Terms of Use

Who these terms apply to

These terms cover synapsesventures.com and everything reached from it — the Startup Academy, entrepreneurship certification, Pitch Room, workforce dashboard, equity calculator, terminology library, name-voting page, and the contact and investment forms. By using the site you agree to them.

Synapses Ventures, 585 Glenwood Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States. Questions: info@synapsesventures.com.

Accounts and sign-in

• You can sign in with Google or with an email and password. You are responsible for keeping your sign-in method secure and for anything done through your account.
• Your account has a role — member, partner, worker or admin — and each role opens different tools. Don't try to reach tools your role doesn't allow.
• Accounts are personal. Don't share credentials, and don't let someone else take an exam or complete coursework under your account.
• We can suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or endangers the site or its users.

What the site is — and isn't

The site provides general information about Synapses Ventures, its portfolio and its programs, plus educational and productivity tools for members.

Nothing on this site is investment, legal, tax or professional advice, and nothing here is an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Portfolio companies are independently operated, and their performance does not indicate any outcome.

Calculators and other tools, including the equity calculator, produce estimates for illustration only. Do not rely on them for real decisions without your own professional advice.

Certification and exams

• The entrepreneurship certificate is issued by Synapses Ventures based on your exam result. A passing score currently requires 90% or higher.
• The exam runs with integrity monitoring: it records in-exam browser events such as switching windows or copy attempts. Taking deliberate steps to defeat the monitoring — or having someone else take the exam for you — can void your result.
• If you fail, you can retake the exam after the waiting period shown to you. If you believe a flag or a score is wrong, you can file an appeal and we will review it.
• Certificates are personal to the person who earned them and may be revoked if they were obtained through misconduct.

Pitch Room and member spaces

• Pitch Room is for Synapses members. Submitting a pitch means you have the right to share the material you upload.
• Reviews and feedback are opinions offered to help you — they are not a commitment to invest, partner, or continue the conversation, and we don't guarantee a review will reach a particular conclusion.
• Keep other members' pitches and reviews confidential. Don't share material from Pitch Room outside it without permission.

Content you send us

• When you send us something through a form — an inquiry, a venture submission, a pitch, a W-9, a name idea or a vote — you confirm you have the right to send it and you allow us to use it to operate the relevant program.
• Don't send confidential or proprietary information through public forms such as the contact or voting pages; use Pitch Room or email instead.
• We can remove content you submit if it is unlawful, abusive, infringes someone's rights, or breaks these terms.

Acceptable use

• Don't interfere with the site, attempt to access data or tools you aren't authorized for, or probe for vulnerabilities beyond reporting them to us.
• Don't scrape, copy, or republish substantial parts of the site's content without permission.
• Don't use automated means to create accounts, submit forms, cast votes, or take exams.
• One vote per person and per network connection on naming polls; votes are recorded with a one-way hash of the network address to enforce this.

Our content

The site's text, design, logos, course materials, exam content and terminology entries belong to Synapses Ventures or their respective owners. You may use the site and your certificates as intended — including sharing a certificate you earned — but not copy course or exam content for reuse elsewhere.

Third-party services

The site runs on hosting and database providers, uses Google for sign-in and Google Analytics for visit counts, and links to third-party sites such as portfolio company pages. Those services have their own terms, and we are not responsible for third-party sites or services.

Disclaimer and liability

The site and its tools are provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind to the fullest extent permitted by law. We work to keep the site available and accurate, but we don't promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or fit every purpose.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Synapses Ventures is not liable for indirect or consequential losses arising from your use of the site. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. When we make a material change we update the effective date at the top of this page, and using the site after an update means the updated terms apply.

Contact

Synapses Ventures, 585 Glenwood Ave, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States. Email: info@synapsesventures.com.