Shahab here, co-founder at CoFoundersLab. I'd like to respond to the allegations being made on this string.
Regarding Orangethirty's statement, I don't know how you could claim that we sold any data. We absolutely do not sell any data. You should be more careful with your claims online, like many other startups we work really hard to do things by the book and build a strong reputation. Unless you have facts to back your claims up these sort of actions are very damaging to startup brands in their young lives.
Regarding Intellegacy's statement, CoFoundersLab does not have a call center, furthermore we don't even collect your phone number. Unless you are a Pro Member, at which point we collect a phone number for the credit card transaction. We do not use phone numbers for any other purpose. If you are not a Pro Member please mention that on this string, as it would be pretty cut-and-dry that we had nothing to do with the phone call you received since we don't have your phone number.
Regarding pain_perdu's allegations that we're doing anything wrong, I'd like to start with the following. You received a legitimate request from another member on CoFoundersLab to take an assessment. This member was presumably considering you as a co-founder and wanted to see how you matched up from a personality type assessment/entrepreneur archetype is what we refer that as. You then started the assessment but did not complete the assessment. At this point we did store your email on the BosiDNA system.
BOSIdna is a partner of CoFoundersLab. When you sign up for CoFoundersLab's FREE SERVICE you agreed to the following terms IF you take the assessment; "By completing the archetype assessment, you agree to the Terms of Service of BOSI Inc. Find BOSI Inc.'s Terms of Service here: http://www.bosidna.com/tos. We rely on bosiDNA to conduct the assessment so you're also agreeing to their terms of use. So CoFoundersLab did not sell any information to bosiDNA, we have purchased a license from bosiDNA, we feel this is a valuable service and we provide it as an integrated experience for our members at no charge. bosiDNA has never paid CoFoundersLab for any service, and certainly not for our data. Therefore CoFoundersLab has not done anything wrong.
Having said all that, while bosiDNA reserves the right to email you; we do have an agreement that our members should not be contacted by bosiDNA directly without permission. There was a campaign that was sent out to a very small group of people inadvertently who were also CoFoundersLab members. I've confirmed with their CEO that issue has been resolved. This was an isolated case and will not happen again.
For those reading this, I want to further explain the email that was sent from bosiDNA was an invitation to join a free webinar. It went out to people who partially completed the bosi assessment to educate people about a free assessment.
It's a real slap in the face that CoFoundersLab provides a free service, made more than 25k introductions, all to help entrepreneurs launch new startups, and to be treated with such disdain is a real disappointment. I'd like to refer anyone reading this to http://buzz.cofounderslab.com/Successful_Matches/ to have a look at some of the successul entrepreneurs we're helping and assure you, we do not sell data to anybody, and that our mission and values are just, and we hope to make a huge impact on the entrepreneurs who are seeking great co-founders.
My intention was not to "slap you in the face"...but I REALLY don't like spam (unsolicited e-mail for which I have not opted-in). I don't feel that the fact your service is free gives you a license to share e-mail addresses without permission. As I pointed out in my original post, the statement "We promise not to share your email with anyone else." is extremely explicit.
Now where I have a problem with your explanation of this incident is the following statement:
"When you sign up for CoFoundersLab's FREE SERVICE you agreed to the following terms IF you take the assessment; "By completing the archetype assessment, you agree to the Terms of Service of BOSI Inc. Find BOSI Inc.'s Terms of Service here: http://www.bosidna.com/tos.
I just tried going through the same process from a new dummy account and when I clicked "My Archetype
You have not yet taken this assessment - Take Assessment" it then takes me to a link still on your site that says
"What's your entrepreneurial archetype?
Take a minute to complete this 10-question assessment to discover your innate entrepreneurial skill set and how you might match up with a potential co-founder."
Upon clicking that link, the BOSI system pops up and that is as far as I ever went on my accounts. There was no indication that my initiating this process I would be having any interaction with a third-party, let-alone being displayed a warning like the one you described. The phrasing you quoted was not displayed to me (I just tested it now) at any point.
This is just not email best-practices.
This is spam.
When good websites (and I wholeheartedly agree you provide a great service to the community) start leaking their e-mail lists to third-parties without the permission of the users, this is where a lot of spam comes from.
Regarding Orangethirty's statement, I don't know how you could claim that we sold any data. We absolutely do not sell any data. You should be more careful with your claims online, like many other startups we work really hard to do things by the book and build a strong reputation. Unless you have facts to back your claims up these sort of actions are very damaging to startup brands in their young lives.
Regarding Intellegacy's statement, CoFoundersLab does not have a call center, furthermore we don't even collect your phone number. Unless you are a Pro Member, at which point we collect a phone number for the credit card transaction. We do not use phone numbers for any other purpose. If you are not a Pro Member please mention that on this string, as it would be pretty cut-and-dry that we had nothing to do with the phone call you received since we don't have your phone number.
Regarding pain_perdu's allegations that we're doing anything wrong, I'd like to start with the following. You received a legitimate request from another member on CoFoundersLab to take an assessment. This member was presumably considering you as a co-founder and wanted to see how you matched up from a personality type assessment/entrepreneur archetype is what we refer that as. You then started the assessment but did not complete the assessment. At this point we did store your email on the BosiDNA system.
BOSIdna is a partner of CoFoundersLab. When you sign up for CoFoundersLab's FREE SERVICE you agreed to the following terms IF you take the assessment; "By completing the archetype assessment, you agree to the Terms of Service of BOSI Inc. Find BOSI Inc.'s Terms of Service here: http://www.bosidna.com/tos. We rely on bosiDNA to conduct the assessment so you're also agreeing to their terms of use. So CoFoundersLab did not sell any information to bosiDNA, we have purchased a license from bosiDNA, we feel this is a valuable service and we provide it as an integrated experience for our members at no charge. bosiDNA has never paid CoFoundersLab for any service, and certainly not for our data. Therefore CoFoundersLab has not done anything wrong.
Having said all that, while bosiDNA reserves the right to email you; we do have an agreement that our members should not be contacted by bosiDNA directly without permission. There was a campaign that was sent out to a very small group of people inadvertently who were also CoFoundersLab members. I've confirmed with their CEO that issue has been resolved. This was an isolated case and will not happen again.
For those reading this, I want to further explain the email that was sent from bosiDNA was an invitation to join a free webinar. It went out to people who partially completed the bosi assessment to educate people about a free assessment.
It's a real slap in the face that CoFoundersLab provides a free service, made more than 25k introductions, all to help entrepreneurs launch new startups, and to be treated with such disdain is a real disappointment. I'd like to refer anyone reading this to http://buzz.cofounderslab.com/Successful_Matches/ to have a look at some of the successul entrepreneurs we're helping and assure you, we do not sell data to anybody, and that our mission and values are just, and we hope to make a huge impact on the entrepreneurs who are seeking great co-founders.
- Shahab