Terms and conditions

1. About us and these terms

1.1 These terms are between you and FFounders Group Limited, trading as Future Founders, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17427573). Our registered office is 15 Tallents Crescent, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 5BP. You can contact us at hello@futurefounders.uk.

1.2 These terms apply to everything you buy from us: courses and individual course sessions through Future Academy, and project work under our Build, Improve and Scale routes. They also cover your use of this website. Please read them before you book or sign a proposal.

1.3 Consumers and business customers. Some terms apply differently depending on who you are:

• You are a consumer if you are an individual buying mainly for yourself, outside your trade, business or profession.
• You are a business customer if you are buying for a business, organisation or employer, including a sole trader buying for their trade.

Where a term applies to only one of these, it says so. Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.

1.4 If a written proposal or order form we give you conflicts with these terms, the proposal or order form wins for that point.

2. How a contract is made

2.1 Courses. Your booking is an offer to buy. The contract is made when we send you a booking confirmation by email. If we cannot accept your booking, for example because the course is full, we will tell you and will not charge you, or we will refund you in full within 14 days.

2.2 Projects. The contract is made when you sign or accept our written proposal by email, or when you pay the deposit, whichever comes first.

2.3 These terms and any proposal are the whole agreement between us. Please keep a copy. Our contracts are available in English only.

3. Using our website

3.1 You may use this website for your own information and to buy from us. You must not misuse it: for example by copying content in bulk, introducing viruses, trying to gain unauthorised access, or using automated tools to collect data from it.

3.2 The content on this website is general information, not advice for your situation. We keep it accurate and up to date, but we do not promise it is complete or free of errors. Examples and figures are illustrative unless we say otherwise.

3.3 We may change, suspend or withdraw the website, or any part of it, at any time. Links to other websites are for your convenience, and we are not responsible for their content.

3.4 How we handle your personal data is explained in our privacy policy, and our use of cookies in our cookie policy.

3.5 Copying website content. You may print or download individual pages for your own personal use, keeping any copyright notices. You must not copy, change or use website content, images or graphics for any commercial purpose, or separately from the text around them, without our written permission. If you do, your right to use the site ends, and you must destroy any copies you have made.

3.6 Security. We take reasonable care to keep the site secure, but we cannot promise it will always be available, or free of bugs or viruses. Please use up-to-date security software. We are not responsible for loss caused by a virus, denial-of-service attack or other harmful material, unless it was caused by our failure to take reasonable care.

3.7 Misuse is a crime. Introducing viruses, trying to gain unauthorised access to the site or its servers, or attacking it, may be a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such misuse to the authorities and share your identity with them. Your right to use the site will end immediately.

3.8 Linking to our site. You may link to our home page, as long as you do so fairly and legally, and do not suggest any association with or endorsement by us that does not exist.

3.9 Spotted a mistake? If anything on the site does not look right, please email hello@futurefounders.uk, and we will correct it.

3.10 Customers outside the UK. We welcome learners and clients from other countries. Our prices are in pounds sterling, and you are responsible for any bank charges, currency conversion or local taxes on your side. If you are a consumer, you may also have rights under the law of the country where you live.

4. Our services and how we deliver them

4.1 We provide our services with reasonable care and skill, as described on our website and in your booking confirmation or proposal.

4.2 Our delivery team. We deliver our courses and projects through our own team and through tutors and specialist partners we choose, some of them based outside the UK. Future Founders is your contracting party throughout. We set the method and standards, manage the work, and remain responsible to you for what is delivered. You deal with us, not with our partners, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

4.3 We may change which tutor or partner delivers any part of a service, as long as the replacement is suitably qualified and the change does not materially reduce what you receive.

4.4 No guaranteed outcomes. We help you learn, decide and build, but results depend on many things outside our control, including your own effort, your market, your customers, and the decisions you make. We do not promise that a course will lead to a job or income, or that a business idea will succeed. Nor do we promise that a project will achieve any particular saving, revenue or growth, unless we have agreed a specific measure in writing. Figures on our website and in proposals are estimates or examples.

4.5 Our honest advice. Sometimes the most useful thing we can tell you is that an idea should not be built, or a change is not worth making. Advice of that kind is part of the service, not a failure to deliver it.

4.6 We may make reasonable changes to how a service is delivered, for example to reflect changes in the law, technology or the tools we use. If a change would significantly affect you, we will tell you in advance, and, if you are a consumer, you may cancel and receive a refund for any part not yet delivered.

5. Prices and payment

5.1 Prices are shown on our website, booking page or proposal. Prices for consumers include VAT where it applies. Prices for business customers are shown excluding VAT, which is added where it applies.

5.2 If we make an obvious pricing error, we will tell you and give you the choice of paying the correct price or cancelling for a full refund. We do not have to supply at the wrong price.

5.3 Courses are paid in full when you book, unless we offer a payment plan. A place is not confirmed until payment is received, and we may refuse entry to a session that has not been paid for.

5.4 Projects are paid as set out in the proposal. Unless the proposal says otherwise:

• a deposit of 30% of the project or stage price is due when you accept the proposal, and work starts once it is received;
• the rest is invoiced in stages as each stage is delivered, or monthly for ongoing work;
• partner, licence or third-party costs we pay on your behalf are invoiced when we commit to them, and may be payable in advance.

5.5 Invoices are due within 14 days of the invoice date, by bank transfer or the payment link on the invoice.

5.6 Late payment. If a business customer pays late, we may charge interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998: interest at 8% a year above the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed sum for recovery costs. If a consumer pays late, we may charge interest at 4% a year above the Bank of England base rate.

5.7 If payment is overdue, we may pause work, withhold course access or deliverables, and not start further stages until it is paid. We will give you at least 7 days' written notice first. Pausing does not change any deadline for paying us.

5.8 Business customers must pay in full without deducting or setting off any amount, unless we agree in writing.

5.9 Failed or reversed payments (business customers). If a payment from a business customer fails, or is reversed without good reason, we may charge £25 to cover bank and administration costs. We may also suspend further bookings until all amounts are paid.

5.10 Recovering unpaid amounts (business customers). If an invoice is unpaid 30 days after it was due, we may pass it to a debt recovery agency, or claim it through the courts. You will also pay our reasonable costs of recovering it.

5.11 Offers and discounts. From time to time we may offer discounts, such as early-booking or group prices. Unless an offer says otherwise:

• it applies only to new bookings made while it is running, and not to bookings already made;
• it cannot be combined with another offer, or exchanged for cash;
• we may end or change it at any time, without affecting bookings already confirmed.

6. Courses: booking, cancellation and changes

6.1 You can book a whole course pathway, or an individual course or session within it. Each booking is treated separately under this section, using its own price and start date.

6.2 Your legal right to cancel (consumers only). If you booked online, by phone or by email, you can cancel for any reason within 14 days of the day we confirmed your booking. We will refund everything you paid.

If you asked for your course to start within those 14 days and then cancel, we will deduct a fair amount for the sessions or materials you received before you told us. To cancel, email us or use the cancellation form at the end of these terms.

6.3 Cancelling after the 14 days. After the legal cancellation period, or if you are a business customer, these rules apply. They are measured from the date you tell us in writing (the day we receive your email or letter) to the start of the course or session:

If you are a consumer and we resell your place, we will refund what you paid less the £35 administration fee, whatever the timing.

6.4 Transfers and credit. A transfer moves your booking to the next available date of the same course, or to another course of similar value, paying any difference. You can transfer once per booking. Instead of a refund, we may offer you a credit note for the full amount you are due; you may take the refund instead if you prefer. Credit is valid for 12 months from the original start date.

6.5 Missed sessions. If you miss a session for a reason that is not our fault, we do not refund it. Sessions are not recorded, but we will send you the materials, and you may join the same session on a later date if there is space.

6.6 Employer bookings. If your employer booked your place, your employer is our customer and the business customer rules apply. Your employer may name a replacement attendee at any time before the start, free of charge.

6.7 Changes by us. We may change a course's dates, times, tutor or online platform. If we make a significant change to the date or time, we will tell you as soon as we can. You may then accept the change, transfer, or cancel for a full refund.

6.8 Cancellation by us. We may cancel a course up to 7 days before it starts, for example if too few people have booked. In rare cases we may also cancel later, for reasons outside our control (section 17). If we cancel, you choose between a transfer to another date and a full refund within 14 days. Our responsibility is limited to that choice. We will not pay other costs, such as time you set aside, unless the cancellation was caused by our failure to take reasonable care.

7. Projects: Build, Improve and Scale

7.1 The proposal. Every project has a written proposal setting out the scope, stages, deliverables, price, timetable and any agreed measure of success. Anything not in the proposal is outside the scope.

7.2 Working in stages. Most projects start with a discovery or validation stage. At the end of each stage we agree in writing whether to continue to the next. You only commit to one stage at a time, unless the proposal says otherwise.

7.3 Changes to scope. If you or we want to change the scope, we will agree the change, its price and any effect on the timetable in writing before the work is done. Until it is agreed, we continue on the existing scope.

7.4 What we need from you. Projects depend on you. You agree to:

• give us accurate information, access to the people, systems and data we reasonably need, and decisions and feedback when we ask, within 5 working days unless agreed otherwise;
• make sure you have the right to share any data or materials you give us, including personal data about your customers or staff;
• keep your own back-ups of your systems and data before we make changes.

If you delay or do not do these things, the timetable moves accordingly. We may charge for extra time or costs this causes, at the day rate in the proposal. We are not responsible for any delay or failure caused by it.

If you are a business customer, you will compensate us for any claim, loss or cost we suffer because material, data or instructions you gave us break the law or infringe someone else's rights. This includes personal data you did not have the right to share.

7.5 Sign-off. When we deliver a stage or deliverable, please review it and tell us of any problem within 10 working days. If you do not, or you start using it, it is treated as accepted. We will fix anything that does not match the proposal at no extra charge.

7.6 Timetables are our best estimate. We will keep you informed and do our best to meet them. For business customers, time is not of the essence unless the proposal says so.

7.7 If a business customer cancels a project. You may cancel at any time by giving us 14 days' written notice. You must pay:

• for all work done up to the end of the notice period, at the proposal price or day rate;
• any partner, licence or third-party costs we have committed to and cannot recover;
• a cancellation charge of 25% of the price of the remaining work in the current stage.

The deposit is not refundable once work has started. If you paid in advance for work not done, we will refund the balance after deducting the amounts above.

7.8 If a consumer cancels a project. If you are a consumer, you have the 14-day right to cancel in section 6.2. If you asked us to start work within that period, you pay a fair amount for the work done before you cancelled. After the 14 days, you may still end the project with 14 days' written notice. You pay for work done up to the end of the notice period, and for any third-party costs we have committed to and cannot recover. We refund anything you paid in advance for work not done.

7.9 Client data in projects. Where we handle personal data on your behalf in a project, you are the controller of that data and we act on your written instructions. The proposal, or a separate data processing agreement, will set out how.

8. Refunds: how and when

8.1 All refunds are made to the payment method you used, unless we agree otherwise. We do not charge a fee for making a refund, apart from the administration fees set out in section 6.

8.2 We pay refunds within these times:

8.3 For business customers, we may offer a credit note instead of a cash refund, valid for 12 months. We may also set any refund against amounts you owe us.

8.4 If you received something you have not paid for, such as course materials or a deliverable, and then cancel, we may deduct a fair amount for it from your refund.

9. If something goes wrong

9.1 Please tell us as soon as possible if you think something is not right, so we can put it right quickly. Contact us within the time limits in section 7.5 for project deliverables.

9.2 Consumers. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, our services must be provided with reasonable care and skill, and match what we told you. If they do not, you can ask us to repeat or fix the service. If we cannot, or do not within a reasonable time without significant inconvenience to you, you can ask for a price reduction or a refund. These rights are in addition to anything in these terms. For more information, see the Citizens Advice website.

9.3 Business customers. If a service does not meet these terms or the proposal, we will first re-perform or fix it, at no extra cost, within a reasonable time. If we cannot, we will refund the price of the part that was not right. These are your only remedies for a service that does not meet these terms, subject to section 15.

10. Intellectual property

10.1 Our materials. All course materials, templates, guides, frameworks, methods, tools and website content belong to us or our licensors. When you take a course, we give you a personal, non-transferable licence to use the materials for your own learning and work. Business customers may use them within their own organisation.

10.2 You must not copy, share, record, sell, publish or use our materials to train others or to run your own courses, without our written permission. You also must not upload them to AI tools for that purpose. Course sessions must not be recorded, photographed or screenshotted.

10.3 Your deliverables. For projects, once you have paid in full, you own the deliverables made specifically for you, such as your business case, process maps, or the code written for your product, unless the proposal says otherwise. Until you have paid in full, we grant you a licence to use them for the project only.

10.4 What we keep. We keep ownership of our know-how, methods, templates, reusable code and tools that existed before the project or are not specific to you. Where these are built into your deliverables, we grant you a permanent, non-exclusive licence to use them as part of those deliverables.

10.5 Third-party materials. Software, AI models, platforms and open-source components we use or recommend are provided under their owners' own terms, which you agree to follow.

10.6 We will not name you, or describe your project publicly, without your written permission.

10.7 Our names and logos. "Future Founders", "Future Academy" and our logos are our trade marks. You may not use them without our written permission. Our status as the authors of our materials must always be acknowledged.

10.8 If you use our materials in breach of this section, your licence to use them ends straight away, and you must delete or destroy any copies you have.

11. Your conduct on courses

11.1 We want everyone to feel welcome, whatever their background or confidence. You agree to treat tutors and other learners with respect, and to keep what others share in sessions confidential.

11.2 Do not share other people's personal data, or confidential information you are not allowed to share, in sessions or exercises.

11.3 We may remove anyone from a course whose behaviour is abusive, discriminatory or disruptive, or who breaches section 10.2. We will give a warning first, unless the behaviour is serious. If we remove you for that reason, we will not refund the course.

12. Confidentiality

12.1 Each of us will keep confidential any information the other shares that is marked confidential, or that is obviously confidential, such as business plans, financial information, client lists and ideas. We will use it only to carry out our contract, and share it only with people who need it for that, including our delivery team, who are bound by the same duty.

12.2 This does not apply to information that is already public, that the receiving party already had, or that must be disclosed by law. These duties continue for 3 years after the contract ends.

12.3 Ideas. We work with many founders. Other people may bring us ideas similar to yours. Our duty of confidentiality protects what you tell us, but it does not stop us working with others on their own similar ideas.

13. AI and third-party tools

13.1 Our courses and projects use AI and other software tools, such as Claude, Microsoft Copilot and no-code platforms. You are responsible for your own accounts and subscriptions to these tools, and their costs, unless the proposal says we will provide them.

13.2 These tools are run by their own providers, under their own terms. We are not responsible for their availability, pricing, changes or performance.

13.3 AI tools can produce wrong or incomplete answers. We teach you how to check their work. You are responsible for checking any AI output before you rely on it, publish it, or use it in your business.

14. Not financial, legal or investment advice

14.1 We help you understand funding routes and prepare to be funding-ready. We do not provide regulated financial, investment, legal or tax advice. We do not arrange funding, and we are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

14.2 We do not promise that you will obtain any loan, grant, investment or tax relief. Eligibility is decided by others, and schemes change. Please take independent professional advice before making financial, legal or tax decisions.

15. Our responsibility to you

15.1 What we never limit. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit. Nor does it limit your legal rights as a consumer.

15.2 Consumers. We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. Loss is foreseeable if it is obvious it would happen, or if we both knew it might happen when the contract was made.

We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable. We provide our services for your personal development. If you use them for a business, we are not liable to you for loss of profit, business, opportunity or income.

15.3 Business customers. Subject to section 15.1:

• we are not liable for any loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, opportunity, goodwill, anticipated savings or data, or for any indirect or consequential loss, however it arises;
• our total liability to you under or in connection with any contract is limited to the fees you have paid us under that contract in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim;
• any claim must be brought within 12 months of the date you became aware, or ought reasonably to have become aware, of it.

15.4 We are not responsible for decisions you make, or results you get, from using what you learn or what we deliver. Nor are we responsible for any failure of third-party tools, platforms or providers we do not control.

16. Working with our delivery team directly

16.1 Our tutors and partners are part of our delivery team, and we invest in finding and managing them. If you are a business customer, during the contract and for 12 months after it ends, you agree not to engage, employ or contract any tutor or partner you were introduced to through us, directly or through another business, without our written agreement. This applies to work similar to what they did through us.

16.2 If you do, you will pay us a fee equal to 20% of what you paid, or agreed to pay, that person or business in the first 12 months. This reflects our cost of finding, vetting and managing them. It does not apply to someone who responds independently to a public job advert.

17. Events outside our control

17.1 We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control. These include illness of a tutor, failure of an internet, platform or power provider, cyber attack, strikes, extreme weather, pandemic, government action or war.

17.2 If this happens, we will tell you as soon as we can and do what we reasonably can to reduce the effect. If a course is affected, we will offer a new date. If the delay lasts more than 30 days, either of us may cancel the affected service. We will refund what you paid for any part not delivered.

18. Ending a contract

18.1 We may end a contract by written notice if you:

• do not pay an amount due within 14 days of a reminder;
• seriously or repeatedly break these terms, and, if it can be put right, do not put it right within 14 days of our asking;
• are a business customer and become insolvent, enter administration, or stop trading.

18.2 If we end a contract for one of these reasons, you must pay for all work done and costs committed up to the end date. The cancellation charges in sections 6 and 7 apply as if you had cancelled.

18.3 Sections that by their nature should continue after a contract ends, including payment, intellectual property, confidentiality, liability and non-solicitation, continue to apply.

19. Complaints and disputes

19.1 If you are unhappy with anything we have done, please email hello@futurefounders.uk with the details. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days, aim to resolve it within 20 working days, and tell you if it will take longer. Complaints about personal data are handled under our privacy policy.

19.2 We will try to settle any disagreement by talking first. If we cannot, business customers agree to try mediation before going to court, except for urgent claims or unpaid invoices.

19.3 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Business customers agree that only the courts of England and Wales can hear disputes. If you are a consumer, you may bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales, or, if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, in the courts there.

20. General

20.1 We may transfer our rights and duties under a contract to another business, for example if our business is sold. We will tell you if this happens, and it will not reduce your rights. You may not transfer yours without our written agreement, except that an employer may name a replacement attendee.

20.2 If a court decides that part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest stays in force.

20.3 If we do not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.

20.4 Only you and we have rights under a contract. No one else may enforce any of its terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

20.5 Notices must be in writing and may be sent by email, to the address each of us has given the other.

20.6 For business customers, a contract can only be changed in writing, agreed by an authorised person on each side. A waiver of any right only counts if it is in writing.

20.7 We may use subcontractors, including members of our delivery team, to perform any part of a contract. We remain responsible for their work.

21. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The version on our website when you book or accept a proposal applies to that contract. We will tell you about any change that affects a contract already in progress, and it will apply only if you agree or the law allows.

Model cancellation form (consumers)

If you want to cancel within the 14-day cancellation period, copy this into an email to hello@futurefounders.uk, or post it to FFounders Group Limited, 15 Tallents Crescent, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 5BP.

To FFounders Group Limited, trading as Future Founders:

I give notice that I cancel my contract for the following service: [course or project name]

Booked on: [date]

Name: [your name]

Address: [your address]

Signature (only if sent on paper):

Date: [date]