Gilded Index Terms of Service

Welcome to Gilded Index. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you (“you” or “Member”) and Gilded Index, LLC, a Utah limited liability company (“Gilded Index,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).

These Terms govern your use of our website at gildedindex.com, our application at app.gildedindex.com, and any related services, content, products, and tools we offer (collectively, the “Service”).

Please read these Terms carefully. They include important provisions that affect your legal rights, including a binding arbitration clause and class action waiver in Section 17. By creating an account, purchasing a subscription, activating a gift, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, separate terms in our Master Service Agreement apply to that organization’s use. These Terms continue to govern your individual use of the Service as a Member.

1. Who can use the Service

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Service. By using the Service, you represent that you meet these requirements.

The Service is provided to users located in the United States. We do not currently offer the Service to users located outside the United States and make no representations about its suitability for use in any other jurisdiction.

2. Your account

To use most of the Service, you must create an account. When you do, you agree to:

• Provide accurate, current, and complete information
• Keep your account credentials confidential
• Notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized use of your account
• Take responsibility for activity that occurs under your account

We may suspend or terminate your account if we have reason to believe you have violated these Terms or engaged in conduct that could harm the Service or other Members.

3. Subscriptions, billing, and cancellation

3.1 Subscription terms

We offer the Service through paid subscriptions. The subscription plans, pricing, and billing intervals available to you will be shown at checkout and in your account settings.

3.2 Auto-renewal

Subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current rate for your plan, unless you cancel before the renewal date. By starting a subscription, you authorize us to charge your payment method on file at each renewal.

3.3 Cancellation

You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period — you will retain access through the period you have already paid for, but will not be charged again.

3.4 Refunds

Except where required by law, subscription fees are non-refundable. We may, at our sole discretion, offer pro-rated refunds in cases of genuine billing errors or extended Service unavailability.

3.5 Free trials

New Members may be eligible for a one (1) month free trial of a paid subscription plan. To start a free trial, you must provide a valid payment method, which we will keep on file but not charge during the trial period.

At the end of the free trial, your subscription will automatically convert to a paid subscription at the then-current rate for the plan you selected, and your payment method will be charged. You may cancel at any time during the free trial through your account settings to avoid being charged; if you cancel during the trial, you will retain access through the end of the trial period.

Free trials are limited to one per Member. We may modify, suspend, or end free trial offers at our discretion.

3.6 Price changes

We may change our subscription prices from time to time. Price changes will not affect your current billing period; they will apply to your next renewal after we have given you at least thirty (30) days’ notice via the email address on your account.

4. Your content and your reflections

4.1 What “Your Content” means

“Your Content” means anything you create, submit, or store through the Service — including reflections, journal entries, free-text responses to prompts, your Growth Edge ratings, your Pulse Check responses, your assessment scores, and any other content you provide.

4.2 You own Your Content

You retain all ownership rights in Your Content. We do not claim ownership of your reflections, your responses, or anything else you create through the Service.

4.3 The license you grant us

To operate the Service, we need a limited license to your content. You grant Gilded Index a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, display, transmit, and process Your Content for the sole purpose of providing the Service to you. This license ends when you delete the content or terminate your account, except as described in Section 4.5.

4.4 Reflection privacy — our promise

The content of your reflections is private. We do not aggregate, theme, summarize, or share the content of your reflections with employers, B2B customers, or any third party except as required by law. The only data that contributes to aggregate cohort reports is:

• Your Pulse Check scores (from structured assessment questions), and
• Your Growth Edge ratings (the optional 1–10 dials you supply alongside reflections)

Reflection content itself is never included in aggregate reports, organizational reports, or any output visible to anyone other than you and authorized Gilded Index personnel acting in support of the Service.

This is a contractual commitment, not just a policy statement. If we ever change this approach, we will give you advance notice and an opportunity to delete reflections you do not want retained under any new policy.

4.5 Aggregate and anonymized data

You agree that Gilded Index may use anonymized and aggregated data derived from Pulse Check scores, Growth Edge ratings, and Service usage patterns to:

• Generate cohort and benchmark reports (subject to minimum cohort sizes and other safeguards described in our Privacy Policy)
• Improve the Service and develop new features
• Produce research, marketing materials, and industry insights that do not identify any individual Member

Aggregated and anonymized data will not include the content of your reflections.

4.6 Acceptable content

You agree not to submit content through the Service that:

• Violates any law or third-party right
• Is defamatory, harassing, threatening, or hateful
• Contains malware or attempts to compromise the Service
• Contains confidential information of a third party that you are not authorized to share
• Contains personally identifying information about other people without their consent

We are not obligated to review content you submit, but we reserve the right to remove content that we determine, in our sole discretion, violates these Terms.

5. Acceptable use of the Service

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code from the Service
• Scrape, crawl, or use automated means to collect content from the Service except as expressly permitted
• Use the Service to develop a competing product
• Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit access to the Service
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service or the servers and networks supporting it
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity
• Use the Service in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair it
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service or any related system without our prior written authorization

Violation of this Section 5 may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account without refund.

6. Pulse Checks, Growth Edge, and the Index — what they are and what they aren’t

6.1 Reflective tools, not professional advice

The Service includes self-assessment tools, including Pulse Checks (situational assessments), Growth Edge ratings (1–10 self-rated dials), benchmarks, and Index Reports. These are tools for self-reflection and personal measurement. They are not:

• Professional advice of any kind
• Psychological, psychiatric, or mental health evaluation
• Career counseling or career advice
• Financial, legal, medical, or other licensed-professional advice
• A substitute for working with a licensed professional in any field
• A diagnostic instrument
• A recommendation, ranking, or evaluation of you as a person, employee, or professional

Decisions you make based on the outputs of any assessment or rating are your own responsibility. If you are facing a situation that calls for professional support — psychological, medical, legal, financial, or career — please consult a qualified, licensed professional.

6.2 Growth Edge is voluntary

Providing Growth Edge ratings alongside your reflections is optional. You may skip the dials, leave them blank, or select N/A on the organizational dial whenever you choose. Skipping never affects your access to the Service or any features.

6.3 No guarantees of outcomes

We do not guarantee that using the Service will improve your career, your leadership, your judgment, your decision-making, your relationships, your income, or any other outcome. The Service is a tool for deliberate practice; the practice and its results are yours.

7. Books and curation

Gilded Index curates and resells physical copies of books published by their respective publishers. We are an independent reseller and companion service. We do not claim authorship of, partnership with, or endorsement by the authors or publishers of the books we sell.

Purchases of physical books are governed by our separate Terms of Sale, which apply at checkout. References in the Service to specific books, authors, or publishers are descriptive and do not imply endorsement in either direction.

8. Gifts and gift recipients

8.1 Receiving a gift

If you received Gilded Index as a gift, these Terms apply to your use of the Service. By activating a gift account, you agree to these Terms.

8.2 Cohort gift programs

Some gifts are part of a Cohort Gift program — a group enrollment arranged by a sender (for example, a firm enrolling a group of leaders or a mentor enrolling a cohort of mentees). If your gift is part of a Cohort Gift program:

• The sender will be identified to you at activation
• You will be asked whether you want to opt in to the cohort (so that your aggregated Pulse Check scores and Growth Edge ratings contribute to a cohort report visible to the sender) or decline the cohort (so you use the Service as a personal Member with no data flow to the sender)
• Your decision is yours. The sender cannot override or change your choice. The gift is delivered to you either way.
• Regardless of your choice, the content of your reflections is never shared with the sender or anyone else. Only aggregated scores and ratings flow into cohort reports, and only if you opt in.

You may change your cohort participation choice at any time in your account settings.

8.3 Sender obligations

If you send a Cohort Gift, you agree that recipient consent at activation governs whether each recipient’s data contributes to the cohort report. You may not require, pressure, or condition any employment relationship on a recipient’s opt-in decision.

9. Our intellectual property

The Service, including its software, design, content (other than Your Content), assessment instruments, Growth Edge framework, Index methodology, benchmarks, trademarks, and logos, is owned by Gilded Index or our licensors and is protected by U.S. and international intellectual property laws.

We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Service for your personal, non-commercial use in accordance with these Terms. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

The names “Gilded Index,” “Pulse Check,” “Growth Edge,” and “Index Report,” along with our logos and design elements, are our trademarks. You may not use them without our prior written consent.

10. Third-party content and links

The Service may contain references to, descriptions of, or links to third-party content, including books, articles, and other materials. We do not endorse, control, or assume responsibility for any third-party content. Your interactions with third parties and your use of third-party content are at your own risk.

11. Privacy

Your privacy is governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. By using the Service, you agree to our collection, use, and disclosure of your information as described in the Privacy Policy.

12. Disclaimers

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, GILDED INDEX DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT:

• The Service will meet your requirements or expectations
• The Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free
• The results obtained from use of the Service will be accurate, reliable, or appropriate for any particular use
• Pulse Check scores, Growth Edge ratings, benchmarks, or Index Reports are predictive of any outcome
• Any defects in the Service will be corrected

Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of certain warranties; in such jurisdictions, the above disclaimers apply to the maximum extent permitted by law.

13. Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:

(a) IN NO EVENT WILL GILDED INDEX, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE, REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY OF LIABILITY AND EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

(b) OUR TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (i) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (ii) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).

(c) THESE LIMITATIONS APPLY EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE.

Some jurisdictions do not allow limitations on certain types of damages; in such jurisdictions, the above limitations apply to the maximum extent permitted by law, and our liability is limited to the smallest amount permitted.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Gilded Index, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising out of or in any way connected with:

• Your access to or use of the Service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual property or privacy right
• Your Content, including any claim that Your Content infringes, violates, or misappropriates any right of a third party

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which event you agree to cooperate with our defense.

15. Term and termination

15.1 Term

These Terms apply from the time you first use the Service until terminated as described below.

15.2 Termination by you

You may terminate these Terms at any time by deleting your account through your account settings.

15.3 Termination by us

We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms, engaged in conduct that could harm the Service or other Members, or for any other reason at our sole discretion. We may also terminate the Service entirely on at least thirty (30) days’ notice.

15.4 Effect of termination

On termination:

• Your right to use the Service ends immediately
• We may delete Your Content, except where retention is required by law or for legitimate business purposes described in our Privacy Policy
• The following sections survive termination: 4.3 (license you grant us, for content already used in aggregate outputs), 4.5 (aggregate data), 9 (our IP), 12 (disclaimers), 13 (limitation of liability), 14 (indemnification), 17 (arbitration), 18 (governing law), and 19 (general).

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you at least thirty (30) days before the changes take effect, either by email to the address on your account or by a prominent notice on the Service.

Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Service and may cancel your subscription.

17. Binding arbitration and class action waiver

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY — IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.

17.1 Agreement to arbitrate

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service (a “Dispute”) will be resolved by binding arbitration rather than in court, except that:

• Either party may bring an individual action in small claims court
• Either party may seek injunctive or equitable relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent infringement of intellectual property rights

17.2 Arbitration procedures

The arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted by a single arbitrator. The seat of arbitration will be Salt Lake City, Utah unless the parties agree otherwise; if you reside more than 100 miles from that location, the arbitration may be conducted by telephone, videoconference, or written submission at your election.

The arbitrator’s decision will be final and binding, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

17.3 Class action waiver

YOU AND GILDED INDEX AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

If this class action waiver is found to be unenforceable, then the entirety of this Section 17 will be null and void, and the Dispute will be resolved in court.

17.4 30-day opt-out right

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms by sending written notice to hello@gildedindex.com with the subject line “Arbitration Opt-Out” and including your name and account email. Opting out will not affect any other portion of these Terms.

17.5 Costs

Each party will bear its own costs in arbitration, except that we will pay AAA filing fees and arbitrator fees in any individual arbitration you initiate where the amount in controversy is less than $10,000, to the extent required by AAA rules.

18. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Utah, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to Section 17, the state and federal courts located in Salt Lake County, Utah will have exclusive jurisdiction over any Dispute not subject to arbitration, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts.

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply to these Terms.

19. General

19.1 Entire agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and (where applicable) our Terms of Sale and Master Service Agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and Gilded Index regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.

19.2 No waiver

Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

19.3 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

19.4 Assignment

You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms freely, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

19.5 Notices to you

We may give notice to you by email to the address on your account or by a prominent notice on the Service. Notices are effective when sent.

19.6 Notices to us

Notices to us must be sent to hello@gildedindex.com.

19.7 No third-party beneficiaries

These Terms do not create any third-party beneficiary rights.

19.8 Force majeure

We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, war, terrorism, civil unrest, government action, labor disputes, or failure of suppliers or telecommunications networks.

19.9 Headings

Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

Contact

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at hello@gildedindex.com.