Last updated: August 23, 2026. This policy explains what Business Founders does with your information when you visit thebusinessfounders.com, buy an e-book, download a free chapter, or apply through the editing services form. The short version: we collect very little, we use it only for the reason you gave it to us, and we never sell it. If anything here is unclear, email hello@thebusinessfounders.com and ask.
Almost nothing. The website is a set of static pages. It sets no cookies of its own, runs no analytics, and carries no advertising trackers, no pixels, and no local or session storage that follows you around. There is no account to create and no login.
If you only read pages, download a free chapter, or look at the book listings, you do not fill anything in and we do not build a profile of you. We could not tell you how many people visited a given page, because we do not measure it. The one thing that happens automatically is the standard server logging done by our host and by the other companies whose files the pages load, which is explained in the next section.
You give us personal information only when you choose to: by buying a book, by requesting the free four-chapter sampler, by applying through the editing services form, or by emailing us or messaging us on Instagram. Each of those is described below.
Some parts of the site load from other companies' servers, and any time your browser requests a file from another server, that server receives your IP address, the page you were on, and basic browser information. This is how the web works, but you should know who is involved.
Google Fonts serves the typefaces used across the site. Your browser requests those font files from Google, so Google receives your IP address. jsDelivr, a public content delivery network, serves the Three.js graphics library used for the background visuals, so jsDelivr also receives your IP address.
We do not receive any of that data, and we do not ask those providers for reports about visitors. Their own privacy policies govern what they do with it. If you use a VPN or a browser that blocks third party requests, those requests are what your tools will be blocking.
Gumroad serves a checkout script on the homepage, the shop page and the four book pages. It is what lets a buy button open Gumroad's checkout instead of sending you away first. Because your browser fetches it from Gumroad, Gumroad's servers receive your IP address on those pages whether or not you buy anything, and that script may set cookies of Gumroad's own. Those cookies are Gumroad's rather than ours, and Gumroad's privacy policy governs them.
GitHub Pages hosts and serves the site, including the free chapter PDFs. Like any web host, GitHub keeps standard server logs of requests, which typically include IP addresses, timestamps, and the pages and files requested. Those logs belong to GitHub and are handled under GitHub's privacy practices. We do not have access to raw visitor logs.
All purchases go through Gumroad. Gumroad is the merchant of record, which means Gumroad sells the product to you, processes the payment, and handles sales tax. You complete checkout on Gumroad's page, not on ours. There is no payment form on this website, and no card details are ever entered on it or stored by it. The buy buttons do rely on Gumroad's own checkout script, which is described in the section above.
Gumroad collects your email address and your payment details, and may collect billing information such as country for tax purposes. Gumroad's privacy policy and terms apply to that checkout.
What we see as the seller is the order record in our Gumroad dashboard: your email address, which product you bought, the amount, and the date. We never see your full card number, your card security code, or your bank details. Those never touch this website, and the site stores no payment information at all.
We use your purchase email to deliver the PDF, to send you the file again if you lose it, and to answer questions about your order. If we ever need to tell buyers about a problem with a book, for example a corrupted file or a corrected edition, we would use that email for that too. This policy covers how we handle your data. It does not set the terms of sale.
The four-chapter sampler is a free Gumroad product, and Gumroad asks for your email address before it sends the chapters. That is the only thing it collects from you.
We use that email address to send you the sampler and, from time to time, updates from Business Founders: new books, free chapters, and occasional notes worth reading. Those emails are sent through Gumroad. We do not pass your address to anyone else to email you, and we do not send daily blasts.
Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link, and clicking it takes you off the list with no reply needed and no questions asked. You can also email hello@thebusinessfounders.com and ask to be removed, and we will do it by hand.
The first chapter of each book is also available on that book's page as a direct PDF download with no email required. If you want to read before you buy without giving us your address, use those links.
The editing services form asks for your name, your Instagram handle, your email address, and optionally your Telegram username. Nothing else is asked for, and no payment is taken on the site.
We use those details for one purpose: to read your application and reply to it. We do not add these emails to the sampler mailing list, we do not use them for marketing, and we do not share them outside Business Founders.
The form is submitted through Formspree, a form handling service, which passes the message to our inbox and keeps a copy of the submission in our account there. Like any such service, Formspree also records technical details of the submission, such as the time it was sent and the IP address it came from. If you would rather not use the form, you can send the same information to hello@thebusinessfounders.com, or send a direct message on Instagram at @businessfounders_.
Editor applications and careers are not open at the moment. If you write to us about joining, we will keep your message only long enough to reply to it.
We do not sell your personal information, and we have never sold it. We do not rent it, trade it, or share it with data brokers, advertisers, or anyone building marketing lists. There is no ad network on this site to share it with.
We do not track you across other websites, and we do not run retargeting campaigns. The site sets no cookies of its own, so there is no cookie banner from us. The one third party that may set cookies here is Gumroad, through the checkout script on the shop and book pages, and those are governed by Gumroad's policy. Blocking third party cookies in your browser stops them without affecting anything you can read on this site.
We do not ask for sensitive personal information: no government ID numbers, no financial account numbers, no health information. Please do not send any of that to us.
Order records live in Gumroad for as long as Gumroad keeps them, since Gumroad is the seller of record and has its own tax and accounting obligations. We keep the buyer email and order details we can see there so we can re-send files and answer questions later.
Mailing list addresses are kept until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete you. If you unsubscribe, Gumroad keeps a record that you opted out, so that you are not emailed again by mistake. If you want the address removed entirely rather than marked as unsubscribed, email us and say so.
Editing service applications are kept while the conversation is active and for a reasonable period afterward in case you come back to us, both in our inbox and in the Formspree account. If you ask us to delete an application, we delete it from both.
Email hello@thebusinessfounders.com from the address you used, and tell us what you want. You can ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. We will act on the request and confirm when it is done. State privacy laws generally allow up to 45 days to respond, and we would rather be much faster than that.
Two honest limits. First, if you have bought a book, Gumroad holds its own copy of the transaction, and Gumroad may need to keep sales records for tax and accounting reasons even after we remove what we hold. For anything held by Gumroad, you may also need to contact Gumroad directly. Second, deleting your purchase details from our side means we can no longer look up your order and re-send your PDF, so download and back up your files first.
We do not charge for these requests and we will not treat you differently for making one.
Most of our readers are in the United States. Several states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and Texas, give residents rights over their personal information. These generally include the right to know what is collected, the right to a copy of it, the right to correct it, the right to have it deleted, and the right to opt out of the sale of personal information or its use for targeted advertising.
We do not sell personal information and we do not use it for targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of on that front. The rest of these rights are available to you by emailing hello@thebusinessfounders.com, and you do not need to live in one of those states to use them. We extend the same treatment to everyone.
You may use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may need to confirm the request really came from you. Since the site has no accounts, we do that by replying to the email address you bought with, or the one you wrote to us from.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, data protection law gives you the right to access your personal data, correct it, have it erased, restrict or object to how it is used, withdraw consent, and receive a copy in a portable format.
Our legal bases are straightforward. We process order information to perform the contract you entered into when you bought a book. We send marketing emails on the basis of your consent, given when you request the sampler, and you can withdraw it with the unsubscribe link at any time. We handle editing service applications on the basis of our legitimate interest in replying to people who contact us, and on taking steps at your request before any agreement.
Note that the site is served from GitHub Pages and loads files from Google and jsDelivr, and that purchases are handled by Gumroad, which can involve data transfers outside your country. Those providers operate their own transfer safeguards.
If you think we have handled your data badly, please tell us first at hello@thebusinessfounders.com so we can fix it. You also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner's Office.
This site is meant for adults running or starting businesses. It is not directed at children, and children under 13 should not use the site, buy anything, join the mailing list, or submit the editing services form.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we hold information from a child under 13, we will delete it. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has sent us information, email hello@thebusinessfounders.com and we will remove it.
If we change how the site handles data, for example by adding a new tool or a new way to get in touch, we will update this page and change the date at the top. There is no version history to dig through: the page you are reading is the policy in force.
If a change materially affects people already on the mailing list, we will say so in an email rather than expecting anyone to notice a quiet edit.
Business Founders can be reached at hello@thebusinessfounders.com for any privacy question, deletion request, or correction. It is a real inbox and it gets read.
You can also reach us on Instagram at @businessfounders_, though email is better for anything involving your personal data, since direct messages are held on Instagram's servers and we would rather not discuss your details there.
Governing law for this policy is the law of the country in which Business Founders operates. Nothing in this policy takes away rights that the law of your own country gives you.
Email hello@thebusinessfounders.com and a person will answer.