General Terms & Conditions
The following General Terms & Conditions apply to your use of VC4A and all related properties. You are solely responsible for your conduct, and your content on VC4A, and compliance with these terms. By registering with us, or using or browsing VC4A, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these terms. This includes the General Terms & Conditions explained on this page, and the VC4A Terms of Commerce, Disclaimer and Privacy Policy.
The only people who are authorized to create accounts on this site are professionals who understand risk and are willing to bear the consequences. If you are not an Entrepreneur looking for advice and introductions to potential investors, or you don’t think that you are both an Accredited Investor and sophisticated enough to protect your own interests, then you should not try to create an account on this site.
By using VC4A (including by simply viewing content on VC4A.com (the “Site”), you are agreeing that you, and each person you allow to access VC4A through your account, will abide by the terms of the following agreement, which is summarized here, and set forth in its entirety below. This agreement is between you and VC4A BV (“We,” “VC4A” or the “Company”), and it governs your access to and use of the services, websites, and applications offered by VC4A (the “Service”). Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with this agreement.
The security laws applicable to private company finance are complicated and occasionally ambiguous. In general, they are designed to protect unsophisticated people from making ill-advised investments. The following terms are designed to minimize the risk that any unsophisticated/unaccredited individuals try to become investors through the Service, and to protect the Company in the event that anyone claims he, she or it was damaged by using the Services. At the same time, entrepreneurs must conduct full due diligence on any contact met through this Service and take full responsibility for any outcome. Any information the entrepreneur provides the service, either through sharing with the VC4A organization, any member or visitor to the Service or its events, or engaging and/or publishing to any part of the Service, is information the entrepreneur willingly puts into the public domain.
General Principles
Users of the site must join as a ‘general member’ before they receive a personal profile page, can build a network of contacts and/or view content available to the public. Once registered as a ‘general member’ the user can decide to register as an ‘entrepreneur,’ a ‘mentor’ or as an ‘investor.’ Entrepreneurs are able to register a venture profile, upload a logo, complete the venture description questions, and post URLs to relevant company related websites and media channels. Entrepreneurs can post fundraising requests that are only visible to members who are registered as part of the VC4A Investor Network and have registered Pro Accounts. As part of the registration for a Pro Account, members that use this Service indicate they meet the investor criteria as established by the American Securities and Exchange Commission. Members that engage as investors must meet the regulations stipulated by the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in the Netherlands, where VC4A is registered as a BV, or as per the legislation of country of residence. Only accredited investors with registered Pro Accounts, and members of the VC4A organization, can view VC4A registered ventures that are fundraising and any details associated with a venture posted on the website. The VC4A Investor Network and Pro Account service, and all users of the Service, also agree to the Terms of Commerce, Disclaimer and Privacy Policy.
ENTREPRENEURS: If you are an Entrepreneur, you are welcome to upload information about your business plan, including information you consider confidential (see the definition of ‘Fundraising Documents,’ below), and to designate which Investors may see that information (either by listing your venture as ‘public’ or ‘private’). We will do our best to display information you have designated as ‘Fundraising Documents’ only to Investors who have told us that they fit within the categories you have identified. We cannot, however, require Investors who see your ‘Fundraising Documents’ to agree not to distribute that information. We also cannot guarantee that there will never be a software bug or a hacker attack that will allow unauthorized viewing of material, or that Investors actually fit within any category. Equally, the Service interviews members who want to participate as Mentors, and seeks to make meaningful connections useful to entrepreneurs, but the Service cannot vouch for members that participate as Mentors, their intentions or the consequences of their actions.
MENTORS: Members who are part of the Service have the ability to register as Mentors. The Service reviews incoming mentorship requests from entrepreneurs and posts them to the Mentorship marketplace. However, VC4A cannot vouch for the quality of the entrepreneur, the venture or the truthfulness of the information presented. Mentors are expected to maintain a professional relationship to the entrepreneur, willingly volunteer their network, knowledge and expertise, and agree that they will not accept any form of financial compensation in return for the mentorship they provide the entrepreneur. Mentors also agree to use discretion in how they handle sensitive information that might be provided by the entrepreneur and agree to not share, sell or distribute this information.
INVESTORS: If you are a member with a Pro Account, or you are otherwise able to see any content related to ventures fundraising or material that has been designated as ‘Fundraising Documents,’ you must recognize that it is important to use discretion in how you handle the information concerning the venture raising capital and the associated Fundraising Documents. We do not promise to show you all qualifying business plans, nor can we promise that all business plans that we show you will actually satisfy your criteria, but we will try. VC4A does not take responsibility for the quality of the entrepreneurs or plans, nor do we vouch for the companies presented through the Service and to what extent they reflect a truthful reality.
GENERAL USERS: Certain portions of the VC4A site will be visible to users who have not signed up as either Entrepreneurs or as Investors. Those users, nevertheless, are bound by this agreement. Entrepreneurs should be aware that information they post to their public profile page is visible to everybody unless it is posted under the ‘Documents’ tab in which case the material is only visible to the members who are registered as part of the VC4A Investor Network and have Pro Investor Accounts, thereby indicating they meet the investor criteria as established by the American Securities and Exchange Commission. Members that register for Pro Investor Accounts also indicate they meet the regulations stipulated by the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in the Netherlands, where VC4A is registered as a BV (company), or as per the legislation of country of residence.
What We are Promising
Our obligations under this agreement are limited to two elements (A) we will require all Pro Account users on the site to indicate they meet the investor criteria as established by the American Securities and Exchange Commission. Members that register for Pro Accounts also indicate they meet the regulations stipulated by the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) in the Netherlands, where VC4A is registered as a BV, or as per the legislation of country of residence and (B) we will do our best to disclose content submitted by Entrepreneurs only in accordance with the instructions of those Entrepreneurs and only to Investors who have indicated an interest in such materials. Other than that, you are on your own.
We do not, and cannot, guarantee that any Investor is actually an ‘Accredited Investor,’ or that any content is true, correct, complete or viable.
What You are Promising
You are promising to use VC4A responsibly and in a professional manner, and to hold us harmless against any damage that may happen to you or your company as a result of your use of VC4A. Please see our disclaimer.
Other Rights We Have
Users of VC4A must understand that we have virtually unlimited rights to reject any Investor or Entrepreneur, to delete any content, or to publish content provided to us by an Entrepreneur or an Investor on their VC4A public profiles, including for the purposes of marketing our Service. This is not applicable to applications submitted for partner programs on the VC4A platform. Information provided in applications are strictly confidential.
As a general member of VC4A you agree that you will not post, email or make available any content or use VC4A:
* In a manner that infringes, violates or misappropriates any third party’s intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights or contractual rights;
* in a manner that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
* to engage in spamming, “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes”, advertisement of illegal or controlled products or services, or other advertising or marketing activities that violate these Terms of Service, any applicable laws, regulations or generally-accepted advertising industry guidelines;
* to make unsolicited offers (in any form) or to make reference to any financial related service (or other) without the explicit consent of the VC4A organization.
* in a manner that is misleading, deceptive or fraudulent or otherwise illegal or promotes illegal activities, including engaging in phishing or otherwise obtaining financial or other personal information in a misleading manner or for fraudulent or misleading purposes;
* in a manner that is libelous or defamatory, or in a way that is otherwise threatening, abusive, violent, harassing, malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or invasive of another’s privacy;
* in a manner that is hateful or discriminatory based on race, color, sex, religion, nationality, ethnic or national origin, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or age or is otherwise objectionable;
* to impersonate any other person, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity, or to obtain access to VC4A without authorization;
* to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of VC4A or prevent others from using VC4A, or in a manner that disrupts the normal flow of dialogue with an excessive number of messages (flooding attack) to VC4A, or that otherwise negatively affects other persons’ ability to use VC4A;
* to use any manual or automated means, including agents, robots, scripts, or spiders, to access or manage any user’s account or to monitor or copy this Network or the content contained therein;
* to facilitate the unlawful distribution of copyrighted content;
* in a manner that includes personal or identifying information about another person without that person’s explicit consent;
* in a manner that employs misleading email or IP addresses, or forged headers or otherwise manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origin of content transmitted through VC4A or to users; and
* in a manner that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation if emailed to users who have requested not to be contacted about other services, products or commercial interests.
Additionally, you agree not to:
* “Stalk” or otherwise harass anyone;
* Collect, use or disclose data, including personal information, about other users without their consent or for unlawful purposes or in violation of applicable law or regulations;
* Request, solicit or otherwise obtain access to usernames, passwords or other authentication credentials from any member of VC4A or to proxy authentication credentials for any member of VC4A for the purposes of automating logins to VC4A;
* Use automated means, including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools, or the like to download data from VC4A – except for Internet search engines (e.g. Google) and non-commercial public archives (e.g. archive.org) that comply with our robots.txt file, or “well-behaved” web services/RSS/Atom clients. We reserve the right to define what we mean by “well-behaved”;
* Post irrelevant content, repeatedly post the same or similar content or otherwise impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on VC4A’s infrastructure;
* Attempt to gain unauthorized access to our computer systems or engage in any activity that disrupts, diminishes the quality of, interferes with the performance of, or impairs the functionality of VC4A;
* Use VC4A as a generic file hosting service;
* Take any action that may undermine the feedback or ratings systems (such as displaying, importing or exporting feedback information off of VC4A or for using it for purposes unrelated to VC4A; and
* Develop, invoke, or utilize any code to disrupt, diminish the quality of, interfere with the performance of, or impair the functionality of VC4A.
You agree not to authorize or encourage any third party to use VC4A to facilitate any of the foregoing prohibited conduct. You also agree that these General Terms & Conditions include our service providers and that they may take action (including the removal of your content and disabling of your account) in order to maintain compliance with these General Terms & Conditions.