Privacy Policy

Founders Growth Club is a growth community and events platform for early-stage founders and the operators, marketers, and ecosystem partners who help them grow. We run a public website, in-person and online marketing clinics, a paid membership (currently £200/month), and a private members' community platform where members post updates, message each other, and connect.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Founders Growth Club is the "data controller" of the personal data described in this policy.

Information you give us directly

• Membership interest: name, email address, startup name, and role when you register interest in joining.
• Account & profile: name, email, role (founder, marketer, operator, or builder), startup name, bio, and avatar details once you become a member of the platform, plus a password (we only ever store this as a one-way cryptographic hash, never in plain text).
• Community content: posts, comments, reactions, and any photos or video you upload to the community feed, plus any members you tag.
• Messages & connections: direct messages you send to other members, connection requests, and — if you block or report another member or conversation — the record and reason for that action.
• Newsletter: your email address if you subscribe to updates.
• Event & clinic RSVPs: the details you provide when registering for a marketing clinic or event.
• Partner inquiries: organisation name, contact person, email, and the nature of your partnership interest if you get in touch as an ecosystem partner.
• Correspondence: anything you send us directly, e.g. by email.

Information we collect automatically

• Analytics data: pages viewed, referring pages, device and browser type, approximate location, and how you interact with our site, via PostHog and Google Analytics (see Cookies & analytics below).
• Session data:a secure, encrypted session cookie that keeps you signed in to the members' platform.

Payment information

Membership payments are processed by Stripe, our PCI-compliant payment provider. We never see or store your full card details — we only retain the Stripe customer, checkout session, and subscription identifiers needed to keep your membership status up to date.

• To create and administer your membership and account.
• To operate the community platform — showing your profile and posts to other members, delivering messages, and enabling connections.
• To process payments and manage your subscription with Stripe.
• To register you for marketing clinics and events, and send related confirmations and updates.
• To send newsletters and community updates, where you've asked to receive them.
• To respond to partnership inquiries and correspondence.
• To keep the platform safe — reviewing reports, enforcing blocks, and moderating content that breaks our community guidelines.
• To understand how our site and platform are used, and to improve them, using aggregated analytics.
• To meet our legal, tax, and accounting obligations.

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract:to provide membership, the community platform, and paid services you've signed up for.
• Legitimate interests: to run and improve our community, keep it safe, and respond to inquiries — balanced against your rights and expectations.
• Consent: for optional newsletter emails and non-essential analytics cookies, which you can withdraw at any time.
• Legal obligation: where we need to retain records for tax, accounting, or regulatory reasons.

Founders Growth Club is, at its core, a community — so some of what you share is visible to other members by design:

• Your profile (name, role, startup, bio, and avatar) is visible to other signed-in members.
• Posts, comments, reactions, and tags you add to the community feed are visible to other members.
• Direct messages are only visible to you and the member(s) in that conversation — never to other members.
• Connection requests show the requester's name and profile to the recipient.

We are not responsible for how other members use information you choose to share in the community — please use the same judgement you would in any professional network.

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with:

• Stripe — to process membership payments and subscriptions.
• PostHog — a product analytics provider (EU-hosted) that helps us understand how the site and platform are used.
• Google Analytics — to understand website traffic and usage trends.
• Infrastructure & hosting providers — who store and process data on our behalf, under appropriate confidentiality and security terms.
• Other members — to the extent described in What other members can see.
• Legal & safety — where required by law, to protect our rights, or to keep our community safe (e.g. investigating a report).

If Founders Growth Club is ever involved in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to the protections in this policy.

We use a small number of cookies and similar technologies:

• Essential:a session cookie that keeps you signed in to the members' platform. This is required for the platform to function and can't be switched off.
• Analytics: PostHog and Google Analytics cookies, which help us understand aggregate usage of the site. You can opt out of Google Analytics using the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, and control cookies generally through your browser settings.

• Account and membership data is kept for as long as your account is active, and for a reasonable period afterwards to handle queries, disputes, or legal obligations.
• Payment and subscription records are kept as long as required for tax and accounting purposes.
• Password reset tokens are single-use and expire shortly after they're issued.
• Newsletter and partner inquiry data is kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it.

If you close your account, we delete or anonymise your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we need to retain it to comply with the law or resolve disputes.

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect your data, including encrypting data in transit, storing passwords only as salted cryptographic hashes, issuing password-reset links as single-use hashed tokens, and restricting access to personal data to those who need it to run the platform. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security — but if we become aware of a breach affecting your data, we'll notify you and the ICO where required by law.

Some of our service providers (such as Stripe, PostHog, and Google) may process data outside the UK. Where this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards recognised under UK GDPR, such as adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses, to ensure your data remains protected.

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Ask us to delete your data ("right to be forgotten").
• Ask us to restrict or object to certain processing.
• Request a portable copy of data you've provided.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@foundersgrowth.club. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Founders Growth Club is intended for founders, operators, and professionals, and is not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we'll delete it.

We may update this policy from time to time as our community and platform evolve. We'll update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page, and where changes are significant, we'll let members know directly.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, reach out to us at hello@foundersgrowth.club.

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