Competition rules

Founder Arena ("Founder Arena", "we", "us") runs a competition for founders of new software businesses. It is organized in seasons. Each season's page on this site shows its dates, stages, deadline and funding pool, and forms part of these rules.

These rules apply to everyone who submits an application. They work together with our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If they conflict, these rules apply to the competition.

You must be at least 18 years old and live in the United States or Canada when you apply and throughout your participation. The competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law.

You may apply alone or as a team. One person, the account holder, submits and manages the application and is responsible for the team's compliance with these rules.

Each person may submit one application per season, tied to their legal name and the email address of their account. Additional or duplicate applications, including through other accounts, may be discarded.

Entry is free. No purchase or payment is required to enter or to win, and paying for anything will not improve your chances.

To enter, create an account, verify your email address, complete the application and submit it before the season's deadline. Deadlines are in Toronto time (Eastern Time) and are shown on the site in your own time zone. Applications not submitted by the deadline cannot be accepted, and we may close applications early by announcing it on the site.

Once submitted, an application is locked and can't be edited. You are responsible for making sure it is complete and accurate.

A season runs in stages: application screening; an interview with Sam and Ramy; a live demo (validation challenge); a business and funding discussion; and building with support toward a first customer. The season's page describes each stage. We may adjust stages, their timing or their requirements, and will show any change on the site.

At each stage, the judges decide who moves on to the next one. An application that isn't selected to continue stays on the leaderboard for the rest of the season, but can't advance further that season. We are not required to advance a particular number of applicants at any stage.

Every submitted application is scored by an AI model against the published judging criteria. The model reads your answers and any pitch deck. It does not receive your legal name, email address or username.

Scores run from 0 to 1,000 and appear on the public leaderboard with your username, your category and your score band. Your answers, the detailed scores and the judges' notes are not published on the site.

Scores are automated assessments. They may change if an application is scored again, and they do not decide who advances or who receives funding.

An application that is not for a software business, or that tries to influence or manipulate the AI screener or the leaderboard, may receive the lowest score band and may be disqualified.

Sam and Ramy, the Founder Arena judges, review the strongest applications personally and decide who advances at each stage and who is offered funding. They may use the AI score, the judging criteria, interviews and demos, and any other information about the application.

Judging decisions are made at the judges' discretion and are final. We don't have to explain individual decisions.

Each season has a funding pool, shown on the season's page. It may be shared across selected founders as awards, as investments, or both. Funding is selective and not guaranteed: we are not required to award or invest the whole pool, or to fund anyone.

Any investment is offered on terms negotiated individually with each founder and is made only under a separate written agreement signed outside this site. Nothing on the site is an offer to buy or sell securities or investment advice.

Before receiving an award, a founder may be asked to confirm their eligibility and identity, sign a declaration and release, and, where required by law, correctly answer a skill-testing question. Founders are responsible for any taxes on funding they receive.

By applying, you give Founder Arena permission to show, discuss, record and publish your application, including your answers, pitch deck and demo, on streams, videos and social media, in any medium, worldwide, without payment to you.

On the site and on stream you are identified only by your username. We never show your legal name, email address or contact details.

If you advance, meetings with the judges may be streamed live or recorded, and you may appear on camera. You agree that your appearance, voice and what you say in those meetings may be used in Founder Arena content.

Content that has already been streamed or published may remain on the platforms where it appeared, even if you later withdraw.

You keep ownership of your idea and everything you submit. You give Founder Arena a non-exclusive licence to store, process and use it to run the competition and for the media uses in section 8.

Your application is not treated as confidential. Others may have similar ideas, and Founder Arena, other founders and the judges may work on similar ideas independently. Don't include trade secrets, confidential information, personal information about other people, passwords, or financial or identity documents.

You confirm that your application is your own work, that you have the right to submit everything in it, and that it doesn't infringe anyone's rights.

You may withdraw your submitted application at any time from your dashboard. You can't undo a withdrawal yourself; if you withdraw by mistake, email us while applications are open and an admin can restore it.

We may disqualify an application or remove a participant at any stage if we reasonably believe they broke these rules or our Terms of Use, gave false or misleading information, tried to manipulate the AI screener or the leaderboard, used more than one account, infringed someone else's rights, or behaved abusively toward anyone involved in the competition.

We may update these rules. Each version has a date, and you accept the version shown when you submit. If we need to, we may change, pause or cancel a season, for example if there aren't enough eligible applications or because of circumstances beyond our control, and we will announce it on the site.

You take part at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Founder Arena, its judges and its team have no liability for technical problems, lost or late applications, judging decisions, or any loss arising from taking part in the competition, and you release them from all claims arising from your participation. Where the law doesn't allow this, their liability is limited to the smallest amount the law allows.

How we handle your personal information is explained in our Privacy Policy.

These rules are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. This doesn't take away any rights you have under the consumer protection laws of the place where you live.

Questions about these rules: hello@founderarena.app.