The Foundry
Legal · Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Members share real numbers and real strategy here. That only works if what you share is handled carefully — here is exactly what we collect, why, and who sees it.

DRAFT — pending counsel review. This policy describes the intended practice for The Foundry pilot and will be finalised with legal counsel before general availability.
Last updated August 2026

1. What we collect

Application and profile data: your name, email, phone number, LinkedIn, location and time zone, company, role, stage, what you can contribute, what you need, and your photo. This is the data a good match actually needs — we don't ask for a biography.

Activity data: your Offers and Asks, Build Agreements, Loop Hours movements, reviews you give and receive, sessions you book, and event RSVPs.

Technical data: the usual server logs and the cookies needed to keep you signed in. We do not run advertising trackers.

2. How we use it

To run the club: verifying you as a founder, matching Offers to Asks, scheduling Build sessions, moving Loop Hours when both sides accept the work, and publishing your reviews to your profile.

To operate Ember, the Foundry's coach: text you give Ember (your rough Asks, your contribution answer, session notes you submit) is processed by our AI provider to produce coaching, strength suggestions, and Build Summaries. It is not used to train the provider's models under our agreement.

To communicate: membership emails about your Builds, sessions, and reviews. Marketing email is opt-in and every message has an unsubscribe.

3. What other members see

Your profile — name, photo, company, stage, location, skills, Offers, open Asks, reviews, and contribution record — is visible to members, and a curated version appears on the public member showcase. Your phone number, email, availability calendar, and application answers are never shown to other members; only the availability windows you choose are.

4. Calendars and meetings

If you connect Google Calendar, we request the narrowest scope that works: creating and reading Build-session events (which is how the Google Meet link attaches). We never read unrelated events' contents to other members and you can disconnect at any time.

If Ember's note-taker joins a session, both members are told, the transcript is used only to produce the Build Summary sent to both members, and the recording is deleted once the summary is delivered.

5. Who we share it with

Processors who run the Service for us: Supabase (accounts and data), Stripe (payments — we never see your card number), Anthropic (Ember's coaching and summaries), our calendar and transcription providers, and our hosting provider. Each is bound by contract to use your data only to provide their service.

We do not sell personal data. We disclose it only where the law requires.

6. Retention and deletion

Applications that don't become memberships are deleted within 12 months. Member data is kept while your membership is active and for up to 24 months after, then deleted or anonymised — except records we must keep (for example, billing). Reviews may remain on the reviewed member's profile in anonymised form.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live (including under UK and EU data protection law), you can ask for access, correction, deletion, portability, or restriction of your data, and you can object to processing. Write to privacy@thefoundry.club and we will respond within a month. You can also complain to your data protection authority.

8. Contact

The Foundry is the data controller for the Service. Privacy questions: privacy@thefoundry.club.

See also our Terms of Membership.