Terms & Conditions

01Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms & Conditions (the “Terms”) are an agreement between you and [Company legal name], a company based in India with its registered office at [Registered address] (“Ship Hours”, “we”, “us”, “our”). They govern your use of the Ship Hours website at shiphours.club, the waitlist, and the Ship Hours club, including profiles, matching and live video sessions (together, the “Service”).

By joining the waitlist, creating an account, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle your personal data. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

Some parts of the Service may come with extra rules (for example, rules for a particular event). If so, we'll show them to you, and they form part of these Terms.

02Eligibility

To use Ship Hours, you must:

• be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract under the law that applies to you;
• use your real identity: your real name and links to profiles that genuinely belong to you;
• have only one account, unless we've agreed otherwise in writing; and
• not have been previously suspended or removed from Ship Hours, and not be barred from using the Service under applicable law.

If you use Ship Hours on behalf of a company, you confirm you're authorised to accept these Terms for it, and “you” includes that company. Each person who joins a session still needs their own account.

03Early access and waitlist

Ship Hours is an invite-only, early-access product that is still being built. Right now it is mainly a waitlist. Please keep the following in mind:

• No guaranteed invite. Joining the waitlist doesn't guarantee you an invite, a place in a particular batch, or access by any particular date. We decide who to invite and when, for example based on batch size, mix of members and how relevant matches would be.
• No guaranteed launch. We may change, delay, pause or stop the Service (or any part of it) at any time, including deciding not to launch it at all.
• Features will change. Session lengths, number of rounds, matching criteria and other features described on our website are our current plans and may change. Early-access features may be unfinished, have bugs or be unavailable at times.
• Pricing. Ship Hours is currently free for founding members. If we introduce paid features, we will tell you the price and terms in advance, and you won't be charged unless you choose to sign up for them.

04Your account and profile

When you join, you may give us your email address, name, and links to your LinkedIn, X and GitHub profiles. We use these links, and the public information on them, to build your Ship Hours profile, such as what you're building, what you've already solved and what help you need.

• Keep it accurate. You're responsible for making sure your profile is accurate, current and not misleading. Please review the profile we generate and correct anything that's wrong.
• Only your own links. Only submit profile links that belong to you.
• Keep it secure. You're responsible for keeping your login credentials safe and for activity on your account. Tell us promptly at the contact email in section 17 if you suspect unauthorised access.
• Verification. We may ask you to verify your identity or your link ownership, and we may decline or remove profiles we can't reasonably verify.

05Code of conduct

Ship Hours only works if people feel safe and respected. When you use the Service, including in live sessions, profiles and any messages, you must not:

• Harass, bully, threaten, stalk, intimidate or abuse anyone;
• post or say anything hateful or discriminatory, including based on caste, religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age;
• show nudity or sexual content, make sexual advances, or behave in a sexually explicit way;
• spam people, including repeated unwanted messages or mass outreach to members you've met;
• sell, pitch or solicit (for example products, services, investments or recruitment) to someone who hasn't clearly agreed to hear it;
• impersonate anyone, misrepresent who you are or who you work for, or use someone else's account;
• record, screenshot, stream or otherwise capture another member's video, audio or likeness without their clear, prior consent;
• share other people's personal or confidential information without their permission;
• do anything illegal, or encourage or help anyone else to;
• upload malware, scrape the Service or other members' data, try to bypass security or access limits, or interfere with how the Service works; or
• use the Service to build a competing product or member database.

If someone breaks these rules, please report them using the in-product reporting tools (when available) or by writing to us at the contact email in section 17.

06Live session rules

Ship Hours sessions are scheduled 30-minute sessions made up of short live 1:1 video chats, each about 7 minutes long. In sessions:

• Be there. If you book a session, show up on time or cancel early. Repeated no-shows or late cancellations may affect your access.
• Camera on, real you. Keep your camera on and appear as yourself. No filters or avatars that hide who you are.
• Be respectful. The code of conduct above applies in full. Keep to the round's time and let the other person speak.
• No recording. Ship Hours does not record video sessions, and you must not record them either unless everyone involved clearly agrees first.
• Leave and report. You can leave any conversation at any time, for any reason. If something goes wrong, report it and we'll look into it.
• Keep it confidential. Treat what other founders share with you as confidential unless they say otherwise. We can't guarantee that others will do the same, so be thoughtful about what you share.
• Off-platform contact is up to you. If you decide to connect after a session, that's between you and the other member, and these Terms still apply to how you treat people you met through Ship Hours.

07Your content and our licence to use it

“Your content” means the information you give us or that we import with your permission, including your name, photo, profile links, public profile information from those links, bio, matching preferences and anything else you add to your profile.

• You own it. You keep any rights you have in your content.
• Licence to us. You give us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, process, adapt (for example, summarise or format) and display your content, but only as needed to run, improve and provide the Service. This includes showing your profile to other members, explaining to them why you matched, and using it in our matching. We won't use your content in public advertising without your permission.
• When it ends. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except where we need to keep some of it as described in our Privacy Policy (for example, for safety or legal reasons) or where other members already received it in the normal course of the Service.
• Your promises. You confirm you have the right to share your content and that it doesn't break any law or anyone else's rights.
• Feedback. If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them without any obligation to you.

08Third-party services

The Service relies on and links to third-party services, for example LinkedIn, X and GitHub (for your profile information), video infrastructure providers (to run live sessions), and hosting, database and email providers.

• Your use of those services is governed by their own terms and privacy policies, not these Terms. You're responsible for following them, including any rules about sharing or importing your profile data.
• We aren't responsible for third-party services, their content or their availability. If one of them changes or stops working, parts of Ship Hours may change or stop working too.
• We don't control and aren't responsible for websites or content that other members share or link to.

09Moderation, suspension and termination

To keep Ship Hours safe and useful, we may, at our discretion, review reports, remove or limit content, restrict features, decline invitations, or suspend or close accounts. This includes cases where we reasonably believe you've broken these Terms, created risk or harm for others or for us, or where the law requires it. Where it's reasonable and safe to do so, we'll tell you what happened and why, and you can ask us to reconsider by contacting us.

Matching and moderation may use automated tools, but decisions to suspend or close accounts for conduct reasons are reviewed by a person.

You can stop using Ship Hours and ask us to close your account at any time by contacting us. Sections that by their nature should continue after your account ends (such as sections 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14) will continue to apply.

10Intellectual property

Apart from your content and other members' content, the Service and everything in it, including the Ship Hours name and logo, website design, software, text and graphics, belongs to [Company legal name] or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws.

We give you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable right to use the Service for its intended purpose while you follow these Terms. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, reverse engineer or create derivative works from the Service, or use our brand, without our written permission, except where the law expressly allows it.

11Disclaimers

• As is. The Service is an early-access product provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free.
• No guaranteed matches or outcomes. We don't guarantee that you'll be matched, how many matches you'll get, how relevant or useful they'll be, or any business, fundraising, hiring or other outcome.
• Other members' advice isn't professional advice. Members share their own experience and opinions. Nothing said in a session is legal, financial, tax, investment, medical or other professional advice, and we don't check its quality or accuracy. Get qualified advice before acting on anything important.
• We don't vet members fully. We may verify some information, but we can't confirm everything members say about themselves. Use your own judgement, especially before sharing confidential information, investing or entering into any deal with someone you met here.

12Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

1. we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, business opportunity, data or goodwill, arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms;
2. we are not liable for the conduct, statements or content of any member or third party, whether online or offline; and
3. our total liability to you for all claims relating to the Service or these Terms is limited to the greater of (i) the fees you paid us for the Service in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, and (ii) INR 5,000.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, such as liability for fraud, or for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or your rights as a consumer under mandatory law.

13Your responsibility to us (indemnity)

To the extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ship Hours and its directors, employees and agents from claims, losses, liabilities, damages and reasonable costs (including reasonable legal fees) brought by third parties that arise from:

• your conduct on or off the Service towards people you met through it;
• your content; or
• your breach of these Terms or of any law or third-party right.

We'll let you know promptly about any such claim, and you may take part in the defence with lawyers of your choice at your own cost.

14Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to the next paragraph, the courts of Bengaluru, Karnataka have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service.

Before going to court, please contact us so we can try to resolve the issue informally, and give us at least 30 days to do so. If you live outside India, this section does not take away any mandatory consumer protections or rights to bring proceedings in your local courts that the law of your country gives you.

15Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as the Service evolves or as the law changes. We'll change the “Last updated” date at the top, and if a change is material we'll give you reasonable notice before it takes effect, for example by email or in the product. If you keep using the Service after the changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you don't agree, stop using the Service and ask us to close your account.

16General

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any extra rules we show you, are the whole agreement between you and us about the Service.
• Severability. If any part of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest stays in effect.
• No waiver. If we don't enforce a right straight away, we haven't given it up.
• Assignment. You can't transfer your rights under these Terms without our consent. We may transfer ours as part of a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, and we'll tell you if that happens.
• Events beyond our control. We're not responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.

17Contact and grievances

Questions about these Terms, or want to report a member or content? Get in touch:

Complaints about content or conduct on the Service, and about how we handle your personal data, can be sent to our Grievance Officer. We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and aim to resolve them within 15 days. See section 12 of our Privacy Policy for details.