Privacy Policy

Cofounder Diagnostic | Institute for Founder Dynamics | Version 2.0

Effective October 7, 2026

1. Who we are

The Cofounder Diagnostic (the "Diagnostic") at cofounderdiagnostics.com is operated by the Institute for Founder Dynamics ("IFD," "we," "us"), a New York nonprofit corporation. Our application for recognition as a 501(c)(3) public charity is pending. IFD studies cofounder relationships and builds tools that help founding teams work well together.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who can see it, and the choices you have. It applies to the Diagnostic and its website. Health-related information is also covered by our separate Consumer Health Data Notice. Questions: info@founderdynamics.org.

2. What we collect

Account details: your first name, email address, and sign-in details.
Your answers to the Diagnostic. Some questions ask about stress, health, sleep, and wellbeing as they affect your work and your partnership. Our Consumer Health Data Notice explains how we handle these answers.
About your company and partnership (optional): for example company stage, headcount, how long you have worked together, how you know each other, equity split, your role, financing, and revenue. You can skip any of these.
Your cofounder's email address, when you invite them. If your cofounder or a coach invited you, we received your email address from them.
Payment information: our payment provider processes payments. We receive confirmation of your purchase and limited details such as the amount and status. We never receive your full card number.
What you tell us directly: emails, support requests, and what you share in a feedback conversation, including notes or a recording if you agree to one.
Technical information needed to run the service safely, such as IP address, browser type, and activity logs.

3. How we use it

To run the Diagnostic and produce your joint report.
To manage your account and payment, and to email you about your use of the service.
To answer questions and provide support, including coaching.
To check that reports are accurate, understand how the Diagnostic is working, and improve it.
For research, as described in section 6.
To keep the service secure, prevent misuse, and meet legal obligations.

4. Who can see your information

Your cofounder. Your cofounder never sees how you answered individual questions. You both receive the same joint report. It shows where each of you stands on each area of your partnership and where your views differ.

Our team. IFD's staff and contractors, including coaches who work with teams, can see individual answers, including both cofounders' answers side by side. They use them to run and support the Diagnostic, check reports, improve the instrument, and carry out research. Everyone with this access is bound by confidentiality.

Your coach. If you joined the Diagnostic through a coach's invitation, that coach can see your individual answers, your scores, and your joint report. Some coaches work with us as contractors and others are independent. We ask for your agreement to share with the coach who invited you when you sign up. An independent coach handles your information under their own practices and professional obligations, not this policy.

Research collaborators. Researchers at universities and research institutions who work with us receive de-identified data only. They are bound by confidentiality and may not re-identify it.

Service providers. We use providers for hosting, databases, sign-in, email delivery, and payments. They can access information only as needed to provide their services to us.

With your consent or at your direction. We share information when you ask us to or agree to it.

Legal and safety reasons. We may share information when we believe in good faith that the law or legal process requires it, or that it is needed to enforce our Terms or to protect the rights, safety, or property of our users, the public, or IFD.

Changes to our organization. If IFD or the Diagnostic is reorganized, merged, or transferred to an affiliated or successor organization, your information may be transferred as part of that change and will remain protected by this policy or one at least as protective.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use or share it for advertising.

5. What we do not do

We never show one cofounder the other's individual answers.
We never share your individual answers with your investors, accelerator, employer, or board, except as described under Legal and safety reasons in section 4.
Outside IFD and our service providers, only the coach you joined through sees answers that identify you. Research collaborators receive de-identified data only.
We never publish anything that identifies you, your cofounder, or your company.

6. Research

Studying cofounder relationships is central to our work.

De-identified research (everyone). We remove information that identifies you, your cofounder, and your company. We take reasonable measures so that de-identified data cannot reasonably be linked to you, we do not attempt to re-identify it, and we require anyone we share it with not to re-identify it. We may use the de-identified data, alone or combined with data from other partnerships, for research, publications, presentations, teaching, benchmarks, and improving the Diagnostic. We may share it with research collaborators. We may keep and use de-identified data without limit, and it cannot be withdrawn once de-identified.

Research that identifies you. If we ever want to share information that identifies you with research collaborators, or to invite you into a specific study, we will ask you first.

7. Cookies and Do Not Track

We use cookies and similar technology needed to sign you in and keep the Diagnostic working. We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not track you across other websites, so we do not respond differently to Do Not Track signals. If we add other tools of this kind, we will describe them here.

8. How long we keep information

We keep your information while your account is open and afterward for as long as it serves the purposes in this policy, including research, record keeping, resolving disputes, and meeting legal obligations. We keep de-identified data without limit.

9. Your choices

You can update your account details at any time.
You can ask for a copy of your information, or ask us to correct it, by emailing info@founderdynamics.org.
Deleting your account. You can ask us to delete your account. We will delete your name, email address, and other information that identifies you, and keep a de-identified copy of your answers for research. Because your joint report is shared, deleting your account may change or remove the report your cofounder sees.
You can opt out of non-essential emails. We will still send messages you need to use the service.

We may need to confirm your identity before acting on a request. We respond within the time the law requires. We may keep information we are legally required to keep or that we need to resolve disputes or enforce our terms. If the law where you live gives you additional rights, we will honor them as that law requires.

10. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information, and we limit access to people who need it for the purposes in this policy. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee it. If we learn of a breach that affects your information, we will notify you as the law requires.

11. Age

The Diagnostic is for adults. You must be 18 or older to use it, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone younger. If we learn we have, we will delete it.

12. Where your information is processed

We are based in the United States, and your information is stored and processed there. If you use the Diagnostic from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here with its effective date. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or in the product. If a change would let us use answers that identify you in a new way, we will ask for your consent first.

14. Contact

Institute for Founder Dynamics | info@founderdynamics.org | 99 Joralemon St, Brooklyn, NY 11201