws than your country.

When we transfer personal information from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland to a country that the European Commission, UK Government, or Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner has not deemed to provide an adequate level of protection, we rely on appropriate safeguards, including:

  • the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, executed between Founders Network and each affected sub-processor;
  • your explicit consent to a specific transfer, where appropriate; or
  • any other lawful mechanism available under applicable data-protection law.

You may request a copy of the safeguards we have put in place by emailing privacy@foundersnetwork.com.

California Privacy Rights (CCPA / CPRA)

This section applies to California residents. It supplements the rest of this Privacy Policy and is provided to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (collectively, the “CCPA”).

Notice at Collection — categories of personal information we collect and the purposes for which we collect them

In the preceding twelve (12) months, Founders Network has collected the following categories of personal information from California residents:

  • Identifiers — name, email address, mailing address, phone number, IP address, and account credentials.
  • Customer-records information — payment-related information (processed by our payment provider; we do not store full card numbers).
  • Commercial information — membership purchase history.
  • Internet or other electronic-network activity information — browsing and interaction data on Founders Network properties, cookies and similar technologies.
  • Geolocation data — general location (city / region) derived from IP address; precise location only if you provide it.
  • Professional or employment-related information — company, role, sector, stated business objectives, and connection data.
  • Inferences — member-matching and profiling inferences drawn from the categories above.
  • Sensitive personal information — account credentials (treated as Sensitive PI). We do not use Sensitive PI for purposes other than providing the Services as expected.

We collect this information from you directly, from your interactions with the Services, from publicly available sources (during review of prospective members), and from third parties you authorize (e.g., Google when you connect Google Calendar). We use this information for the business purposes described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

Sale and sharing of personal information

Founders Network does not sell personal information for monetary consideration. Founders Network does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. As a result, no “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” opt-out is required, but you may at any time opt out of the marketing and analytics cookies described in “Cookies, Pixels, and Tracking Technologies” below.

Your California rights

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

  • Know what personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources, the purposes for which we collected it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
  • Delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to limited exceptions.
  • Correct inaccurate personal information.
  • Limit the use and disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information to purposes necessary to provide the Services as expected.
  • Opt out of automated decision-making technology that would produce legal or similarly significant effects, to the extent Founders Network engages in such decision-making (as described in the EU AI Act disclosure above).
  • Non-discrimination — we will not deny Services, charge different prices, or provide a different level of service because you exercised any CCPA right.

To exercise these rights, email privacy@foundersnetwork.com. You may also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We will verify your identity (or your agent’s authority) before fulfilling a request. We will respond within the timeframe required by California law (typically forty-five (45) days, extendable by another forty-five (45) days where reasonably necessary).

Shine the Light

California Civil Code Sections 1798.83-1798.84 (the “Shine the Light” law) gives California residents the right to ask us for a notice describing what categories of personal information we share with third parties for those third parties’ direct-marketing purposes. As described above, Founders Network does not share personal information with third parties for those third parties’ direct-marketing purposes, so no such notice is required. If you have questions, email privacy@foundersnetwork.com.

Other U.S. State Privacy Rights

This section applies if you are a resident of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, or any other U.S. state with a comprehensive consumer-privacy law (collectively, “State Privacy Laws”).

Depending on your state, you may have the right to:

  • confirm whether we process your personal information and access it;
  • correct inaccuracies in your personal information;
  • delete personal information we have collected from you;
  • obtain a copy of your personal information in a portable, readily usable format;
  • opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of personal information, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects;
  • limit the use and disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information; and
  • appeal our refusal to act on a privacy-rights request (where the underlying state law provides this right).

Founders Network does not sell personal information, engage in targeted advertising, or engage in profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects on consumers.

To exercise these rights, email privacy@foundersnetwork.com. We will respond within the timeframe required by your state’s law (typically forty-five (45) days). If we deny your request, you may appeal by replying to our denial; we will respond to the appeal within the timeframe required by your state’s law (typically sixty (60) days), and our denial of the appeal will inform you of any right to contact the state Attorney General.

Sub-processors and Service Providers

Founders Network engages third-party service providers (“sub-processors”) to operate the Services. We require each sub-processor to provide a level of data protection consistent with the requirements of applicable data-protection law and this Privacy Policy, and we execute Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) with each sub-processor that may process personal information on our behalf. Where a sub-processor processes personal information outside the data subject’s country of residence, we rely on appropriate transfer mechanisms, including the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

Infrastructure and Hosting

Railway Corp. — hosting of the Founders Network member application and supporting infrastructure. Processes all member personal information processed by the Services. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: railway.com/legal/privacy.

WPEngine, Inc. — hosting of the Founders Network marketing website at foundersnetwork.com. Processes visitor IP addresses, browser metadata, and form submissions made on the marketing site. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: wpengine.com/legal/privacy.

Communications

Mailgun Technologies, Inc. — delivery of transactional email (account verification, password resets, system notifications, membership correspondence). Processes recipient email address, sender, subject line, message body, and delivery metadata. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: mailgun.com/privacy-policy.

HubSpot, Inc. — customer-relationship management and marketing automation for prospective and current members. Processes name, email address, company, role, marketing-list membership, communication history, and marketing-engagement metadata. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: legal.hubspot.com/privacy-policy.

Twilio, Inc. — delivery of SMS messages for membership-related communications. Processes mobile phone number, message body, and delivery metadata. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: twilio.com/legal/privacy.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (WhatsApp Business Platform). Delivery of WhatsApp messages for membership-related communications, where you have opted in to WhatsApp. Processes WhatsApp identifier (phone number), message body, and delivery metadata. Processing location: United States and other countries in which Meta operates infrastructure. Privacy policy: whatsapp.com/legal/business-policy.

Artificial Intelligence Sub-processor

Anthropic, PBC — the Founders Network FN Assistant uses Anthropic’s Claude model family to provide content and connection recommendations within the Founders Network application. Founders Network has configured this integration under Anthropic’s Zero Data Retention provisions; prompts and responses sent through the Anthropic API for the FN Assistant are not retained by Anthropic and are not used to train Anthropic’s models. Processes portions of member-provided text and limited platform context necessary to answer a given request. Founders Network does not send Anthropic full calendar-event content, attendee identities, attachments, or the contents of any Google Workspace data. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: anthropic.com/legal/privacy.

Payments

Stripe, Inc. — processing of membership payments. Processes name, email address, billing address, and payment-card token. Founders Network does not store full payment-card numbers; Stripe handles card-data storage in accordance with PCI-DSS. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: stripe.com/privacy.

Diagnostics, Monitoring, and Analytics

Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) — application error and performance monitoring. Processes stack traces, numeric user identifier, browser metadata, and any data inadvertently captured in error messages. Founders Network uses Sentry’s data-scrubbing features to minimize the capture of personal information in error contexts. Processing location: United States. Privacy policy: sentry.io/privacy.

Product Analytics Provider. Aggregated usage analytics for the Founders Network member application. Processes pseudonymized user identifier, in-app event metadata, and browser metadata. Personal-identifier text such as names and email addresses is not sent to our product-analytics provider. Processing location: United States.

Google LLC (Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics) — marketing-site analytics and tag management. Used only on the public marketing site at foundersnetwork.com; not used inside the member application at members.foundersnetwork.com. Processes visitor IP address (truncated where applicable), browser metadata, and page-view and interaction events on marketing-site pages. Processing location: United States and other countries in which Google operates infrastructure. Privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy.

Member-Initiated Integrations

The following providers process member personal information only when a member chooses to connect the relevant integration from your account settings. Each member can disconnect any integration at any time.

Google LLC (Google Calendar). Provides calendar-event metadata to power the FN Assistant features described above under “Information from Third-Party Integrations and Connected Accounts.” Founders Network does not request scopes beyond what is necessary to operate the connected feature. Processing location: United States and other countries in which Google operates infrastructure. Privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy.

Notification of changes

Founders Network may update the sub-processor list above when we engage new sub-processors. To subscribe to email notification of changes, please send a request to privacy@foundersnetwork.com with the subject line “Subscribe: sub-processor change notifications.” Founders Network will provide a minimum of fifteen (15) days’ advance notice of the engagement of any new sub-processor that may process personal information on our behalf, where reasonably practicable.

Cookies, Pixels, and Tracking Technologies

Founders Network and our service providers use cookies, pixels, software development kits (SDKs), and similar technologies to operate the Services, remember your preferences, measure performance, and (on our marketing site) understand campaign effectiveness. We use the following categories:

  • Strictly necessary — required to provide the Services (e.g., authentication, security). These cannot be disabled.
  • Functional — remember your preferences (e.g., light/dark theme, language).
  • Analytics — help us understand how the Services are used in aggregate.
  • Marketing — on our marketing site (foundersnetwork.com), measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. We do not use marketing cookies inside the member application (members.foundersnetwork.com).
Cookies used in the member application (members.foundersnetwork.com)

Strictly necessary:

  • Session and authentication cookies — identify your authenticated session so that you remain logged in and so that requests are securely associated with your account. Set by Founders Network. Duration: session-length or until logout.
  • Security tokens (CSRF / XSRF) — protect against cross-site request forgery. Set by Founders Network. Duration: session-length.

Functional:

  • Theme preference — remembers your light- or dark-mode preference. Set by Founders Network. Duration: persistent until you change the setting.
  • Language preference — remembers any language preference you set. Set by Founders Network. Duration: persistent until you change the setting.

The member application does not use third-party advertising or marketing cookies.

Cookies used on the marketing website (foundersnetwork.com)

Strictly necessary:

  • WordPress session and security cookies — set by our content-management system to operate the marketing site. Set by WPEngine / WordPress. Duration: session-length to several days.

Analytics:

  • Google Analytics — aggregated marketing-site analytics. Set by Google. Duration: up to two (2) years.
  • Google Tag Manager — tag-management infrastructure for the marketing site.

Marketing:

  • HubSpot cookies — track interactions with HubSpot-served content (forms, marketing emails followed back to the site) and associate them with the corresponding HubSpot contact. Set by HubSpot. Duration: up to thirteen (13) months.
Your choices

You may manage non-essential cookies through your browser settings (each major browser provides controls to block, delete, or restrict cookies) or, where presented, through our cookie banner. Most browsers honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals; Founders Network treats a GPC signal as a request to opt out of any sale or sharing of personal information (although, as noted above, we do not sell or share personal information). For EEA, UK, and Swiss residents, no analytics or marketing cookies are set on the marketing site prior to your consent.

Note that disabling strictly necessary cookies will prevent the Services from functioning. The list above reflects the cookies and similar technologies in use as of the “Last updated” date at the top of this Policy. We update this list as our service providers and integrations change.

Children’s Privacy

The Founders Network Services are intended for use by adults who are at least sixteen (16) years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of sixteen (16). If you are under sixteen, please do not attempt to register for the Services or send any personal information about yourself to us.

In the United States, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under thirteen (13) in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under sixteen (or, in certain EEA member states, an age between thirteen and sixteen as set by that member state’s national law), we will delete that information promptly. If you believe that a child has provided us personal information, please contact privacy@foundersnetwork.com.

SMS / Text Message Communications

Founders Network uses SMS and WhatsApp to communicate with prospective members about their membership application status, and with approved members about upcoming events, introductions, and member resources.

How we get your number: You provide your mobile number when requesting membership via our Global Request Form, and consent to receive SMS by checking the opt-in box.

Message frequency: Varies based on your membership stage and engagement. Message and data rates may apply.

How to opt out: Reply STOP to any message to unsubscribe. Reply HELP for help.

Third-party sharing: We do not share your mobile phone number, SMS consent, or any SMS-related data with third parties or affiliates for marketing, promotional, or any other purposes. This information is used solely by Founders Network staff and automated systems to communicate with you about your membership.

If you have questions about our SMS practices, contact us at questions@foundersnetwork.com.

Contact — Data Protection Inquiries

If you have any questions or concerns about how Founders Network handles your personal information, please contact us:

  • By email: privacy@foundersnetwork.com
  • By postal mail: Founders Network, Inc., 268 Bush Street #7, San Francisco, CA 94104, United States

For EEA / UK / Swiss residents: Founders Network does not maintain an office in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom. For any inquiry under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the UK General Data Protection Regulation, or the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, please contact us at privacy@foundersnetwork.com. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law.

What if I have questions about this policy?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy policies, please send us a detailed message to privacy@foundersnetwork.com and we will try to resolve your concerns.

Effective date: April 5, 2013
Last updated: June 9, 2026