Terms of Service

1. What Ecogru is

Ecogru is a collaboration workspace for ideas in any industry. Members post ideas, form a team around each one, and build together in a shared workspace with chat, tasks, files, video huddles and planned ownership records. Everyone signs a mutual NDA before they see an idea's private details.

Ecogru is software. It is not an employer, a recruiter or a staffing agency, and it does not arrange employment or pay anyone for work. It is not an investment platform, and nothing on Ecogru is an offer to buy or sell shares or any other security. Ecogru records agreements but doesn't register or create companies, issue shares, or give legal or tax advice. Any arrangement between members of a team is between those members, not with Ecogru.

By creating an account and using Ecogru, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree with something here, please don't use Ecogru, and get in touch using the contact details at the bottom of this page.

2. Your responsibilities

Whether you post an idea or join one, using Ecogru comes with a few basic responsibilities:

• Tell the truth. The information in your profile — your name, skills, experience, business details, and any documents you upload — must be accurate and belong to you.
• Keep your account secure. Don't share your password, and let us know immediately if you think someone else has accessed your account.
• Use Ecogru for its purpose. The platform is for real ideas and real teams, not for spam, scams, advertising unrelated products, or collecting people's information for anything outside of Ecogru.
• Respect other people's time. If you invite someone to a workspace, or accept an invite, follow through. If plans change, say so. Don't just go silent.
• Follow the law. You're responsible for making sure your use of Ecogru, and any agreements you make with people you meet here, follow the laws that apply to you.

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account on Ecogru.

3. Professional conduct rules

Ecogru works because people trust each other on it. To protect that trust, everyone using the platform agrees to:

• Communicate honestly and respectfully, even when disagreements come up.
• Deliver what you say you'll deliver, and communicate early if something is going to be late or different from what was agreed.
• Never ask anyone for money, passwords or ID documents, and never send them to anyone you meet on Ecogru.
• Never harass, threaten, discriminate against, or abuse anyone on the platform, in a workspace, or in a huddle/call.
• Never misrepresent your identity, your skills, your company, or your intentions.
• Keep workspace conversations, files, and information confidential unless you both agree otherwise.

Teammates can confirm each other's skills after working together. Confirm only what you saw yourself, fairly and factually: these confirmations help people decide who to build with.

4. The 3-strike system

Ecogru uses a simple, transparent 3-strike system to deal with behaviour that breaks the rules in section 3. We'd rather give people a chance to correct course than punish first — but repeated problems do have consequences.

• Strike 1 — Warning. You'll get a clear message explaining what happened and what needs to change. Most people never get a second strike.
• Strike 2 — Temporary restriction. Your account may be limited for a while (for example, paused from messaging or joining new workspaces) while we review what happened.
• Strike 3 — Account suspension. A third confirmed strike results in your account being suspended from Ecogru. In serious cases — fraud, harassment, abuse, or anything illegal — we can suspend an account immediately, without needing to go through all three strikes first.

Strikes are only issued after we've looked into what happened. If you receive a strike and believe it was a mistake, you can appeal it — see the "Dispute resolution" section below for how.

5. Subscription terms

Ecogru has one optional monthly plan. Prices are in US dollars; tax is added where the law requires it.

• Joining an idea is free. Always.
• Pro, $25 a month per account. Keeps the collaboration workspace (chat, tasks, files, video huddles and planned ownership records) open for every idea you own, with as many active ideas as you need. It renews monthly until you cancel.
• The Trusted badge can't be bought. It comes from a confirmed email and one of your profiles linked.
• 14 days free. Every idea you post gets 14 days free in its workspace, counted from the moment it's posted. No card is needed. After that, the idea's workspace may be locked until the owner has Pro or the team records a planned ownership every member accepts. A locked workspace is hidden, never deleted.
• Renewal and cancelling. Plans renew every month until you cancel. You can cancel any time in Account settings (one click and a confirmation); you keep the plan until the end of the month you've paid for.
• Failed payments. If a payment fails, we tell you by email and in Ecogru, and everything keeps working for 7 days while the card is tried again. If it still fails, the ideas you own lock until the payment goes through or the plan is restarted. Nothing is deleted.
• Price changes. We'll tell you before a new price applies to your next renewal.

6. Payment and refund policy

• Who you pay. Our order process is conducted by our online reseller Paddle.com. Paddle.com is the Merchant of Record for all our orders. Paddle provides all customer service inquiries and handles returns, and its buyer terms apply to your purchase.
• Refunds. See our Refund Policy.
• No payments between members. Ecogru doesn't take or pass on payments between members, and charges no fee on anyone's work.
• No hidden fees. The plan prices above are all Ecogru charges.

7. Protecting work in your workspace

Work created inside an Ecogru workspace (documents, designs, code, ideas, and files shared in chat) belongs to whoever created it or whoever it was agreed to belong to, based on what you and your team agreed. Ecogru does not claim ownership over anything you create, share, or discuss in a workspace.

• Workspace conversations and files are private to the members of that workspace. We don't read, share, or use them for anything other than providing the service and keeping the platform safe.
• A team can write down who will own what in a planned ownership agreement every member accepts, and download a company pack once its checklist is complete. It's a record, not legal advice: get a lawyer to make it binding.
• Ecogru records agreements (NDAs, roles and planned ownership) but doesn't create companies, issue shares, or give legal or tax advice. Turning a planned ownership into real shares is done outside Ecogru, by the people involved and their advisers.
• Don't share confidential workspace information — ideas, code, business plans — outside of the workspace without permission from the other members.
• The Ecogru platform itself (its design, logo, name, and code) belongs to Ecogru. Using Ecogru doesn't give you rights to any of that.

8. Account termination

You can close your Ecogru account at any time from your account settings. If you'd like help doing this, or want your data removed as well, contact us and we'll take care of it — see our Privacy Policy for how we handle data deletion.

We may suspend or close an account if:

• It reaches strike 3 under our conduct system, or commits a serious violation that skips straight to suspension.
• We find false information, fraud, or impersonation on the account.
• An account has been inactive for a very long period and we need to archive it — we'll always try to notify you first if this is the case.
• We're required to by law.

If your account is closed, any active workspaces you're part of will be affected, so we recommend wrapping up open work and downloading anything you need before closing your account voluntarily.

9. Dispute resolution

Disagreements happen, and most of them can be solved with a simple conversation. Here's how we handle them, from smallest to largest:

• Between you and another user. If there's a disagreement with someone you're working with, we encourage you to first try to resolve it directly and honestly through your workspace chat. Most issues get solved this way.
• Ecogru support. If you can't reach an agreement, or something has happened that breaks these terms, contact Ecogru support using the details below. We'll review the situation — including workspace records, messages, and any strikes involved — and help mediate a fair outcome.
• Appeals. If you disagree with a decision Ecogru has made about your account (like a strike or suspension), you can appeal by contacting us and explaining why. We'll take a fresh look and respond with our final decision.
• Formal disputes. If a disagreement can't be resolved through the steps above, either side may pursue it through mediation or the appropriate legal process in either person's home country, depending on the nature of the dispute.

We built this system to be fair and transparent, not to punish people unnecessarily. If something ever feels unclear or unfair, talk to us — we'd rather sort it out with you than leave you guessing.

Questions about these terms?

Reach out any time at legal@ecogru.com. We keep our answers as plain and direct as this document.

Related reading: our Privacy Policy explains what data we collect and how we protect it.