Terms & Conditions

These Terms govern your use of the 1found1 app and website (the "Service"), operated by Victoria von Schmettow, Gabelsbergerstraße 9, 80333 München, Germany ("1found1", "we", "us"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement. The Service is intended for founders and prospective founders seeking co-founders and professional connections.

A co-founder profile is for co-founders only: people who personally want to start a company or join a founding team.

It is not for venture capital firms, angel investors or any other investors looking for deal flow. It is also not for recruiters, headhunters, agencies or anyone else using a profile to hire employees, freelancers or clients, or to sell services. Profiles that are recognisably used for investing, sourcing or recruiting may be removed from matching or suspended without prior notice (see sections 9 and 10).

If you are an investor or a recruiter and would like to work with 1found1, please do not create a co-founder profile. Write to us at hey@1found1.com instead. You have your own separate access, and how it works is set out in section 4.

You sign in with one of the offered methods, such as Google, LinkedIn or email and password. You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping your access secure, and you agree to provide accurate, up-to-date information.

The website and the app (iOS and Android) are the same Service: you use the same account with the same data in both, and these Terms apply to both.

1found1 is a platform that helps people discover and connect with potential co-founders. We provide the technical means (profiles, expressions of interest, matches, messaging). We are not a party to, and take no part in, any relationship, agreement, collaboration, venture, or communication between users.

Matching takes place within pools. Depending on how you joined and your settings, your profile is shown within a curated, community-only pool (the "exclusive pool") or to all users (the "public pool").

Event pools (Spaces)

There are also event pools, which you find under "Spaces". An event pool is a separate, sealed pool for one event: your pool profile and your swipes, matches and messages there stay in that pool and have no effect on the main pools or on other event pools. Event pools are created by 1found1, by event organisers or by matchmakers (see below).

Whoever creates an event pool sets its rules, and they apply to every member: whether it is public (visible under "Spaces" to every signed-in account, with its name, date, place and number of members) or private (only through its invite link); whether each request to join has to be approved; whether profiles are anonymous (astronaut and alias instead of name and photo) or open (name, photo and links from the start); when anonymous profiles are revealed to each other (at the match, after a set number of messages from each person, or on the day of the event); which profile details are shown, including a CV and their own extra fields; which questions are asked; a daily limit for matches; and an end date. As soon as anyone has asked to join or has joined, these rules are final. By joining you accept the rules of that pool.

When you join, your pool profile is pre-filled from your 1found1 profile with the details that pool uses. You can change it for that pool without changing your 1found1 profile. An event pool can be closed or archived; after that nobody can join or swipe any more, and existing chats stay. A pool nobody has joined yet can be deleted.

Joining an event pool created on or after 7 October 2026 requires a 1found1 profile. If you do not have one yet, you create it when you join ("Create your profile to join 1found1 and [pool name]"). With it you also become part of the main 1found1 pool, where other founders can find you and you can find them, in addition to the event pool. Your name and profile photo are the same in the main pool and in every such event pool. All other details can be changed for each event pool, for example a different city or other work stations; whatever you do not change for a pool follows your 1found1 profile. Details you enter when joining such a pool (for example your work, strengths or weaknesses) are also added to your 1found1 profile where that profile does not have them yet. You can change or remove anything later, pause your profile in the main pool in the settings, or delete your account. Event pools created before 7 October 2026 keep the previous paragraph.

Matchmakers

Matchmakers run event pools for their events or organisations. 1found1 switches on a matchmaker account for a specific email address, or reviews a request for one; it only takes effect when you sign in with exactly that, confirmed address. Matchmakers belong to an organisation whose matchmakers share a yearly number of pools set by 1found1. Any matchmaker can invite colleagues from the same organisation, who then share that number. A matchmaker account does not need a co-founder profile, but you may have one as well and then match like everyone else. Matchmakers may also join their own pool as a member.

As a matchmaker you see who joined your pool (first name and alias) and, for pools that approve each person, the first and last name and alias of the people asking to join, so you can decide. You agree to use these details only to run your pool, not to copy, export or pass them on, and not to use them to contact members outside the Service. You are responsible for your pool's name, description, questions and picture, and you confirm that you have the rights needed for them. We may close or remove pools that breach these Terms and revoke matchmaker accounts.

Investors and recruiters

Investors and recruiters use 1found1 through a separate access, never through a co-founder profile. They are not in any pool, do not appear in any deck, and cannot swipe or match. All they can see is a version without name, photo, contact details and links of the profiles of founders who have explicitly switched this on beforehand: for investors, for recruiters, or for both. This visibility is off by default, and you can switch it off again at any time. An investor or recruiter only learns who you are when you accept a specific intro request from them. You can decline any request without giving a reason.

Investors and recruiters pay 1found1 for intro credits, which they use to send you an intro request. For founders this is free, and founders receive no payment for it either. 1found1 does not sell, rent or export profile data or contact lists: what is paid for is solely the chance to ask you for an introduction. The answer is yours.

You agree NOT to:

• provide false, misleading, or impersonating information;
• harass, threaten, abuse, defame, or discriminate against others;
• post unlawful, infringing, sexually explicit, or hateful content;
• create or use a profile to source investments or deal flow, or to recruit employees, freelancers or clients, instead of genuinely looking for a co-founder (see section 2);
• use the Service for spam, advertising, unrelated recruiting, or fraud;
• scrape, disrupt, or reverse-engineer the Service or other users’ data;
• pass on, publish, or use another person’s CV or any other details revealed after a match for anything other than getting to know them as a potential co-founder.

If you use 1found1 as an investor or recruiter, you additionally agree:

• to use what you see only to decide whether to request an intro, and to use contact details revealed after an accepted request only for that conversation;
• not to try to work out who is behind a profile without a name, whether by combining details, by searching elsewhere, or by any other means;
• not to copy, export, scrape, store in your own systems, or pass on profiles to third parties;
• not to contact founders outside 1found1 unless and until they have accepted your intro request.

From the moment a person’s name and contact details are revealed to you after an accepted request, you are yourself responsible under data protection law for what you do with that data. Breaching these obligations leads to immediate suspension without a refund (see section 10).

You retain ownership of your content (profile text, photos, CV, pool profiles, pool pictures, messages) and grant 1found1 a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, and display it solely to operate the Service. You represent that you own or have all necessary rights to your content, including any photographs, and that it infringes no third-party rights. A CV you upload can be opened and downloaded by the people you have matched with once your profiles are revealed to each other; in an event pool only if that pool uses the CV, and under its reveal rule. You can remove it at any time; we cannot recall copies that were already downloaded.

1found1 is a platform for making connections; it is not a guarantee of any outcome. We do not guarantee that you will find a match, a co-founder, a compatible partner, or any business or personal success. Some profiles carry a verified badge. It only means that the person proved access to a university or partner-initiative email address, joined through a partner initiative, or was checked by our team. It does not confirm identity, statements, skills or intentions, and we do not background-check users.

Any interaction with another user, online or in person, is entirely at your own risk. You are solely responsible for your decisions, your safety, and your own due diligence before meeting, collaborating, sharing information, or entering any arrangement. To the maximum extent permitted by law, 1found1 is not responsible for the conduct of any user, whether online or offline.

Do not share phone numbers, addresses, private email addresses or other private contact details in chats until you trust the person. If you share contact details or move a conversation off 1found1, you do so at your own risk; 1found1 is not responsible for contact that happens outside the platform.

The Service necessarily involves users discussing business ideas, plans, and projects. You acknowledge and agree that:

• no confidentiality obligation, non-disclosure agreement, or fiduciary relationship is created between you and any other user, or between you and 1found1, by your use of the Service or anything you share through it;
• you share any idea, concept, or confidential information entirely at your own risk;
• you are solely responsible for protecting your own ideas and intellectual property, e.g., by choosing what to disclose, entering your own written NDA before sharing sensitive information, and securing your own IP rights;
• 1found1 is not liable for any "idea theft", misappropriation, copying, misuse, or disclosure of any idea or information by any user. 1found1 does not monitor and is not responsible for what users do with information they receive.

You can report users or content via the in-app reporting function. We may review reports and remove content or accounts at our discretion, but we are not obliged to monitor content and do not guarantee any particular outcome or timing.

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access if you breach these Terms or if we discontinue the Service.

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied (e.g., fitness for a particular purpose, availability, accuracy), to the maximum extent permitted by law.

To the extent permitted by law, Victoria von Schmettow is liable only for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, for injury to life, body, or health, and under mandatory statutory liability (e.g., the German Product Liability Act). For slight negligence, we are liable only for breach of a material contractual obligation (cardinal duty), limited to the foreseeable, typical damage. Any further liability is excluded. In particular, 1found1 is not liable for the conduct of users, for the success or failure of any connection or venture, or for the misuse of ideas or information shared between users (see sections 7 and 8).

You agree to indemnify and hold Victoria von Schmettow harmless from claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising out of your content, your use of the Service, or your breach of these Terms or third-party rights, except to the extent caused by our intentional or grossly negligent conduct.

We may amend these Terms; the current version is always available in the app. Material changes will be communicated appropriately, and continued use constitutes acceptance.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. Mandatory consumer-protection provisions of your country of residence remain unaffected. Place of jurisdiction is Munich, where legally permissible.

hey@1found1.com