Terms & Conditions
Last revised on June 6, 2019
Welcome to the Grō service (the “Service”, as defined in Section 1). We hope you will have a terrific experience as part of our community. Please review these Terms of Service thoroughly before commencing use of our Service.
In these Terms of Service, “Grō” means Gro Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, that provides services under the names Grō, and gro.academy (hereinafter, “Grō” or the “Company”). We provide such services to you subject to the following conditions. Before you may use the Service, you must read and accept all of the terms and conditions in, and linked to, these Terms of Service (“TOS” or “Terms”) and the linked Privacy Policy, which are incorporated into and made part of these Terms. These Terms are applicable regardless of whether you are accessing the Service through the Internet, our website, our mobile applications, or otherwise. We strongly advise that in addition to reading the TOS, you also access and read the linked information. Except as explicitly set forth herein, if the TOS conflict with any other documents or agreements, the TOS will control for the purposes of usage of the Service. If you do not agree to be bound by these TOS and the Privacy Policy, you may not use the Service in any way—regardless of whether you choose to register as a Member or user of the Service.
Users of the Service may register only if they are 18 years or older, have properly paid for and registered with the Service in accordance with these Terms, and have not been previously suspended or removed by Grō for any reason (each such registered user referred to as a “Member”). By becoming a Member, you represent and warrant that you are of legal age. If you do not meet the above qualifications, or if your use of the Service or Membership is prohibited by the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdiction, you may not use the Service.
These Terms constitute an electronic contract between you and Grō. By accessing or using the Service, you indicate your unconditional acceptance of these Terms. Please review these Terms carefully, including the arbitration provision in Section 16, which describes how disputes will be resolved between us, and that no class actions may be brought under these Terms. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to update or revise these Terms of Service. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the Terms of Service constitutes acceptance of those changes, even if you choose not to review such changes.
1. Description of Services.
Grō provides access to business planning tools, resources, and advice to help guide users through the process of starting a business. Collectively, all of these services are referred to in these TOS as the “Service” or “Services”. You are responsible for obtaining access to the Service, and paying any third-party fees, such as Internet service provider or airtime charges, that may apply to obtain such access (including fees associated with conveying and displaying any advertising to you). In addition, you must provide and are responsible for all equipment necessary to access the Service. While we do our best to provide many of the services essential to startups, our Services are not comprehensive, and other service providers may be advisable or necessary for your business.
Note that all content and information on the Service are for informational purposes only, and are not intended as a replacement for advice from competent professional advisors, such as attorneys, accountants, and tax advisors. Documents and templates provided through our Services have not been audited by us—they may not reflect recent updates to best practices, laws, and regulations, and you agree not to hold us responsible for any damages or expenses resulting from your reliance on any such documents. You and other Members are fully responsible for the final product(s) and output(s) resulting from our Services, and you agree not to hold us responsible for any damages or expenses resulting from your reliance on any such product(s) or output(s). By using the Service, you acknowledge that our goal is to provide awareness, direction, and examples of the general business startup process, but that our Services are not comprehensive and are not a replacement for utilizing your own good judgment and consultation with professional advisors. YOU RELY ON ANY SITE CONTENT, INFORMATION, OR ADVICE PROVIDED ON THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Please read this entire document for more information on Grō’s limitations on liability in regards to Service content, and on the ways your use of the Service limits your rights to sue Grō and its affiliates in court.
2. Use of the Service.
(a) Membership Fees.
(i) Free service. First-time users may sign up for a free 12-month membership, if then available, at gro.academy. Users opting for the free membership will have limited access to the site and the Services. There is no membership fee required for this free service, no obligation to purchase any services or products, and you need not provide a credit card or other payment at the time of initiating your free membership. By using the free membership service, you agree that we may market products and services to you through such service, including Grō Academy course, other Grō offerings, and third-party offerings (provided, however, that by marketing such products and/or services to you, we place you under no obligation to make any purchase(s)). Free memberships may be cancelled by you or us at any time, without obligation or responsibility by either party. In particular, and without limiting any other provision of these TOS, you agree not to hold us liable to any harm caused by the cancellation, diminution, unavailability, or discontinuation of any free Service.
(ii) Subscription. A subscription to membership in the Gro Academy may be purchased online. In order to sign up for the Gro Academy, you must provide a valid credit or debit card at the time of sign-up. By providing such debit or credit card information, you authorize us to charge your credit card $29 for an initial 30-day access period. This fee is automatically rebilled every 30 days. You may cancel in accordance with these Terms. You must cancel the Service 3 days prior to your next 30 day billing cycle online in your account (U.S. Eastern Time). After cancellation, you will not have access to any information that you may have submitted to your account, although we reserve the right to retain or remove any information you provide in accordance with these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
[OR] A subscription to membership in the Gro Academy may be purchased online. In order to sign up for the Gro Academy, you must provide a valid credit or debit card at the time of sign-up. By providing such debit or credit card information, you authorize us to charge your credit card $199 for a 12-month full membership with full access to the Grō Academy. After your 12-month membership has expired, your membership will continue on a monthly basis for $29.00 per month, to be automatically rebilled every 30 days. You may cancel in accordance with these Terms. You must cancel the Service 3 days prior to your next 30 day billing cycle online in your account (U.S. Eastern Time). After cancellation, you will not have access to any information that you may have submitted to your account, although we reserve the right to retain or remove any information you provide in accordance with these Terms and our Privacy Policy.
(iii) Subsequent Membership Extensions. Grō is set up as a community with resources and a self-paced startup roadmap and is renewed each month as long as you choose to remain a member and access all of the benefits and features of the Gro Academy, including remaining in the Grō community, accessing the community message board and retaining access to your account and related documents. Once monthly membership has been set up, you will be charged the monthly fee every 30 days, but remember: after you set up the automatic renewal or continuous service, you will be allowed to terminate the automatic renewal or continuous service exclusively online—you need not call, mail, e-mail, or fax us in order to cancel your month-to-month membership.
(iv) Excess Storage Fees. If you upload files and other data to our site in amounts that exceed the average Member’s data usage, we reserve the right to charge a fee for such excess file storage usage. We will notify you prior to billing you for any such data storage, giving you the opportunity to reduce your data storage to normal levels. In any such notification, we will let you know the amount of the excess data storage fee and how that fee was calculated.
(v) Refunds. The free service period represents an opportunity for you to determine whether you believe the Services are right for you. Therefore, once payment for a paid subscription has been made (either an initial membership or extension) there are no automatic refunds, and refunds will be provided only in unusual circumstances in our sole discretion.
(vi) Changes and Discounts. We may occasionally provide discounts or membership period extensions, and we may adjust the standard membership fee or subscription period from time to time, all in our sole discretion—in either case, no refunds will be provided to any Member who has previously purchased a membership at the previous or non-discounted price.
(b) Limited License; Consent to Email Communications.
Grō grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of the Service. You may not use the Service for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms of Service, or to solicit the performance of any illegal activity, activity that is competitive in any manner to Grō, or other activity which infringes on the rights of Grō or others. Once you complete and submit your registration, you have opted in to receive email communications from Grō (including notifications, offers, promotions, and newsletters), unless and until you affirmatively opt out of such communications under the terms of the Privacy Policy.
(c) Prohibited Uses.
Notwithstanding any other rights or restrictions in these Terms of Service, you may not use this Service to: (i) transmit via or through the Service any information, data, text, images, files, links, or software except in connection with your authorized use of this Service or otherwise in response to specific requests for information by us; (ii) introduce to the Service or any other computer or website viruses, worms, Trojan horses and/or any kind of harmful code; (iii) obtain unauthorized access to any computer system; (iv) impersonate any other person, including but not limited to, a registered user of this Service or an employee of Grō; (v) invade the privacy or violate any personal or proprietary right (including intellectual property rights) of any person or entity; (vi) misrepresent the identity of a user or use a false e-mail address; (vii) tamper with or obtain access to this Service or any component of this Service; (viii) conduct fraudulent activities; (ix) collect or harvest information regarding other users of the Service for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, for sending such users unsolicited commercial e-mail; (x) copy or publish any information, articles, or other content that appears on the Service without the written consent of Grō; (xi) download or copy account information for the benefit of another vendor or any other third party; (xii) commit any action that imposes or may impose (in Grō’s sole discretion) an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on Grō’s infrastructure; (xiii) engage in any activity for personal commercial gain (such as selling a status update or review to a business) or (xiv) use data mining techniques, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools.
You may not bypass any measures used by Grō to prevent or restrict access to the Service. Any unauthorized use by you shall terminate the permission or license granted to you by Grō.
(d) Responsibility For Member Account.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account, including your username and password. You agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. You agree to immediately notify us in the event of any unauthorized use of your account or other breach of security. Because of this, we strongly advise that if you are logged in as a Member, you exit or “log out” from your account at the end of each session.
3. Membership Eligibility.
(a) Accuracy of Account.
You agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service’s registration form and other forms on the Service or as otherwise provided by Grō. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete (or becomes untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete), or if Grō has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Grō has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof). Grō reserves the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, or remove or edit content in its sole discretion.
(b) No Circumvention of Ban; No Transfer of Account.
If an account is cancelled upon any violation of any of these Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy, then (a) no refunds shall be made, and (b) the user whose account was cancelled may not set up or use any other account to access the Services (even if such other account was set up by that user). Additionally, users are prohibited from selling, trading, or otherwise transferring any Grō account to, or sharing any such account with, another party.
4. Proprietary Rights.
(a) Grō’s Proprietary Rights in General.
Excluding Service User Content, you acknowledge and agree that the content, software, materials and other components (including but not limited to our logos, graphics, videos, music, button icons, and page headers) available on the Service are the highly valuable property of Grō and/or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or licensors and are protected by patents, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights and laws. You agree not to sell, license, rent, modify, distribute, copy, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, publish, adapt, edit, or create derivative works from any content or materials on the Service (including software and code), without the express written permission of Grō.
(b) Grō’s Website Content.
Excluding Service User Content, the website, gro.academy, includes content (“Website Content”) such as, but not limited to, text, graphics, displays, images, video, audio, button icons, page headers, information, studies, protocols, data sets, publications, events, reports, the design, selection and arrangement of gro.acadamy, and various other forms of media, provided by Grō and/or one or more third party partners and/or licensors. In addition, the Website Content may include various forms of intellectual property, including trademarks, copyrighted information, patented information, database structures and content, logos, URLs, domain names, text, designs, pages, print screens, images, artwork, photographs, auto and video clips, and HTML code, source code, program code or software.
You agree and acknowledge that the Website Content is owned by Grō and/or its licensors, and that your use of the Service does not grant you any rights, including ownership or use outside of the Service, in the Website Content.
(c) Grō’s Intellectual Property Rights and User License.
Except where expressly stated otherwise, the Service and Website Content are protected by applicable intellectual property law, including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property or proprietary rights and laws.
Solely, as permitted by these Terms, Grō grants to you a limited, revocable, conditional, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sub-licensable license to view or interact with the Service and Website Content. This license granted to you is expressly conditioned on your preexisting
agreement to comply with, and your actual compliance with, each of the provisions of these Terms, and exists only so long as you strictly agree and comply with these Terms.
Any use of the Service or Website Content by you, or anyone acting on your behalf that posts or transmits Prohibited Content (as defined below) violates and/or exceeds the scope of the license granted to you herein, and may constitute unauthorized use, reproduction, display, or creation of unauthorized derivative versions of the Service and Website Content, which infringes legal rights of Grō and/or its partners.
(d) Grō’s Trademark Rights. “Grō”, “gro.academy”, “Always Hustling”, and all related names, logos, product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of Grō or Grō Affiliates. You must not use such marks without the prior written permission of Grō.
(e) Proprietary Rights of Third Parties.
All trademarks and copyrighted materials not owned by Grō that appear on the Service are the property of their respective owners. Use of the content and materials for any purpose not expressly permitted in these Terms of Service is prohibited. We are not liable for any infringement or misappropriation of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, trade secrets, or other proprietary or intellectual property rights arising out of content posted on or transmitted through the Service by Service Users or Grō Affiliates.
5. Copyright; DMCA Procedures.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe that any materials on this Service infringe your copyright, you may request that they be removed. This request must bear a signature (or electronic equivalent) of the copyright holder or an authorized representative, and must:
(a) identify the copyrighted work that you believe to be infringed, including a description of the work and any registration number;
(a) identify the allegedly infringing materials, including a description of the material;
(b) indicate where on the Service the infringing materials are located, including the URL or any other pertinent information that would allow the material to be located;
(c) provide your name and contact information, including an address, telephone number and e-mail address if available;
(d) state that you have a good faith belief that the materials are infringing;
(e) state that the information in your claim is accurate; and
(f) indicate that “under penalty of perjury” you are the lawful copyright owner or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
If you believe that someone has wrongly filed a notice of copyright infringement against you, the DMCA permits you to send this Service a counter-notice. Notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA. See http://www.copyright.gov for further information. Our contact for copyright issues relating to this Service (including the notices and counter-notices) is: support@gro.academy. Please note that there are penalties for false claims under the DMCA.
6. Content Submitted By Service Users
(a) Responsibility For and Treatment Of Content.
The Service provides Service Users (a designation that includes “Members” as well as anyone who uses the Service without becoming a Member) the ability to send messages and post information, documents, and pictures on their profile and in other areas of the Service. By accessing the Service, you acknowledge that you are solely responsible for your profile, messages, photos, notes, text, information, opinions, ideas and any other content you post, upload, submit, publish, or display (hereinafter “post”) on or through the Service, or transmit to or share with other Service Users (collectively, the “Service User Content” or “Content”). Any Service User Content that is posted will not be treated as confidential. Grō has the right, but not the obligation, to monitor and decline, edit, or remove (without notice or liability) all or any portion of any Service User Content for any reason or no reason. In particular, Grō may remove any Service User Content that it believes, in its sole discretion, violates this Agreement or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of Service Users. If Grō chooses at any time, in its sole discretion, to monitor Service User Content, it still has no responsibility for the Service User Content or for the conduct of the Service User posting Service User Content or to edit or remove any Service User Content, except in compliance with Section 15 below. Grō reserves the right at any time in its sole discretion to block use from certain IP addresses in order to protect the integrity of the Service.
You agree to only post, upload, or send media (such as photos, logos, images, videos or audio) through the Service that you have taken yourself or that you have all rights to transmit and license and which do not violate patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, privacy or any other rights of any other person or entity. By uploading or transmitting any media through the Service, you warrant that you have permission from all persons appearing in your media for you to make this contribution and grant rights to Grō, as described herein.
(b) Prohibited Content.
You agree not to use the Service to post Service User Content or transmit to any person anything containing: (i) libelous or otherwise unlawful, abusive, sexually oriented, racially offensive, threatening, harassing, obscene or illegal material; (ii) advertisements of any kind; (iii) personal information (such as social security numbers, addresses, last names, phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, etc.); (iv) confidential information of Grō, its subsidiaries, or affiliates;
(v) any chain letters, pyramid schemes, spam, contests, or promotional material; (vi) messages that offer unauthorized downloads or copying of any copyrighted or private information; (vii) material that infringes or violates another party’s rights (including, but not limited to, intellectual property rights, and rights of privacy and publicity); and (viii) any information similar or related to the foregoing (all of which is “Prohibited Content”).
The following is a partial list of the kind of Prohibited Content that is illegal or prohibited on the Service. Grō reserves the right to investigate and take appropriate legal action in its sole discretion against anyone who violates this provision, including without limitation, removing the offending Content or communication from the Service and terminating the membership of such violators. It includes, but is not limited to, Content that:
- is patently offensive to the online community, such as Content that promotes racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;
- harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
- involves the transmission of “junk mail,” “chain letters,” or unsolicited mass mailing or “spamming”;
- promotes information that is false, misleading or promotes illegal activities or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous;
- promotes an illegal or unauthorized copy of another person’s copyrighted work, such as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, providing pirated images, audio or video, or links to pirated images, audio or video files, or copying text from another;
- misrepresents you or your business as being sponsored, affiliated, or connected with a third party, whether through trademark use or other means;
- uses the trademark, logo, slogan, or trade name of a third party in a way that causes consumer confusion without permission from the third party;
- contains restricted or password only access pages, or hidden pages or images (those not linked to or from another accessible page);
- provides material that exploits people under the age of 18 in a sexual or violent manner, or solicits personal information from anyone under the age of 18;
- provides instructional information about illegal activities such as making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone’s privacy, or providing or creating computer viruses;
- solicits passwords or personal identifying information for commercial or unlawful purposes from other users; and
- engages in commercial activities and/or sales without our prior written consent such as contests, sweepstakes, barter, advertising, and pyramid schemes.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHALL ANY DISCLOSURE OF ANY SITE USER CONTENT TO GRŌ BE SUBJECT TO ANY OBLIGATION OF CONFIDENTIALITY OR EXPECTATION OF COMPENSATION OR ATTRIBUTION. BY SUBMITTING ANY SITE USER CONTENT TO OR THROUGH GRŌ, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT ALL YOUR SITE USER CONTENT WILL NOT VIOLATE ANY RIGHT OF ANY THIRD PARTY, INCLUDING PATENT, COPYRIGHT, TRADEMARK, TRADE SECRET, PRIVACY, OR OTHER PERSONAL OR PROPRIETARY RIGHTS. YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT NO SITE USER CONTENT WILL BE OR CONTAIN LIBELOUS OR OTHERWISE UNLAWFUL, ABUSIVE, OR OBSCENE MATERIAL. YOU ARE AND SHALL REMAIN SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SITE USER CONTENT. YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT TO GRŌ THAT GRŌ IS FREE TO USE THE SITE USER CONTENT, EITHER AS SUBMITTED OR AS EDITED BY GRŌ, AND IMPLEMENT ANY SUGGESTIONS CONTAINED THEREIN, IF IT SO DESIRES, AS PROVIDED OR AS MODIFIED BY GRŌ, WITHOUT OBTAINING PERMISSION OR LICENSE FROM ANY THIRD PARTY AND WITHOUT ANY COMPENSATION TO YOU.
7. Grō Affiliates.
8. Additional Terms and Conditions.
Additional terms and conditions may apply to specific portions of or products on the Service or your membership, which terms are made part of these Terms of Service by reference. You agree to abide by such other terms and conditions. Other agreements applicable to a specific portion of the Service may, by their explicit terms, partially supersede these Terms of Service; in such cases, the provisions of the other agreement will prevail, but only to the extent explicitly stated therein.
9. Accuracy and Completeness of Content.
Neither Grō, the Services, nor any Service User Content is or should be relied on as a substitute for legal, tax, or accounting advice. Neither Grō nor any of its affiliates shall be held responsible for your failure to consult with appropriate third-party advisors (including but not limited to lawyers, tax advisors, or accountants), and by using the Service, you expressly release Grō and its affiliates from all liability arising out of matters on which a reasonably prudent person would seek the advice of lawyers, tax advisors, accountants, or other appropriate third-party advisors, and agree not to sue Grō or any of its affiliates in connection with any such matters. The foregoing release and promise not to sue is in addition to any other similar releases contained in these Terms.
10. Links to Third-Party Websites; No Implied Endorsements.
This Service may contain links to other websites on the Internet. You acknowledge that we have no control over such websites and that we are not responsible for the accuracy, content, legality, or any other aspect of any linked website. Reference to any website, products, services, providers or other information by name, link, trade name, trademark or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof or any affiliation therewith by Grō.
11. Indemnification by You; No Third Party Beneficiaries.
You agree that, except as otherwise expressly provided in these Terms, there shall be no third party beneficiaries to these Terms.
12. Disclaimers.
Grō is not and shall not be at any time responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any kind, including personal injury or death, (whether in tort, contract, or strict liability) arising out of or related to any Service User Content or any other content appearing on this site, or to any act or omission by Service Users of the Service, by Grō or by any third party or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized by the Service. In particular, Grō is not responsible for the conduct, whether online or offline, of any user of the Service including any Member of the Service. Any content submitted by our Service Users or Grō Affiliates does not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Grō.
Grō assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, delay, communications line failure, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, any Service User Content or other Service User communications. Grō is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone or cable network or lines, computer systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any email or other functions due to technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or on the Service, including any injury or damage to Service User’s or other person’s computer related to or resulting from participation on or through the Service.
The Service, its content and all text, images, merchandise and other information on, accessible from or available through the Service are provided on an “as available” and “as is” basis without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non- infringement. Specifically, but without limitation, Grō does not warrant that: (i) the information available on the Service is free of errors; (ii) the functions contained on this site will be uninterrupted or free of errors; (iii) defects will be corrected; or (iv) the Service or the server(s) and other technology that makes it available will always function as intended or are free of viruses or other harmful components.
13. Limitation of Liability.
14. International Use.
15. Term and Termination; Survival; Unavailability of Service.
16. Arbitration; Choice of Law and Forum.
17. Miscellaneous.
18. Definitions.
19. When We Make Changes To These Terms.
20. Contacting Us.
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at success@gro.academy or at:
Grō Holdings LLC
712 Fifth Avenue, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Historical Modifications
January 25, 2019: Initial version posted
June 6, 2019: Revised version posted to include terms for free services and other modifications