Terms of use.

This page explains our terms of use. When you use Ajolla, you’re agreeing to all the rules on this page. Some of them need to be expressed in legal language, but we’ve done our best to offer you clear and simple explanations of what everything means — hence the brief summaries in these yellow boxes. The summaries, for the record, are not part of the official legal terms.

Welcome to Ajolla. By using this app and services (together with the App, the “Services”) offered by Ajolla (together with its subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, representatives, consultants, employees, officers, and directors - collectively, “Ajolla,” “we,” or “us”), you’re agreeing to these legally binding rules (the “Terms”). You’re also agreeing to our Privacy Policy, and agreeing to follow any other rules on the App, like our Community Guidelines.

We may change these terms from time to time. If we do, we’ll let you know about any material changes, either by notifying you on the app or by sending you an email. New versions of the terms will never apply retroactively — we’ll tell you the exact date they go into effect. If you keep using Ajolla after a change, means you accept the new terms.

Ajolla is for your personal, non-commercial use, except as explained in section 4 and section 5 below.

To sign up for an Ajolla account, you need to be 13 or over. You’re responsible for your account and all the activity on it.

You cannot browse Ajolla without registering for an account and to use some of Ajolla functions, you’ll need to register, choose a username, and set a password. When you do that, the information you give us has to be accurate and complete. Don’t impersonate anyone else or choose names that are offensive or that violate anyone’s rights. If you don’t follow these rules, we may cancel your account.

You’re responsible for all the activity on your account, and for keeping your password confidential. If you find out that someone used your account without your permission, you should report it to hello@ajolla.com.

To sign up for an account, you need to be at least 13 years old, or old enough to form a binding contract where you live. If necessary, we may ask you for proof of age.

Don’t break the law. Don’t take any action that infringes or violates other people’s rights, violates the law, or breaches any contract or legal duty you have toward anyone.
Don’t lie to people. Don’t post information you know is false, misleading, or inaccurate. Don’t do anything deceptive or fraudulent.
Don’t offer prohibited items. Don’t offer things that are illegal, violate any of ajolla policies, rules, or guidelines, or violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation.
Don’t victimize anyone. Don’t do anything threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, tortious, obscene, profane, or invasive of another person’s privacy.
Don’t spam. Don’t distribute unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material, or any junk mail, spam, or chain letters. Don’t run mail lists, listservs, or any kind of auto-responder or spam on or through the app.
Don’t harm anyone’s computer. Don’t distribute software viruses, or anything else (code, films, programs) designed to interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or equipment on the app (whether it belongs to Ajolla or another party).
Don’t abuse other users’ personal information. When you use Ajolla — especially if you create a successful campaign — you may receive information about other users, including their names, email addresses, and postal addresses. This information is provided for the purpose of participating in an Ajolla campaign: don’t use it for other purposes, and don’t abuse it.

Don’t try to interfere with the proper workings of the Services.
Don’t bypass any measures we’ve put in place to secure the Services.
Don’t try to damage or get unauthorized access to any system, data, password, or other information, whether it belongs to ajolla or another party.
Don’t take any action that imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure, or on our third-party providers. (We reserve the right to determine what’s reasonable.)
Don’t use any kind of software or device (whether it’s manual or automated) to “crawl” or “spider” any part of the app.
Don’t take apart or reverse engineer any aspect of Ajolla in an effort to access things like source code, underlying ideas, or algorithms.

Most of our Terms of Use explain your relationship with Ajolla. This section is different — it explains the relationship between campaign creators and donors of Ajolla campaigns, and who’s responsible for what. This is what you’re agreeing to when you create or back an Ajolla campaign.

Ajolla provides a donation platform for entrepreneurial campaigns. When an entrepreneur posts a campaign on Ajolla, they’re inviting other people to form a contract with them. Anyone who supports a campaign is accepting the entrepreneur’s offer and forming that contract.

Ajolla is not a part of this contract — the contract is a direct legal agreement between entrepreneurs and their donors. Here are the terms that govern that agreement: When a campaign has received a donation, the entrepreneur should complete the project being funded and should fulfill any reward promised. Once an entrepreneur has done so, they’ve satisfied their obligation to their donors.

Throughout the process, entrepreneurs owe their donors a high standard of effort, honest communication, and a dedication to bringing the business to life. At the same time, donors must understand that when they support a campaign, they’re sometimes helping to create something new — not always supporting something that already exists. There may be changes in circumstances, and there’s a chance something could happen that prevents the entrepreneur from being able to finish the campaign as promised.

If an entrepreneur is unable to complete their campaign, they’ve failed to live up to the basic obligations of this agreement.

To right this, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the campaign to the best possible conclusion for donors. An entrepreneur in this position has only remedied the situation and met their obligations to donors if:

they post an update that explains what work has been done, how funds were used, and what prevents them from finishing the campaign as planned;
they work diligently and in good faith to bring the campaign to the best possible conclusion in a timeframe that’s communicated to donors;
they’re able to demonstrate that they’ve used funds appropriately and made every reasonable effort to complete the campaign as promised;
they’ve been honest, and have made no material misrepresentations in their communication to donors; and
they offer to return any remaining funds to donors, or else explain how those funds will be used to complete the campaign in some alternate form.

You’re charged even if the campaign doesn’t reach its fundraising goal. You’ll provide your payment information when you donate. Your payment will be collected immediately. The exact amount you donate is the amount Ajolla will collect. If the campaign hasn’t reached its fundraising goal, you will be charged, funds will be collected, and money will change hands.
You’re charged for campaigns even if the campaign does not reach its fundraising goal.. For campaigns, the charge is immediate. Your payment will be collected at the time of donation. Rewards, if applicable, would be sent based on the terms provided in the campaign description. The exact amount you donated is the amount Ajolla will collect.
In some cases, we’ll reserve the charge on your card.. Ajolla and its payment partners may authorize or reserve a charge on your credit card (or whatever payment method you use) for any amount up to the full donation, at any time between the donation and the collection of funds.
The Estimated Delivery Date for rewards is the entrepreneur’s estimate.. The date listed on each reward (if applicable) is the entrepreneur’s estimate of when they will provide the reward — not a guarantee to fulfill by that date. The schedule may change as the entrepreneur works on the campaign. We ask entrepreneurs to think carefully, set a date they feel confident they can work toward and communicate with donors about any changes.
The entrepreneur may need to send you questions about your reward if you choose to offer one.. To deliver rewards, the entrepreneur might need information from you, like your mailing address or t-shirt size. They’ll request that information depending on the terms stated in the description of the campaign.
To receive the reward, you’ll need to provide the information in a reasonable amount of time. Entrepreneurs should not ask for personal information that is not necessary to provide your reward, and should never request sensitive personal information such as your Social Security number, Social Insurance Number (Canada), or payment information. Contact us at hello@ajolla.com if you receive a request for information that seems inappropriate or excessive.
Ajolla offers refunds.. Donors can request refunds to their donations within 5 days of making the donation. Ajolla holds funds on entrepreneurs’ behalf for 5 days, after 5 days of making the donation, the donor can request a refund directly from the campaign creator.

You can refund individual donations if you want.. After your campaign has been funded, you can cancel and refund a donor’s donation at any time. If you do, you have no further obligation to that specific donor, and no agreement exists between you.
We’ll charge our fees before putting funds in your account.. Ajolla and its payment partners will subtract fees before transmitting the proceeds of a campaign.
Some donations can’t be collected, which might reduce the amount of funding you get.. Because some payments can’t be collected — for instance, when a donor’s credit card expires before funding ends, and they don’t provide updated information — we can’t guarantee that the amount of funding you receive will be exactly equal to the full amount of donation minus fees.
We’ll help resolve payment-card disputes.. If a donor of your campaign disputes the charge with their card issuer, we’ll handle re-presenting the charge to settle the dispute with the card issuer. You’ll be notified that a dispute has been filed, and you’ll be able to provide evidence to help us resolve it in your favor. If the cardholder’s dispute is found valid, you authorize us to charge the credit card number you provided when you started your campaign for the amount of the chargeback.
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.. Don’t assume you’ll be able to launch your campaign when you want; there could be a reason we’re not able to accept it or a problem that takes time to resolve. Don’t assume you’ll be able to immediately collect your funding; there may be a delay between the end of a successful campaign and your access to the funds. And don’t take any actions in reliance on collecting any of the money donation until you actually have the ability to withdraw it from your account and spend it.

We don’t oversee campaigns’ performance, and we don’t mediate disputes between users.

Ajolla isn’t liable for any damages or losses related to your use of the Services. We don’t become involved in disputes between users, or between users and any third party relating to the use of the Services. We don’t oversee the performance or punctuality of campaigns, and we don’t endorse any content users submit to the app. When you use the Services, you release Ajolla from claims, damages, and demands of every kind — known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed — arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and the Services. All content you access through the Services is at your own risk. You’re solely responsible for any resulting damage or loss to any party.

We can use the content you’ve submitted. You grant to us, and others acting on our behalf, the worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable, transferable right to use, exercise, commercialize, and exploit the copyright, publicity, trademark, and database rights with respect to your Content.
When we use the content, we can make changes, like editing or translating it. You grant us the right to edit, modify, reformat, excerpt, delete or translate any of your Content.
You won’t submit stuff you don’t hold the copyright for (unless you have permission). Your Content will not contain third-party copyrighted material or material that is subject to other third-party proprietary rights unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material (and to grant Ajolla all the license rights outlined here).
Any royalties or licensing on your Content are your responsibility. You will pay all royalties and other amounts owed to any person or entity based on your Content, or on Ajolla hosting of that Content.
You promise that if we use your Content, we’re not violating anyone’s rights or copyrights. If Ajolla or its users exploit or make use of your submission in the ways contemplated in this agreement, you promise that this will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including (without limitation) any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights.
You’re responsible for the stuff you post. All information submitted to the app, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person from whom that content originated.
We’re not responsible for mistakes in your content. Ajolla will not be liable for any errors or omissions in any content.

Ajolla grants you a license to reproduce content from the Services for personal use only. This license covers both Ajolla's own protected content and user-generated content on the app. (This license is worldwide, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, and non-transferable.) If you want to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, or store any of this content for a commercial purpose, you need prior written permission from Ajolla or the relevant copyright holder. A “commercial purpose” means you intend to use, sell, license, rent, or otherwise exploit content for commercial use, in any way.

You can terminate your account at any time through your account settings. We may retain certain information as required by law or as necessary for our legitimate business purposes. All provisions of this agreement survive termination of an account, including our rights regarding any content you’ve already submitted to the Site. (For instance, if you’ve launched a campaign, deleting your account will not automatically remove the campaign from the Site.) You can contact us at hello@ajolla.com for additional information or to request campaign page deletion (this is not available in all circumstances).

We can make changes to the Ajolla Site and Services without notice or liability.
We have the right to decide who’s eligible to use Ajolla.
We can cancel accounts or decline to offer our Services. (Especially if you’re abusing them.)
We can change our eligibility criteria at any time. If these things are prohibited by law where you live, then we revoke your right to use Ajolla in that jurisdiction.
We have the right to cancel any purchase to any campaign, at any time and for any reason.
We have the right to reject, cancel, interrupt, remove, or suspend any campaign at any time and for any reason.

If you do something that gets us sued, or break any of the promises you make in this agreement, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless from all liabilities, claims, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and other legal costs) that arise from or relate to your use or misuse of Ajolla. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to this indemnification clause, in which case you agree that you’ll cooperate and help us in asserting any defenses.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will Ajolla, its directors, employees, partners, suppliers, or content providers be liable for any indirect, incidental, punitive, consequential, special, or exemplary damages of any kind, including but not limited to damages (i) resulting from your access to, use of, or inability to access or use the Services; (ii) for any lost profits, data loss, or cost of procurement of substitute goods or services; or (iii) for any conduct or content of any third party on the app. In no event shall Ajolla liability for direct damages be in excess of (in the aggregate) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100.00).

We at Ajolla encourage you to contact us if you’re having an issue, before resorting to the courts. In the unfortunate situation where legal action does arise, these Terms (and all other rules, policies, or guidelines incorporated by reference) will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois and the United States, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law, and without application of the electronic commerce act or the United Nations Convention of Controls for International Sale of Goods. You agree that Ajolla and its Services are deemed a passive website that does not give rise to jurisdiction over Ajolla or its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, assigns, employees, agents, directors, officers, or shareholders, either specific or general, in any jurisdiction other than the State of Illinois. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these Terms, or your use or non-use of Ajolla, shall be filed only in the province or federal courts located in Chicago or in the State of Illinois, and you hereby consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of these courts for the purposes of litigating any such action. You hereby irrevocably waive any right you may have to trial by jury in any dispute, action, or proceeding.

These Terms and the other material referenced in them are the entire agreement between you and Ajolla with respect to the Services. They supersede all other communications and proposals (whether oral, written, or electronic) between you and Ajolla with respect to the Services and govern our future relationship. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid under the law, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms otherwise will remain in full force and effect and enforceable. The failure of either you or Ajolla to exercise any right provided for in these Terms in any way won’t be deemed a waiver of any other rights.