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Terms of service

Version terms-2026-10-v18 · Last updated October 14, 2026

Current version: terms-2026-10-v34

Document version Previous · terms-2026-10-v18
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1. Who we are. Fund2Build (fund2build.com) is run by Fund2Build LLC, a limited liability company in Washington State, USA. "We" and "us" mean Fund2Build LLC. Since October 2026, Fund2Build LLC runs Fund2Build in place of Matthew Lerman, who ran it as a sole proprietor until then. Your balance, pledges, project funds and hosting agreements continue with Fund2Build LLC on the terms they were made under. You can reach us at help@mail.fund2build.com, or with the "Report a problem" link at the bottom of every page.

2. What these terms cover. These terms apply whenever you use Fund2Build: looking around, signing in, writing or sharing a project, chatting, making demos, buying a build or hosting, or backing a project. Some things also have their own agreement that you accept at the time: a build quote, the hosting terms for an app, the backing rules a creator agrees to, and the agreement you tick when you pledge. If one of those says something different from these terms, that agreement wins for that thing. Our Privacy notice explains what we do with your information.

3. A small pilot. Fund2Build is new and run by a very small team. Features may change, pause or stop. We'll tell you before a change affects money you've already paid or pledged.

4. Who can use Fund2Build. You must be 18 or older and live in the United States. You sign in with your email address, so keep your email and any password you set safe: anyone who can open your sign-in emails can use your account. One person per account. Builders join by invitation during the pilot.

5. What we sell. Prices are in US dollars.

  • Prepaid balance. You add money to your balance with a card, $5 to $500 at a time. The card company's fee (2.9% plus 30¢) comes out of each top-up at cost, Fund2Build keeps 5%, and the rest goes into your balance; you see all three before you pay. Your balance holds up to $2,000 at a time. Any sales tax is added on top and shown before you pay. It pays for chats and demos on your projects, and can pay for builds. New hosting is charged to a card instead (for a backed app, from the project's fund first); a hosting agreement keeps the payment terms it was approved with. We never top it up automatically, and it doesn't expire. If you'd like what's left in your balance back, ask us and we'll refund it to the card it came from.
  • Chats and demos. Each reply or demo costs what it costs us to make, never more than $1. We show what each one cost. Replies and demos are written by AI and can be wrong. If one fails, you aren't charged.
  • Backed demos. A creator can ask backers to pay for a demo. Cards are charged once, when the demo is ready and shown on the project page. We charge what the demo cost us to make; the card fees come out and Fund2Build keeps 5%, as in section 6; the rest goes into the project's fund.
  • Versions. Each version of an app is written with its checks before anyone pledges, and is paid for by its own pot, as in section 6. Writing it costs what it costs us, and that cost comes out of the pot only once the version is paid for.
  • Build rounds (before version pots). You set a build amount for your app, from $100 to $5,000, and we agree a plan with a list of checks it must pass. You're charged only what the build's tries cost us, at our providers' list prices, never more than your build amount, and only if the app passes every check. Your build amount covers up to 3 tries, and any extra try we make to get it passing; every try counts toward the cost. When you approve the quote, your build amount is set aside from your balance, and whatever the build doesn't use stays in your balance; for a backed project, backers pay as in section 6 and the rest goes into the project's fund. If the app doesn't pass, the money is released and we pay what the tries cost. Some builds are download only; the quote says so.
  • Hosting. We keep an app online for $10 for each 30-day period while it holds up to 50 MB of information, $15 up to 150 MB and $25 up to 250 MB, unless its hosting offer shows other prices. A new price starts only at a renewal, after the email 7 days before. The creator approves an app's hosting before it goes online and saves a card for it with our payment company, Stripe; nothing is charged at that moment. Each 30 days is charged to that card, plus any sales tax, starting when the app is confirmed running. For a backed app, the project's fund pays each 30 days while it holds at least a full period's price; after that, the creator's card pays, as the creator agreed when approving hosting. Money in the fund that is less than a full period's price stays in the fund. Each app's hosting terms explain the email 7 days before each renewal (saying whether the fund or the card will pay), the 7 days of grace if a renewal can't be paid, suspension, and keeping the app's data for 30 days after hosting stops. If we ever stop hosting apps, we'll give at least 30 days' notice so creators can download their data and code.
  • Sales tax. Where sales tax applies, it's added on top of each top-up, worked out from your billing address and shown before you pay. What you then spend from your balance adds no further tax. Where sales tax applies to hosting, it's added on top of each hosting charge to your card, worked out from the card's billing address. A backing round's build amount marked "tax included" already includes any sales tax we have to collect.

6. Backing a project.

  • Anyone 18 or older in the United States can back a shared project once its creator opens backing. Pledges start at $5, with no upper limit. We keep your billing state and ZIP code for sales tax records.
  • Versions and pots. Pledging to a version's pot is a pre-order from Fund2Build. Your card is saved when you pledge and charged once, only after the version's work passes its checks; the pot's agreement says when pledges lock and when a pot closes. Fund2Build builds each version, itself or through builders it hires as its contractors (our builders call that work a "job"), and is responsible to you for it; backers never pay a builder. Of each charged pledge, the card company's fee comes out at cost and Fund2Build keeps 5%; the cost of writing and building the version comes next; the rest goes into the project's fund. If some cards can't be charged within 14 days after the work passes, the app is still delivered and nobody is refunded for the shortfall; what was collected pays for the work first, and the project's fund gets what's left, if anything. For a version's pot, this bullet replaces the build-round lines below.
  • Build rounds (before version pots), and demo goals.
  • A project's goal is the build amount its creator sets plus its first 30 days online.
  • Your card is saved with our payment company, Stripe, when you pledge. Nothing is charged then. It's charged once, for your pledge as you last set it, only after the app is built and passes its checks within 14 days of the build starting. We charge it without asking you again. If the app doesn't pass in time, nothing is charged.
  • Until the build starts, you can change or cancel your pledge. When the project is fully backed, backers get a day's notice by email; then the build starts and pledges are locked. If a build try fails, you can still cancel while we decide whether to try again.
  • A pledge ends after 30 days if the build hasn't started. Changing it starts the 30 days again.
  • If some backers' cards can't be charged, they get an email and 14 days to add another card. The app is released as soon as the money collected covers the build amount. If it still doesn't after those 14 days, the app isn't released and everyone who was charged gets all their money back.
  • We charge only what the build costs us. The rest of the build amount, and money beyond the goal, goes into the project's fund.
  • A demo goal works the same way, with these differences: the goal is $10; there is no day's notice: pledges lock when the demo starts, as soon as pledges reach the goal; your card is charged when the demo is ready and shown on the project page, not when the app passes; if the demo isn't ready within 14 days of being started, nothing is charged; and the demo stays up once it's shown, even if another backer's card can't be charged.
  • The project's fund is money paid to Fund2Build in advance for that project's hosting and later versions. The fund pays for keeping the app online first, then later builds and changes. It is never paid out as cash, to the creator or anyone else. If the app is deleted for good (after its 30-day keep period), or the project ends or its fund sits unused for 12 months without the app ever going online, what's left is refunded to the backers of the round or pot it came from, in proportion to what each paid. A suspension or a grace period doesn't count. The fund doesn't expire, earns no interest, has no fee, and never moves to another project or person.
  • Backing pays for this project's app to be built and kept online. It isn't an investment, a loan, a donation to the creator or a purchase of any share in the project or the app, and it gives you no ownership or profit.
  • When a round is funded, we keep 5% of each charged pledge, and the card company's fee for each charge (2.9% plus 30¢) comes out of it too; the pledge form shows both. A round that isn't funded charges nobody and we keep nothing. A build is charged at what it costs us.
  • A creator who opens backing agrees to the backing rules shown at the time, and their project then stays shared.

7. Refunds.

  • Chats and demos: a failed one isn't charged; a finished one is final.
  • Builds: you're charged only after a pass. After that a build isn't refunded, except where we decide, case by case, that a refund is fair.
  • Hosting: you can cancel at any time. The app runs to the end of the paid period, and the current period (and any sales tax charged with it) isn't refunded. Once you stop hosting, your card isn't charged for it again.
  • Your balance: if you'd like what's left in your balance back, ask us and we'll refund it to the card it came from, with the sales tax you paid on it. The card fee came out and Fund2Build kept 5% when you added the money, so they aren't part of it.
  • Backing: nothing is charged unless the app passes (or, for a demo goal, the demo is shown); the shortfall rule and the fund rules in section 6 say when backers get money back. Otherwise a charged pledge isn't refunded, except where we decide, case by case, that a refund is fair. We pay a case-by-case refund ourselves, so the project's fund isn't touched; that backer's share of any later refund from the fund goes down by what they already got back, so nobody gets back more than they paid. If that means part of the fund can't go back to anyone, we keep that part and record it.
  • Backing a demo: nothing is charged unless the demo is shown; a shown demo isn't refunded, except where we decide, case by case, that a refund is fair.
  • If we charge you by mistake, we refund it.
  • Refunds go back to the card that paid and are never reduced by card fees. A refund of what's left in a project's fund doesn't include the card fees and the 5% Fund2Build kept when the round was funded.
  • To ask for a refund, email help@mail.fund2build.com, or use "Report a problem" while signed in, and tell us which payment. We reply by email.

8. If something goes wrong with a payment. Please tell us first: most problems can be put right quickly. If you dispute a charge with your card company instead, we'll show them what you agreed to and our records of the charge (for a pledge, the agreement you ticked and the app's check results). If a top-up is disputed, the balance it added is taken out of your balance while the dispute is decided, and put back if it's decided in your favour.

9. What you write. You own what you write: ideas, answers, project pages, comments and chat messages. You let us store it; show it where you choose (a shared project page is public, a link-only page is visible to anyone with its link, drafts and chats are private); keep backup copies; and send it to the service providers named in our Privacy notice so Fund2Build works (for example, to write chat replies, make demos and build apps). This permission ends when it's deleted, except for backup copies (up to 30 days) and what other people already saw or copied from a public page. Don't post anything you don't have the right to share, other people's private information, or anything illegal, threatening or hateful. We may hide or remove content or projects that break these terms, and we'll tell you if we do.

10. Apps we build. An app is built to its agreed plan and checked against its agreed list. Those checks are what we promise; we don't promise an app has no other faults or suits every use. Once a shared project has a working version, its code will be free for anyone to read and download, as the sharing agreement says; the terms for reusing it come with the code. A creator can always download their own accepted build's code. You're responsible for how you and your app's users use it and the data put into it, including having permission to store other people's details. Don't store payment cards, health information or government ID numbers in a hosted app.

11. Fair use. Don't use Fund2Build to break the law. Don't try to get into accounts or systems that aren't yours, overload or copy the site in bulk, or get around spending limits, the free first message or invitations, including by using more than one account. Don't make apps meant to harm, deceive or track people without their permission. We may suspend or close an account that does these things. If we close an account for any other reason, we'll refund what's left in its balance. If a card payment made from an account is reported as fraud, or the account shares a card or email address with one where that happened, we may pause it straight away. While it's paused it can't chat, pledge, top up or spend its balance, open a pot, or claim or hand in work, and no card is charged for its pots or pledges; its pots that no work has passed yet close with nobody charged; and its apps go offline, with a copy of their data kept for 30 days but not downloadable while it's paused. Once any disputes about its payments are settled, what's left in its balance is refunded on request. Tell us if you think we've got it wrong.

12. No guarantees, and limits. We work hard to keep Fund2Build running and your information safe, but we provide it as it is, without promising it will always be available or free of errors, except for the specific promises in these terms and your agreements (such as charging only after the checks pass). As far as the law allows, we aren't responsible for indirect losses such as lost profits or lost data, and our total responsibility to you for any claim is limited to the larger of what you paid us in the 12 months before it and $100. Nothing here takes away rights the law says can't be taken away.

13. Changes to these terms. We may update these terms. The version and date are at the top of this page, and we keep every earlier version. For an important change we'll put a notice on the site or email you before it applies. A change never alters what you already agreed to for a pledge, a build quote or a hosting period you've paid for: those keep the terms they were made under.

14. Leaving. You can stop using Fund2Build at any time and ask us to close your account (our Privacy notice explains what is deleted and what must be kept). Closing an account cancels its pledges that aren't locked yet; a locked pledge stays until its build is settled. What these terms say about payments, refunds, backups, limits and disputes still applies afterwards.

15. Disputes and the law. The laws of Washington State apply. If we can't settle a disagreement by talking it through, it goes to the state or federal courts for Kittitas County, Washington, or to small claims court where you live if it qualifies.

17. Contact. Fund2Build LLC, 100 E. 3rd Ave. PO Box #305, Ellensburg, WA 98926, USA. Email help@mail.fund2build.com, or use "Report a problem" at the bottom of any page.

Read the privacy notice