Privacy Policy

Effective: August 2026 · Last updated: August 2026

1. What we collect

To provide the Gatekeep service, we collect information you give us voluntarily and data generated through your use of the platform. This includes:

• Account data: name, email address, and authentication credentials through Clerk — the third-party identity platform we use for sign-in. We do not store your raw passwords.
• Company profile data: company name, website, stage, sector, and optional traction metrics you provide during onboarding.
• Challenge data: the complete transcript of your pitch conversations with AI personas, including every message you send and every AI-generated reply. These are stored in our database so you can review past challenges, see reports, and track improvement over time.
• Scoring and verdict data: the AI-generated evaluation, dimension scores, improvement suggestions, benchmarks, and action plans produced at the end of each challenge.
• Payment data: through Stripe, our payment processor. We do NOT store your credit card details — Stripe handles that. We keep the order reference, subscription status, and amount paid.
• Usage data: page views, challenge starts, completions, retry counts, share events, and feature interactions — tracked through Vercel Analytics.

2. How we use your data

We use your data exclusively to operate and improve Gatekeep:

• Service delivery: to run the pitch simulator, generate AI replies, produce verdicts and reports, and surface your profile to VC partners when you pass a challenge.
• Improving personas: to analyse pitch patterns across founders, sectors, and stages — this helps us make the AI personas more realistic and calibrate scoring. All learnings are aggregated and never attributed to individual founders without your explicit consent.
• Analytics and reporting: to generate aggregate statistics such as average pass rates per sector, score distributions, and platform usage trends. We may publish these in anonymised form without identifying individual founders.
• Communication: to send you your pitch reports, verdict notifications, and occasional product announcements. You can opt out of marketing messages at any time.
• Compliance and safety: to detect abuse, protect the platform from automated attacks, and comply with legal obligations.

We do NOT sell your personal data or pitch transcripts to third parties. We do NOT train third-party models on your conversations without your explicit opt-in consent.

3. Who we share data with

Gatekeep relies on several trusted third-party providers to operate the platform. Each provider processes data in accordance with their own privacy policies and security standards:

• Clerk: identity provider — handles authentication, stores email and hashed credentials.
• Stripe: payment processor — handles payment card data and subscription billing.
• AI inference providers: receive the text of your pitch messages (but NOT your personal identifying information) when generating AI replies and scoring verdicts. Data is processed server-side only; your prompts are never exposed to your browser.
• Neon (PostgreSQL): database hosting — stores all application data (user records, challenges, transcripts, scores).
• Resend: email provider — used to send reports and notification emails.
• Vercel: hosting and infrastructure — processes request logs and analytics.

4. Data retention

• Your account data, challenge transcripts, scores, and reports are retained indefinitely while your account is active, so you can always refer back to your pitch history.
• If you delete your account, we permanently remove your personal data within 30 days. Anonymised aggregate statistics derived from your usage may be retained indefinitely.
• Payment records are retained for the minimum period required by applicable tax and accounting laws.

5. Your rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your account and associated data.
• Object to or restrict the processing of your data, particularly where it relates to AI training or automated decision-making.
• Receive a portable copy of your data.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, reach out to us through the platform or contact the Gatekeep team directly.

6. Cookies and tracking

Gatekeep uses both strictly necessary and analytics cookies. On your first visit, you will see a consent banner that lets you accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can change your preferences at any time by clicking "Settings" on the banner or contacting us.

Cookie categories

Strictly necessary (always active)

• Clerk session cookie (__session): maintains your authenticated session. Required for the platform to function. Expires when you log out or after inactivity.
• Anonymous demo cookie (gk_anon, gk_demo): tracks anonymous usage of the free demo tier. No personally identifying information. Expires after 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Functional cookies

• Referral cookies (gk_ref, gk_intro, gk_code): store referral and promotional code information from URL parameters for 1 year. Used to credit referrers and apply promo codes on signup. No cross-site tracking.
• Banner dismissal cookie (gk_banner_*): remembers that you dismissed a campaign banner. Expires after 30 days.

Analytics cookies (opt-in via consent banner)

• Google Analytics (_ga, _gid, _gat): set by Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to measure page views, sessions, and basic usage patterns. Set by googletagmanager.com. _ga expires after 2 years, _gid after 24 hours. These are only loaded when you accept analytics cookies in our consent banner.
• Vercel Analytics (_vercel_*): anonymous page-view analytics to help us understand how the platform is used. No third-party ad tracking. Gated behind the same analytics consent.

Advertising cookies (none in use)

Gatekeep does NOT currently use any advertising, retargeting, or behavioral profiling cookies. We do not serve ads, and we do not share your data with advertising networks. The advertising consent parameters in our consent banner are reserved for future use and are set to denied by default.

Consent management

We implement Google Consent Mode v2. Before you interact with our consent banner, Google tags operate with restricted functionality — cookieless pings are sent for basic measurement, but no analytics cookies are stored. When you accept or reject cookies, your preference is saved in your browser for 1 year. You can change your settings at any time by clicking the "Cookie Settings" button on our consent banner, which re-appears when you clear your browser storage.

We honor Do Not Track (DNT) browser signals. When your browser sends a DNT: 1 header, we treat it as a rejection of all non-essential cookies.

7. Security

All data in transit is encrypted via TLS/HTTPS. Data at rest (database, backups) is encrypted at the infrastructure level by our hosting providers (Neon, Vercel). We enforce role-based access controls and never expose sensitive credentials to your browser. AI inference calls are made server-side only — your API keys are never known to your browser or to other users of the platform.

As with any hosted service, our internal team may occasionally need to access platform data to investigate bugs, provide support, or improve the product. This access is limited to what is necessary for those purposes and is treated as confidential. We don't browse pitch content casually — we look at it only when something needs fixing.

8. Children's privacy

Gatekeep is not directed at children under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Our Terms of Service require that users be at least 18 years old. If we become aware that a child under 18 has provided us with personal data, we will take steps to delete such information. If you believe a child under 18 has provided us with personal data, please contact us immediately.

9. Your data rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have certain rights regarding your personal data. These rights may include: access to the personal data we hold about you, correction of inaccurate data, deletion of your account and associated data, restriction or objection to processing, data portability, and the right to withdraw consent at any time.

Hong Kong residents: Under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486), you have the right to request access to and correction of your personal data held by us. Data access requests may be subject to a reasonable fee.

EU/EEA residents: Under the GDPR, you have rights including access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection to processing. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email justin@gatekeep.vc with your request — we'll respond within 48 hours. Deletion requests are processed within 7 days where technically feasible. Some aggregated, anonymized analytics may be retained for platform operations.

10. AI-specific disclosures

The VC personas on Gatekeep are AI-generated profiles built from publicly available data sources. They are designed to simulate investment conversations and are not impersonations of any real individual. If a persona represents you or your firm, you may claim it to customize and calibrate its accuracy. Gatekeep does not imply endorsement by or affiliation with any real person or firm unless the persona has been explicitly claimed and verified by that individual. These personas are intended to be claimed by the individuals they reference — not to pretend or replace them.

Removal requests: If a persona on this platform represents you and you would like it removed, email justin@gatekeep.vc with the subject “Profile removal request” and we will remove or deactivate it within 48 hours. No questions asked.

When your pitch is evaluated, the scoring is generated by a server-side AI model against a predetermined rubric. The verdict is a simulation designed to replicate the persona's investment criteria — it is NOT an actual investment decision, and Gatekeep makes no guarantees about fundraising outcomes.

By using Gatekeep, you consent to your pitch messages being transmitted server-side to the configured AI inference provider for the purpose of generating replies and verdicts. Your messages are NOT used to retrain or fine-tune the underlying models unless you explicitly opt in to such use.

11. International data transfers

Gatekeep's infrastructure is hosted by US-based providers (Vercel, Neon, Clerk). If you access Gatekeep from outside the United States, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the service, you consent to such transfer.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email and/or a notice on the platform. Your continued use of Gatekeep after changes are made constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact

For questions about this privacy policy, data requests, security concerns, or profile removal: justin@gatekeep.vc or hi@gatekeep.vc.

Gatekeep · Singapore

Gatekeep is a product built and operated independently. AI personas are simulations for educational and practice purposes only. This platform does not constitute investment advice or solicitation. All AI-generated outputs are automated and should not be relied upon as financial or legal guidance.