Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of Builtbyindies, including the website at builtbyindies.com and any related features, emails and services (together, the “Service”). The Service is operated by Vyshnav TR (“Builtbyindies”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy and our Community Guidelines. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. To buy a paid plan, book an ad or receive affiliate payouts, you must be old enough to enter into a binding contract where you live.

You can sign up with an email address and password or with Google. You agree to give accurate information, keep it up to date, and keep your login details secure. You are responsible for all activity under your account. Tell us promptly at [email protected] if you believe your account has been accessed without your permission.

One person may hold one account. Usernames are first come, first served, and we may reclaim a username that is misleading, impersonates someone, or infringes a trademark.

Builtbyindies is a community for independent makers. Among other things, it lets you:

• submit and launch products in weekly launch cohorts, and upvote, comment on and bookmark products;
• publish stories, buildlog posts and comments, and follow other makers;
• send direct messages to other members;
• earn karma, streaks, badges and awards for taking part;
• buy paid launch plans and advertising, and join the affiliate program.

We are continually improving the Service and may add, change or remove features at any time. Where a change materially reduces something you have paid for, we will work with you on a fair remedy.

“Content” means anything you post or upload, including product listings, logos, screenshots, stories, buildlog posts, comments, messages and profile information. You keep ownership of your Content and are responsible for it.

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, display, adapt (for example, resize images or create previews) and distribute your Content in order to operate, promote and improve the Service. This includes showing your products and posts on our site, in emails and newsletters, in social media posts and in blog articles about launches. The licence ends when you delete the Content or your account, except where the Content has been shared by others, is part of a published article or email already sent, or must be retained for legal reasons.

You confirm that you have the rights to everything you post, and that it does not break the law or infringe anyone else’s rights. When you submit a product, you confirm that you built it, work on it, or are authorised to list it.

We may review, edit for formatting, decline or remove Content that breaks these Terms or the Community Guidelines, but we are not obliged to monitor Content.

Products launch in weekly cohorts with a limited number of places per week. A free launch takes the next week with space. Before scheduling, you may be asked to upvote a few products from the current cohort, and a minimum amount of karma may be required. These requirements can change.

We may review any submission and may decline, reschedule or remove a product that is broken, misleading, unsafe, illegal, or that breaks the Community Guidelines. Rankings, awards and badges are based on community activity and our anti-abuse checks; we may adjust or withdraw them where we find manipulation.

We offer optional paid services, including:

• Premium launch ($9, one-time) and Featured launch ($19, one-time), as described on our pricing page;
• Advertising placements booked through our advertising page.

Prices are shown in US dollars before checkout. Payments are processed by our payment provider, Dodo Payments, which may act as the merchant of record and may add applicable taxes. We do not receive or store your full card details. Paid plans are one-time purchases, not subscriptions.

Paid services are delivered as described at the time of purchase. For Featured launches, we write the blog post after your launch week. Ads are reviewed before they run; if we decide not to run an ad you have paid for, you receive a full refund.

Because a launch or ad slot is reserved for you once it is booked, other payments are generally non-refundable once the service has started. If something went wrong, such as a service we did not deliver or a duplicate charge, contact us at [email protected] within 14 days and we will make it right. This does not affect any rights you have under consumer law. A paid plan does not exempt a product from these Terms; if we remove a paid listing for a serious breach, we are not required to refund it.

Members can share a referral link. When someone signs up through your link and later makes a payment, you earn a commission of 50% of that payment, up to $50 in total per referred user. Current terms are shown on the affiliate page and may change for future referrals.

• You can request a payout once your available balance reaches $10. Payouts are sent by UPI or PayPal to the details you provide.
• Commissions on payments that are refunded or disputed are reversed.
• Self-referrals, duplicate accounts, spam, misleading promotion and bidding on our brand name are not allowed. We may withhold or cancel commissions earned this way and remove you from the program.
• You are responsible for any taxes on what you earn.

You must follow the Community Guidelines. In particular, you must not:

• manipulate upvotes, rankings, karma, streaks or referrals, including with multiple accounts, bots or vote exchanges;
• send spam or unsolicited promotion, including through direct messages;
• post anything illegal, harmful, hateful, sexually explicit, deceptive or infringing;
• impersonate another person or organisation;
• scrape the Service at scale, probe or bypass our security, or disrupt the Service;
• use the Service to distribute malware or to collect other members’ personal data.

We send emails that are part of running your account, such as sign-in, launch and payment emails. We also send activity emails and digests, such as replies, follows, streak reminders and weekly summaries. You can unsubscribe from non-essential emails at any time using the link in each email.

The Service, including its design, software, logos and the Builtbyindies name, belongs to us and our licensors and is protected by law. You may not copy or reuse it except as these Terms allow. You may use the launch badges we provide to link to your product page. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them without any obligation to you.

If you believe Content on the Service infringes your copyright or trademark, email [email protected] with a link to the Content, a description of your work, and your contact details. We will review the complaint and remove infringing Content where appropriate. Accounts that repeatedly infringe will be terminated.

You can stop using the Service at any time. To delete your account and personal data, email [email protected] from the address on your account.

We may suspend or terminate your account, or remove Content, if you breach these Terms or the Community Guidelines, if required by law, or to protect the Service or other members. Where reasonable we will tell you why. If you believe we got it wrong, you can appeal by emailing [email protected].

Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including licences already granted, payment obligations, disclaimers and limitations of liability) will continue to apply.

The Service links to products, websites and ads run by others, and relies on third-party providers such as Google for sign-in and Dodo Payments for checkout. We do not control and are not responsible for third-party products, content or terms. Trying a product listed on Builtbyindies is at your own risk; a listing, ranking, badge or award is not our endorsement.

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind, including that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that a launch, ad or listing will achieve any particular number of visitors, upvotes, sales, backlinks or search ranking.

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data or goodwill, arising from your use of or inability to use the Service. Our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or US$50. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

You agree to cover us against claims, losses and reasonable costs (including legal fees) arising from your Content, your products, or your breach of these Terms or the law.

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. The courts of Kerala, India have jurisdiction over any dispute, unless the law of the country where you live as a consumer gives you the right to bring a claim there. Before starting a formal claim, please contact us so we can try to resolve it informally.

We may update these Terms as the Service changes. The date at the top shows when they were last updated. If a change is material, we will give notice on the site or by email before it takes effect. If you keep using the Service after the changes take effect, you accept the updated Terms. If any part of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.

Questions about these Terms? Email us at [email protected].