Section 01
Who this applies to
Worth knowing
This Agreement governs your relationship with Originn as a listed startup, separate from the User Terms that govern visitors and backers.
This Founder Agreement applies to any startup that submits an application to be listed on Originn, and to any startup whose application has been approved and is live on the Platform.
If you accept this Agreement on behalf of a startup, you confirm that you are authorised to bind that entity. Where this Agreement says "you" or "your", it refers to the startup; where it says "we" or "Originn", it refers to Originn Tech.
If you do not agree with any part of this Agreement, do not submit an application. If you withdraw consent after acceptance, your listing will be removed in line with Section 06.
Section 02
Your obligations
Accurate disclosures
You will provide accurate, complete, and current information at application time and throughout the period your listing is live. This includes team composition, product status, traction figures, legal standing, and any material disputes.
Notify us of material changes
You will tell us within seven business days when any material fact in your profile changes, for example, a founder departure, a pivot away from the listed product, a legal proceeding involving the entity, or a fundraising round that changes your stated stage.
Campaign delivery
If you run a pre-order campaign, you will deliver the product to backers in line with the timeline you published. Where you cannot, you will use the in-product update mechanism to inform backers honestly and promptly.
Lawful conduct
You will use the Platform only for lawful purposes. You will not impersonate other founders, fabricate verification artefacts, run a campaign for a product you cannot deliver, or use the Platform to circumvent applicable law.
Respect for the community
You will treat backers, collaborators, applicants to roles you post, and other founders with respect. Harassment, hate speech, or retaliatory behaviour through any Platform surface (profile updates, messages, Q&A, job posts) is grounds for removal.
Section 03
Using the collaboration and hiring features
Worth knowing
Candidates trust Originn because Originn trusts you. The rules below are non-negotiable for any startup posting a job, a collaboration, or otherwise engaging talent through the Platform.
Bona-fide roles only
You will only post roles or collaborations where you have a current, real intent to engage someone. The Platform is not a place to pipeline résumés, run market research, or test demand for a hire you have not yet decided to make.
Honest description of the role
The role title, scope of work, compensation range (or "unpaid / equity-only" where that is the case), work mode, and expected duration as posted must match what the candidate is offered. If the role changes after posting, update the listing before any further candidate is engaged.
No discrimination
You will not filter, reject, or differently treat candidates on the basis of caste, religion, gender, gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, ethnicity, national origin, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. "Freshers only", "male candidates", or college-name shortcuts that exclude qualified candidates are not permitted.
Respond to candidates within seven business days
Once you shortlist a candidate or open a conversation, you will reply, decline, or move them forward within seven business days. Conversations left without a response after that window are auto-archived, and an aggregate response-rate signal is shown on your public Originn profile. We do not penalise normal hiring pace; we do penalise ghosting.
No off-platform redirection before first contact
You will not push candidates to email, WhatsApp, external forms, or third-party assessment tools to bypass the Platform during the first conversation. Once you are actively interviewing a candidate, normal off-platform follow-up (calendar invites, video calls, take-home briefs) is fine.
Confirm hires within fourteen days
If you hire or formally engage a candidate you first met through Originn, whether as an employee, contractor, founding-team member, or paid collaborator, mark the hire in your dashboard within fourteen days. We use this signal to improve match quality for every other startup on the Platform. There is no per-hire fee for this disclosure (see below).
No surprise fees
Originn does not charge an anti-circumvention or buyout fee on hires made through the Platform. You are free to engage anyone you meet on Originn on whatever terms you and they agree, and you may continue that relationship off-platform at any time. Where any feature on the Platform does carry a fee (premium placement, sponsored visibility), the current pricing is published on the Fees & Pricing page and forms part of these Terms.
When we step in
Violations of this Section are grounds for the same suspension and removal process described in Section 06, beginning with a 7-day notice for non-urgent matters and immediate suspension where a candidate is at risk (active discrimination, harassment, or repeated ghosting reported by multiple candidates).
Section 04
Originn's obligations to you
A fair listing process
We will review your application on the criteria published on our Evaluation Criteria page. We will tell you the outcome within 5–7 business days, and where the outcome is a rejection or a request for changes, we will tell you specifically what to address.
A working Platform
We will keep the Platform available, and where it is not, we will tell you. For planned maintenance that affects founder workflows, we will give you advance notice.
Honest representation
We will not misrepresent your startup to backers. The information we surface on your profile comes from what you submit, plus a small set of derived signals (verification status, campaign progress, engagement counts) that are transparent and the same for every startup.
Data protection
We will handle your data in line with our Privacy Policy and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Founder data is separated from end-user data and is not exposed publicly except where you have explicitly opted to share it.
Payouts
Where you raise working capital through a pre-order campaign, we will release funds on the schedule disclosed in our Payout Terms, subject to milestone verification. We will not hold funds beyond the schedule for reasons not disclosed there.
Section 05
Verification and ongoing checks
Worth knowing
Verification is continuous, it does not end the day your listing goes live.
When you apply, we run a review across your team, product, legal standing, and market. We may ask you to share supporting evidence (incorporation documents, founder identification, demo recordings, customer references). You will respond within ten business days; longer delays will move your application to a holding state.
After your listing is live, we may periodically re-check the facts you submitted at application time. Re-checks are typically light-touch (re-confirming team composition, status of the product, no material legal change) and do not interrupt your operations on the Platform.
For pre-order campaigns, we run a second-stage review before the campaign goes live. This covers your delivery plan, your milestones, and your refund process. We may decline to host a campaign even when your listing is approved.
- You will cooperate with reasonable verification requests
- You will not fabricate evidence or backdated documents
- You will tell us when a previously-verified fact has changed
- You will not share verification artefacts (badges, scores) in misleading contexts off-Platform
Section 06
Suspension and removal
What we may suspend or remove
We may suspend specific features (campaign launches, hiring posts, collaboration inbox) or remove your listing entirely if we have reasonable grounds to believe the obligations in Section 02 or Section 03 have been breached. We will tell you what we are doing and why.
Notice and right to respond
For non-urgent matters, we will give you seven business days to respond before any removal takes effect. For urgent matters that put backers at risk (a campaign with no evidence of progress, suspected fraud, threats of harm), we may suspend immediately and review within seven business days.
Voluntary departure
You can request removal of your listing at any time. Active pre-order campaigns must be wound down per the Refund Policy before your listing is removed. Your historical data is retained in line with the Privacy Policy.
After removal
After a listing is removed, the obligations in this Agreement that by their nature should continue (accurate-disclosure obligations for the time you were listed, payout obligations for any campaigns that ran, confidentiality of non-public information shared during your tenure) continue to apply.
Section 07
Limitation of liability
Originn provides the Platform on an 'as is' basis. We do not warrant that the Platform will be free of every defect or that it will be available without interruption. We do warrant that we will operate the Platform honestly and in line with the obligations in Section 04.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, Originn's aggregate liability to any startup under this Agreement is limited to the total fees that startup has paid Originn in the twelve months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
Nothing in this Agreement excludes liability for fraud, wilful misconduct, or any liability that cannot be excluded under applicable law.
Originn is not responsible for disputes between you and your backers, between you and your hires, or between you and other founders. We provide tools to help these relationships work; we are not a party to them.
Section 08
Governing law and disputes
This Agreement is governed by the laws of India. Originn Tech operates out of and is pre-incubated at Nirmaan, IIT Madras (Chennai, Tamil Nadu). Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this Agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Before escalating to a court, both sides will make a good-faith attempt to resolve disputes by direct discussion. Reach us at contact@originn.co.in for any concern under this Agreement; we will engage within five business days.
We may update this Agreement from time to time. Where an update materially affects your obligations or your rights, we will give you thirty days notice before it takes effect, and we will tell you how to withdraw your listing if you do not wish to accept the change.
For questions about this Agreement specifically, write to contact@originn.co.in. We will respond within two business days.