Terms of Use

Last updated 12th of May 2022

These Terms of Use (the "Terms") set forth the terms and conditions that govern access to, and use of the website www.stepfwd.today (the "Site").

These Terms are a legal agreement between you ("you", "your", or "user") and Always StepFWD S.R.L., a company incorporated under the Romanian law, having its headquarters in Bucharest, Str. Vintila Mihailescu 4 Bl. 42a Sc. A Et. 6 Ap. 19, Tax Code 44681770, registered with the Trade Registry under no. J40/13253/2021 ("StepFWD", "we", "us"). Before you use the Site, you will need to agree to these Terms. We are only willing to make the Site available to you if you accept all of these Terms. Otherwise, you may not access or use the Site. The use of the Site represents your confirmation that you understand and agree to all of these Terms.

We reserve the right to change the Terms at any time and in our sole discretion. If we make changes to these Terms, we will make the updated Terms available on the Site and update the "Last Updated" date found at the top of these Terms. Please verify these Terms periodically for changes. Any changes to the Terms will apply on the date that they are made, and your continued access to or use of the Site after the Terms have been updated will constitute your binding acceptance of the updates.

1.   The Site

This Site provides, among other things, information about our people, organization and application process, tools for applicants to submit applications and go through the application process, resources about topics relevant to startups, and profiles of founders and companies who have participated in the StepFWD program.

2.   Intellectual Property Rights

Unless otherwise indicated by us, all elements of the Site, all content and other materials therein are owned by us (or, as applicable, our licensors) and are protected by intellectual property rights. For the avoidance of doubt, the visual interfaces, design, text, graphics, pictures, systems, information, data, methods, software, computer code, organization, services, all other elements and any other documentation or other ancillary material provided to you (the "Content") are owned by us or by our licensors and are protected by copyright, patents, trademarks, design, trade secrets, any other intellectual property rights and applicable law.

You can use the Site and the Content solely for the purpose of obtaining information about and applying to the StepFWD program. However, you are not permitted to:

  • use the Site, or the Content other than for their intended purposes;
  • use any data mining, robots or similar data gathering or extraction methods;
  • sell, rent, lease, lend, redistribute, sublicense or make commercial use of the Site, or the Content;
  • copy, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or attempt to discover the source code of our Site or Content;
  • modify, alter or otherwise make any derivative uses of the Site, or the Content, or any portion thereof, except as expressly permitted under these Terms;
  • remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notice included in the Site or Content;

Any use of the Site, or the Content other than as specifically authorized herein, without the prior written permission of StepFWD, is strictly prohibited. Such unauthorized use may also violate applicable laws, including without limitation, copyright and trademark laws. Unless explicitly stated by StepFWD, nothing in these Terms shall be construed as conferring any license to intellectual property rights, whether by implication or otherwise.

3.   User Content

You are solely responsible for all content you create, transmit and/or distribute through the Site ("User Content"). With that in mind, you agree not to create, transmit and/or distribute through the Site any User Content that:

  • is illegal or unlawful, that would constitute, encourage or provide instructions for a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party, or otherwise create liability or violate any local, national or international law;
  • is defamatory, profane, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, indecent, lewd, vulgar, suggestive, violent, harassing, hateful, threatening, offensive, discriminatory, bigoted, abusive, inflammatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, fraudulent, deceptive or otherwise objectionable;
  • impersonates any person or entity or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with a person or entity;
  • may infringe or violate any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other intellectual property right or other rights of any party;
  • contains or depicts any statements, remarks or claims that do not reflect your honest views and experiences;
  • is designed to deceive or trick the users of the Site;
4.   User Conduct

You are solely responsible for your own conduct while accessing or using the Site. You agree to use the Site only for purposes that are legal, proper and in accordance with these Terms and any applicable laws or regulations. You agree that you will not and will not permit any third party to do, including but not limited to, any of the following:

  • use the Site for any illegal or unauthorized purpose or engage in, encourage, or promote any illegal activity, or any activity that violates these Terms or any other rules or policies established from time to time by us;
  • use the Site to violate the legal rights and the legitimate interests of others, including, but not limited to, transmitting or otherwise making available through the Site that infringes on the intellectual proprietary rights of any party;
  • remove any copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights notices contained in or on the Site or any part of it;
  • modify, adapt, hack, translate, or reverse engineer the Site;
  • use any robot, spider, crawler, scraper or other automated means or interface not provided by us to access the Site or to extract data;
  • attempt to indicate in any manner that you have a relationship with us or that we have endorsed you or any products or services for any purpose, unless we specifically consented to such conduct;
  • upload, send, distribute or disseminate any User Content that could be in any way interpreted as defamatory, unlawful, fraudulent, obscene, harassing or objectionable;
  • distribute any other harmful components such as, including but not limited to, worms, viruses, Trojan horses, corrupted files, defects, hoaxes;
  • impersonate another person by any means (e.g., by use of an email address, name, nickname or otherwise);
  • exploit the Site for any unauthorized commercial purpose;
  • access or use the Site for the purpose of creating a product or service competitive with any of our products or services;
  • register on the Site on behalf of a company, without having the right to represent the respective company.
5.   Indemnification

You agree, at your sole expense, to defend, indemnify and hold us, our officers, agents, employees, advertisers, licensors, suppliers or partners harmless from and against any claims, damages, payments, deficiencies, fines, judgments, settlements, liabilities, losses, costs and expenses of any kind or nature, including litigation costs, and legal fees arising out of or in any way related to (i) your use of the Site; (ii) your violation of these Terms or the rights of any third-party; or (iii) your breach of applicable laws in connection with your conduct, access to or use of the Site.

6.   Disclaimer

You expressly acknowledge and agree that your use of the Site is at your sole risk and that the entire risk as to the satisfactory quality, performance, safety, accuracy and effort is with you. The Site is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim any and all warranties and representations (express or implied, written or oral) in relation to, without limitation, the Site or external websites or applications, including but not limited to any implied warranties of merchantability, implied warranties of fitness or suitability for any purpose and warranties of non-infringement, condition of title, accuracy, reliability. We do not warrant and/or represent that the Site will meet the accuracy and your requirements, that the use of the Site will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, or that the Site is free of harmful components, such as viruses.

7.   Limitation of Liability

StepFWD is not responsible for the quality, safety, legality, truth or accuracy of the User Content. StepFWD makes no representations about any User Content on the Site. While StepFWD reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove User Content or other material from the Site from time to time, StepFWD does not assume any obligation to do so and to the extent permitted by law, disclaims any liability for failing to take any such action.

You acknowledge and agree that to the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, in no event will StepFWD be liable to you or to any other third party for any incidental, indirect, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages whatsoever including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, (whether incurred directly or indirectly), loss of goodwill or business reputation, loss of data, cost of procurement of substitute goods or services, or any other intangible loss, arising out of or related to the Site, regardless of the theory of liability (contract, warranty, tort, strict liability, product liability or other theory) and even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

You understand and agree that we will not be liable for any failure or delayed performance of our obligations that result from any condition beyond our reasonable control, including but not limited to, acts or omissions of third parties, earthquake, fire, flood, governmental action, acts of terrorism, labor conditions, power failures, Internet disturbances or server failures.

You acknowledge that the Site is Internet-based and you understand and accept the inherent security risks associated with such Sites, including but not limited to, the risk of losing the Internet connections, the risk of malicious software, the risk of hardware or software failure and the risk of unauthorized access by third parties to your Account. Thus, you agree that we have no liability for any malfunctions, communication failures, delays, errors, or any breach of security you might incur.

8.   External Sites

The Site may contain hyperlinks to third party websites or resources. These links to third party pages are provided for convenience only. In any event, especially because of the volatile nature of information on the Internet, StepFWD cannot control the nature or content of these external sources and therefore is not responsible and or liable for the use, the unavailability of third party Sites nor their content and advertising or other materials available on such third party websites that you might access via our Site.

9.   Changes of the Site

We may, in our sole discretion and without cost to you, with or without prior notice and at any time, modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, any portion or feature of our Site.

In no event will StepFWD be liable for the removal of or disabling of access to any portion or feature of the Site.

10.   Suspension or Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Site in our sole discretion, immediately and without prior notice

11.   Assignment

StepFWD may assign these Terms and/or any and all of its rights or delegate any and all of its obligations under these Terms without your consent. All provisions contained in these Terms shall extend to and be binding upon you and StepFWD’s successors and assigns. You may not assign these Terms or any of your rights and/or obligations under these Terms to another person or entity.

12.   Personal data

Please refer to our Privacy Policy for information on how we collect, use, store and disclose your personal data.

13.   Severability

If any provision of these Terms shall be deemed unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

14.   Lack of enforcement

Enforcement of these Terms is solely in our discretion and our failure to enforce any of the provisions in some instances does not constitute a waiver of our right to enforce such provisions in other instances.

15.   Interpretation of terms

The language in these Terms will be interpreted as to its fair meaning, and not strictly for or against any party.

16.   Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Romania. Any legal action or proceeding arising under these Terms will be brought exclusively in the courts located in Bucharest, Romania, and the parties irrevocably consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue there.

17.   Exceptional provisions

By accepting these Terms, you expressly consent and agree to the provisions regarding limitations of liability, choice of law and jurisdiction, unilateral termination and suspension of performance.