Terms of Service

1. Scope

1.1 These Terms of Service govern your use of launchboost.dev (the "Site") and all contracts concluded through it. The Site is operated by Enrico Ort, Staakener Str. 15, 13581 Berlin, Germany ("we", "us"). Full contact details are in the Impressum.

1.2 Our offer is aimed at both consumers and businesses. Where these terms treat consumers differently, this is stated. A consumer is any person who enters into a contract for purposes that are mainly outside their trade, business or profession (§ 13 BGB).

1.3 Terms of a business customer that differ from these terms do not apply, even if we do not expressly object to them.

1.4 Contracts are concluded in English.

2. What launchboost.dev is

2.1 launchboost.dev is a directory where founders publish their startups. Listings launch in launch weeks, which run from Monday 00:00 to Sunday 23:59 UTC. After its launch week, a listing stays in the directory until it is deleted or removed under these Terms.

2.2 Listing a startup is free. Free listings that pass moderation launch on the first Monday after submission.

2.3 We also offer paid products that give a listing more visibility (section 9). We do not promise any particular number of votes, visitors, sign-ups, ranking position or revenue for free or paid listings.

3. Eligibility and account

3.1 You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. To place a paid order, you must have full legal capacity to enter into contracts, or have your legal guardian's consent.

3.2 You sign in with Google or with a sign-in link sent to your email address. Keep access to your Google account and email inbox secure. You are responsible for activity in your account unless you are not at fault.

3.3 Provide accurate information. If you submit a startup on behalf of a company, you confirm that you are authorised to do so.

3.4 Your maker profile (name, handle, bio, avatar and optional website and X handle) is public.

3.5 You can delete your account at any time in your account settings or by emailing us. Deleting your account does not affect paid orders that have already been performed.

4. Listing rules

4.1 You may only list products that are live or that have an active waitlist. Ideas, concepts and products without a working website do not qualify.

4.2 Listings must not contain, promote or link to:

• anything illegal under German or EU law;
• adult or sexually explicit content;
• gambling or betting;
• scams, phishing, pyramid or get-rich-quick schemes;
• malware, spyware or other harmful software;
• cryptocurrency or token pump schemes, or tokens promoted mainly as an investment;
• hate speech, harassment, or content that incites violence or discrimination;
• content that infringes copyrights, trademarks or other rights of third parties;
• misleading claims, including false statements about features, users, revenue, awards or endorsements.

4.3 You must hold all rights in the content you submit (names, texts, logos and images), or have permission from the rights holder.

4.4 One listing per product. Do not resubmit a rejected or removed product without first fixing the reason it was rejected or removed.

4.5 Discount codes you add to a listing must work as described while they are shown. The offer is between you and your customers; we only display the code and do not check it.

5. Rights to your content

5.1 You keep all rights in the content you submit. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide right to store, reproduce, adapt to our formats (for example by resizing or cropping logos), publicly display and make available your listing, logo, screenshots and profile content on the Site, in our newsletter and on our social media channels, for as long as the listing is online and for a reasonable period afterwards in content we published before you removed it (such as past newsletter issues).

5.2 Votes, ranking positions and launch history are data generated by the Site. We may keep displaying them as part of past launch weeks while your listing exists.

5.3 If a third party claims that your content infringes their rights, you must indemnify us against justified claims and the reasonable costs of legal defence, unless you are not at fault.

6. Moderation and reporting illegal content

6.1 Every submission is screened automatically. We send the listing's name, tagline and description to an AI model that checks for spam, scams and prohibited content. Depending on the result, the submission is approved, sent to manual review, or rejected. If your submission is rejected automatically, you can ask for a human review by emailing contact@launchboost.dev. Details are in our Privacy Policy.

6.2 We may also review listings and profiles manually at any time. If content breaks the law or these terms, we may reject it, restrict its visibility, remove it, remove its dofollow link, or suspend the account. We choose the measure that is proportionate to the violation.

6.3 When we reject, restrict or remove your content, we tell you by email, giving the reasons, the facts we relied on, whether automated means were used, the legal or contractual basis, and how you can challenge the decision (Art. 17 DSA). You can reply to that email to contest the decision; a person will review it.

6.4 Anyone can report content they believe is illegal by email to contact@launchboost.dev (Art. 16 DSA). Please include the URL of the content, an explanation of why you consider it illegal, your name and email address (unless you report certain offences involving child sexual abuse), and a statement that you are making the report in good faith and that it is accurate and complete. We confirm receipt, decide on reports in a timely and objective manner, and tell you the outcome. This address is also our point of contact for authorities and users under Art. 11 and 12 DSA; you can contact us in English or German.

7. Voting

7.1 Signed-in users can give each listing one vote. Vote totals are public; who voted is not.

7.2 Do not manipulate votes. This includes buying or selling votes, offering rewards for votes, using multiple or fake accounts, bots, vote-exchange groups, or asking people to create accounts only to vote for you.

7.3 If we see signs of manipulation, we may disregard affected votes, remove a listing from the rankings, withdraw a top-3 placement and its dofollow link, or suspend the accounts involved.

8. Links

8.1 Every listing links to the startup's website. Links from the top 3 listings of each launch week and from listings with a paid product are dofollow. All other links carry the nofollow attribute.

8.2 A dofollow link stays in place as long as the listing is online and complies with these terms. We do not guarantee any effect on search rankings.

9. Paid products

9.1 We currently offer the following one-time products for a listing:

• Boost (€19): your listing launches as soon as the payment is confirmed, instead of on the next Monday, and takes part in the current launch week.
• Featured (€49): your listing is pinned in a featured slot on the homepage for 7 days and mentioned in one issue of our weekly newsletter. Featured slots are limited to 4 per week.
• Newsletter spot (€29): your listing is featured in one issue of our weekly newsletter.
• Sponsor (€99 per week): a sponsor banner for your startup is shown in the sponsor slot on the Site for 7 days. Sponsor slots are limited.

9.2 The exact dates of your order (featured week, newsletter issue or sponsorship week) are shown before you pay and in your order confirmation. A Boost has no date to choose: it starts when the payment is confirmed. Paid placements are labelled as sponsored or featured on the Site and in the newsletter.

9.3 A paid product only covers a listing that complies with these terms. Paid listings go through the same moderation as free listings.

9.4 For sponsor banners, you supply the text, image and target URL. Section 4 applies to them in the same way as to listings.

10. Ordering and conclusion of contract

10.1 You place a paid order as follows:

1. Sign in and choose the listing and the product, including the date or period where applicable.
2. Review your order summary. As a consumer, you also confirm that we should begin the service before the withdrawal period ends (see section 13).
3. You are redirected to Stripe Checkout, where you enter your payment details.
4. Before paying, you can correct your entries at any time by returning to the previous step or closing the checkout page.
5. You click the pay button to submit your order.

10.2 The presentation of our products on the Site and on the pricing page is a binding offer, subject to the availability of the selected slot. By clicking the pay button in Stripe Checkout, you accept this offer and the contract is concluded. If the payment fails, we are not obliged to perform.

10.3 We send you an order confirmation by email that contains the contract details and these terms. We store the contract data; you can view your orders in your dashboard. The current version of these terms is always available on this page.

10.4 If a slot you booked turns out to be unavailable for reasons on our side, we will offer you an alternative date. If you do not accept it, we refund you in full.

11. Prices, payment and invoices

11.1 All prices are final prices in euros. As a small business under § 19 UStG, we do not charge VAT, so no VAT is shown.

11.2 Payment is due immediately and is processed by Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd. You can use the payment methods offered in Stripe Checkout. Stripe's own terms apply to the payment transaction.

11.3 You receive an invoice by email. Invoices are generated through Stripe.

12. Refunds when we remove a paid listing

12.1 If we remove a paid listing or a sponsor banner because it violates the law or these terms, you are not entitled to a refund. Your statutory rights remain unaffected.

12.2 If we remove a paid listing or stop a paid service for reasons that are not your fault (for example, because we discontinue the product), we refund you in full if the service has not yet started. If it has started, we refund the part of the price that corresponds to the unused portion (for example, the remaining days of a 7-day placement).

13. Right of withdrawal

Consumers have a statutory right of withdrawal. The details, including when it expires early, are set out in our withdrawal instructions.

14. Availability

We aim to keep the Site available at all times but cannot guarantee uninterrupted availability. Maintenance, technical faults and events outside our control may cause interruptions. If an interruption on our side significantly affects a paid placement, we will extend the placement or refund the affected part.

15. Liability

15.1 We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz), and where we have given a guarantee.

15.2 For slight negligence, we are liable only for breach of an essential contractual obligation (cardinal obligation). These are obligations whose fulfilment makes proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose fulfilment you may regularly rely. In this case our liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract.

15.3 Otherwise, our liability is excluded.

15.4 These limitations also apply to the personal liability of our employees, representatives and agents.

16. Changes to these terms

16.1 We may change these terms for valid reasons, such as changes in the law, new features or changes to our products. We will email you about changes at least 4 weeks before they take effect.

16.2 You can object within this period. If you do not object and keep using the Site after the changes take effect, the new terms apply to your account. We will point this out in our email. If you object, we may close your free account at the date the changes take effect. Paid orders already placed are completed under the terms that applied when you ordered.

16.3 Changes to the main obligations, such as the scope or price of a paid product you have already ordered, require your express consent.

17. Termination

17.1 You can stop using the Site and delete your account at any time.

17.2 We may close a free account with 2 weeks' notice. We may suspend or close an account without notice for good cause, in particular for serious or repeated violations of these terms, such as vote manipulation or listing prohibited content.

18. Governing law and jurisdiction

18.1 German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer, this choice of law does not deprive you of the protection of mandatory provisions of the law of the country where you habitually reside.

18.2 If you are a merchant (Kaufmann), a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law, the exclusive place of jurisdiction for all disputes is our place of business.

19. Severability

If any provision of these terms is invalid, the rest remain in effect. The statutory provisions apply in place of the invalid provision.