Code of conduct

1. Why this code exists

Cofoundista exists for one thing: helping people find a co-founder and build a company together. That only works when members can trust what they read and the people they talk to. This code of conduct sets the rules for everyone on Cofoundista.

You accept it when you sign up. It is part of our terms of use. It applies to everything you do on Cofoundista: your profile, your co-founder searches, your intro notes and your reports. It also applies to the contact that starts with an intro, such as emails, calls and meetings, as far as it concerns people you met or information you received through Cofoundista.

2. Co-founding, not hiring or selling

2.1 A co-founder search offers a founding role: shared responsibility for the company and a share in it. Job ads, internships, freelance projects and roles that are really a job do not belong on Cofoundista. A salary on top of the share is fine.

2.2 Do not use Cofoundista to sell. This covers services of any kind (development, design, agencies, consulting, coaching, help with fundraising), as well as products, courses and investments. It also covers offers to build a product "for equity" that are really a paid service.

2.3 Do not use Cofoundista to recruit people for other platforms, communities, paid events or networks, or to find candidates for third parties.

2.4 Do not ask anyone for money. Nobody has to pay to join a start-up, to get an intro or to see details.

3. Be genuine

3.1 Use your own name and one account. Do not create profiles for other people, for invented people or for companies.

3.2 Your details must be true and current: your role, skills, the time you can commit, your location, your founder experience and your exits. Do not inflate them. An exit needs evidence that names you.

3.3 Your photo shows you, or you leave it out.

3.4 A search describes a real venture and a real role. Give the stage, traction, incorporation status, equity and salary as they are. Pause the search or change it when things change, and mark it as filled when you found someone.

3.5 List people in your current team only if they are on the team and have agreed to be shown.

3.6 You may use AI tools to write your texts. What they say must still be true, and you are responsible for it.

4. Respectful contact

4.1 Write each intro note for that person or that search. Say why this venture or this person, not only why you. The same note sent to many people is spam.

4.2 Respect the answer. A decline is an answer, and so is an intro that expires. Do not send the same request again by other means, and do not contact the person outside Cofoundista about it.

4.3 No harassment, threats, insults, discrimination or hate speech, neither on Cofoundista nor in the contact that follows. No sexual advances. Cofoundista is not a dating platform.

4.4 Choose people by what they bring: skills, commitment, values and fit. Do not exclude anyone because of gender, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation.

4.5 Be reliable. Answer intros when you can, keep the appointments you agreed to, and tell the other side when you are no longer interested.

5. Contact details and confidentiality

5.1 Contact details are shared only when both sides say yes. Do not get around this. Do not put email addresses, phone numbers or messenger names into your bio, your answers to the profile questions, your intro notes or your searches. Links to your LinkedIn profile, GitHub or website belong in the links of your profile.

5.2 Do not contact a member outside Cofoundista about a co-founder role before an intro between you has been accepted, unless they asked you to.

5.3 Use the contact details you receive only for the conversation about building a company together. Do not add them to a mailing list or a sales database, and do not pass them on. Delete them when you no longer need them for that conversation.

5.4 Treat what others share with you as confidential: venture details, traction, the team, founder experience, equity and salary. Use it only to decide whether you want to build together. Do not publish it, do not pass it on, and do not use it to pitch, to copy an idea or to compete.

5.5 Do not take screenshots or copies of other people's profiles or searches to share them.

5.6 If you found a start-up: Cofoundista is not a non-disclosure agreement. Members see the details of your search. Leave out what has to stay secret and share it later in the conversation, under a non-disclosure agreement if you need one.

6. Fair use of the platform

6.1 No bots, scrapers, crawlers or AI agents that read Cofoundista or act on it for you. Do not copy profiles or searches into other databases.

6.2 Do not get around the limits. Do not open a second account for more intro slots, do not send an intro again by another route while the waiting time runs, and do not try to see data that is not meant for you.

6.3 A programme code is for the people the programme gives it to. Do not publish, sell or trade codes, and do not redeem a code that is not meant for you.

6.4 Report honestly. Do not report people to harm them or to win an argument.

6.5 Do not upload malware, do not attack the platform and do not test its security without our written consent. If you find a vulnerability, tell us at contact@cofoundista.com.

7. Stay safe

We screen profiles and check every search before it goes live, but we cannot guarantee that a profile is genuine or that what it says is true. Please look after yourself:

• Start with a video call, and meet in a public place the first time you meet in person.
• Never pay money to get into a start-up, for an intro or to secure a role. Be careful when someone asks you to invest or to lend money.
• Check what matters to you before you commit, for example the identity of the person, the company register and claims about traction and exits.
• Put agreements in writing: shares, vesting, roles, time and money. Get legal advice before you sign.
• If something feels wrong, stop and report it.

8. Report and block

8.1 Report. Every profile and every search has a "Report" option. Choose a reason (not a co-founder search, spam or selling, fake or misleading, offensive or harassing, or something else) and describe what happened. Our team looks at every report. We do not tell anyone who reported.

8.2 Block. When you block a person, you no longer see each other on Cofoundista: not in suggestions, profiles, searches or intros. Open intros between you end without a message. The other person is not told. Contact details you already exchanged stay with each of you. You can unblock the person in your settings.

8.3 Illegal content. Anyone can report content they consider illegal, also without an account, as described in the terms of use (section 13).

8.4 Danger. If you or someone else is in danger, call the police first (in the EU: 112).

9. What we do when the code is broken

9.1 We look at every report and at what our screening finds. Depending on how serious the breach is, whether it happened before and whether it was deliberate, we may:

• take no action;
• ask you to change your profile or a search: your profile and your searches go offline until you changed them and we checked them again;
• take a search offline or close it;
• suspend your account: you can no longer sign in, your profile and searches are hidden, and your open intros end;
• end your account as set out in the terms of use (section 17).

9.2 Serious breaches lead to an immediate suspension, in particular harassment, threats, fraud, fake identities and scraping.

9.3 We tell you what we did and why, unless the law prevents it. If you disagree, reply to our email. A person on our team looks at the decision again.

9.4 Where we learn of facts that suggest a criminal offence that threatens the life or safety of a person, we inform the authorities.

10. Changes to this code

We may update this code, for example when we learn from reports or add features. We show a material change to you at your next sign-in and ask you to accept it, as set out in the terms of use (section 5).

Questions about this code: contact@cofoundista.com.