Terms of Service

These terms are an agreement between you and Ron Goldin (“onward/upward,” “we,” “us”), which operates onwardupward.io. By creating an account or using the site, you agree to these terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, don't use onward/upward.

• You must be at least 18 and able to form a binding contract.
• You sign in with a Google account and are responsible for keeping it secure.
• You may have one account, and the information you provide must be accurate and about you.
• If you use onward/upward on behalf of a company, you confirm you're authorized to accept these terms for it.

onward/upward is a curated network. We review new members and coach listings and may approve, decline or later remove any account or listing at our discretion, including when we believe these terms have been broken. Some features are available only after approval.

You own what you add to onward/upward: your profile, résumé, portfolio images, coach listing, requests and reviews (“your content”). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, copy, display, format and share your content to operate, promote and improve onward/upward: for example, showing your profile to members, sending your request to a coach, creating summaries and matches, and displaying your share link or coach page. This license ends when your content is deleted, except for copies already shared with others or kept in backups for a limited time.

You're responsible for your content and confirm that:

• It's accurate and doesn't misrepresent your experience, credentials or results.
• You have the right to share it, including portfolio work that may be covered by client or employer confidentiality.
• People you list as references have agreed to be listed.
• It doesn't violate anyone's rights or the law.

onward/upward uses AI to read your links and résumé, fill in your profile, summarize profiles and recommend coaches. AI output can be incomplete or wrong. Review anything added to your profile before relying on it, since you're responsible for your profile once it's saved. Recommendations and “top match” labels are suggestions, not endorsements or guarantees.

Coaches on onward/upward are independent. They aren't our employees, agents or partners, and we don't supervise their coaching. We may review listings, but we don't verify every credential or claim and don't guarantee any coach's availability, quality or results.

Scheduling, pricing, payment, cancellations and the coaching itself are agreed directly between members and coaches. onward/upward isn't a party to those arrangements and isn't responsible for them. Use your own judgment before booking.

If you coach on onward/upward, you also agree to:

• Keep your listing accurate, including pricing, credentials and how to book you
• Respond to requests professionally, or not at all, without harassment or pressure
• Use information you receive from members, including their email address and profile summary, only to respond about coaching them
• Follow the laws and professional obligations that apply to your coaching

Some coach listings are created from publicly available information before the coach joins. If a listing is about you, you can claim it by signing up and verifying it's yours, or ask us to change or remove it by emailing hello@onwardupward.io. Claiming a listing that isn't yours is not allowed.

Reviews must reflect your own, genuine experience with a coach. Don't review yourself, someone you have a close personal or financial relationship with, or a coach you haven't worked with, and don't offer or accept anything in exchange for a review. Reviews show your name and photo publicly. We may remove reviews that break these terms, but we don't edit what they say.

Don't:

• Impersonate anyone or create fake or duplicate accounts
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against or spam other people
• Scrape, bulk-download or copy member profiles or coach listings, by automated means or otherwise
• Get around limits, approval, access controls or security measures, or probe for vulnerabilities
• Upload malware or anything that interferes with the service
• Use onward/upward for anything illegal, deceptive or infringing

Profiles, share links and résumés are shared so people can connect on onward/upward. Don't copy, sell, publish or reuse other members' information outside the platform, add them to mailing or recruiting lists without their consent, or share their résumés or portfolio passwords.

onward/upward is free during the beta. We may introduce paid features, such as supporter or hiring plans, later. We'll show the price and any additional terms before you're charged, and won't start charging for something you already use without telling you first.

onward/upward's name, logo, design, software and content (other than your content) belong to us or our licensors, and these terms don't give you any right to use them beyond using the service. If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them without any obligation to you.

onward/upward links to sites we don't control, such as portfolios, booking pages, newsletters and LinkedIn. We aren't responsible for their content or practices. Sign-in, hosting, email and AI features rely on third-party providers described in our Privacy Policy.

You can stop using onward/upward at any time and ask us to delete your account by emailing hello@onwardupward.io. We may suspend, remove or archive your account or listing, or limit features, if you break these terms, if we're required to by law, or to protect members or the service. We may also change or discontinue features. Sections that by their nature should continue after your account ends (such as content licenses already used, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and disputes) will continue.

onward/upward is in beta and is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent allowed by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. We don't promise the service will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, or that any member, coach, match, content or career outcome will meet your expectations. Nothing on onward/upward is professional, legal, financial or medical advice.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, we won't be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data, opportunities or goodwill, arising from your use of onward/upward or from interactions with other members or coaches. Our total liability for any claim related to onward/upward is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Some places don't allow these limits, so they may not apply to you.

You agree to defend and compensate us for claims, losses and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your content, your use of onward/upward, your dealings with other members or coaches, or your breach of these terms or the law.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Before filing a claim, you agree to email us and try to resolve the dispute informally for 30 days. Any claim that isn't resolved will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Kings County, New York, and you and we consent to their jurisdiction. Nothing here limits rights you have under the consumer protection laws of the place you live.

We may update these terms. We'll change the date at the top, and for significant changes we'll notify you by email or on the site before they take effect. Continuing to use onward/upward after changes take effect means you accept them.

Ron Goldin
Brooklyn, New York
hello@onwardupward.io