Effective: September 27, 2026 · Last updated: October 6, 2026
Startups Science ("the site," "we," "us") is the Evolution Wall: founders add their startup for free, and it climbs a tree of 70 stages, from the Big Bang to a galaxy, as other founders vote for it, review it and help it. Sponsors can put their logo in the background of the wall. These Terms govern your use of the site. By browsing the site, signing in, buying sponsor widgets or completing a payment, you agree to them, and at checkout you confirm that by ticking a box.
The site began as Million Dollar Startups, a wall where blocks could be bought. Those earlier walls are still online and are covered in §17.
Startups Science is an indie project built and run by Parthiv, an indie hacker, as a sole proprietorship based in India. Contact: @Parthivv13 on X.
These Terms work together with the Rules, the Refund Policy, and the Privacy Policy. If they conflict, these Terms control.
The home page is the Evolution Wall. Each startup on it was added by its own founder. A startup's stage, level and place on the leaderboard come from the points it has earned. They show how much it has taken part, not how good it is, and they are not reviews, rankings, certifications or endorsements by us. Reviews, suggestions and bug reports are written by other founders, and we don't verify them. Sponsor widgets are advertisements.
Votes, reviews, suggestions and confirmed bug reports earn points for both the startup that was helped and the one that helped. The number of points for each action is set by us, is shown on the buttons, and may change; a change applies to later actions only. Points raise your level, and at a fork in the tree your startup takes a path. Depending on how we have set the site, you choose the path or it is picked for you at random.
Daily login bonus. A founder with a startup on the wall earns a few points the first time they open the site signed in each day, once per startup per day. The bonus grows with the level of the startup, from 1 point a day at the start to 100 at the top, and the day changes at midnight India time. We may change the amounts, or switch the bonus off, at any time.
Points, levels and the login bonus have no cash value. Points can't be sold, exchanged or transferred, and they promise nothing about visitors, customers or results. What can be bought is a level-up, a paid service explained in section 5a. Entries that aren't genuine can be removed, and the points they earned leave both startups. We may correct, remove or reset points that came from abuse or from a fault.
The owner of a live startup, signed in with Google, can pay to move that startup up the tree. Please read this section before you pay.
Payments are final. See the Refund Policy.
A signed-in founder can buy sponsor widgets for one evolution phase of the wall, from the Big Bang up to the highest stage any startup has reached. Please read this section before you pay.
Payments are final, including when a sponsorship is replaced. See the Refund Policy.
The price is shown to you before you pay: for sponsor widgets, the number of widgets times the price of one; for the earlier walls, the number of blocks times the wall's price per block. Prices are set in US dollars; the checkout may display your local currency and add applicable taxes. Payments are processed by Dodo Payments, whose own terms and privacy notice also apply to the payment. We never see or store your full card details.
All sales are final. Because what you buy goes live as soon as payment is confirmed, confirmed payments are not refundable, except for billing errors and where the law requires otherwise. This includes a sponsor widget that is later replaced by a newer sponsor. See the Refund Policy. An approved refund is the amount paid minus the fees and charges already incurred on the payment, and is issued within 48–72 hours of approval, unless the law requires a full refund. By completing checkout you ask us to start providing the placement immediately and acknowledge that, to the extent the law allows, you give up any right to cancel once it has started.
By adding a startup, writing a review, suggestion or bug report, buying a sponsor widget or paying, you confirm that:
What can and can't be on the wall, how startups and sponsors are checked, and how removal works are set out in the Rules. In short: a startup's website is checked when you add it or change it and again every month, and a sponsor's website is checked before we take payment. We may remove entries that break the Rules.
If you believe something of yours was hidden or removed in error, message @Parthivv13 on X with its name or link. We aim to reply within 48 hours, either restoring it or explaining why the decision stands.
We may refuse, edit, hide, or permanently remove any startup, review, suggestion, bug report, sponsor widget or listing, with or without notice, where we believe it breaks these Terms, the Rules, or the law; where a rights holder or authority complains; or where it creates a legal, security, or reputational risk for the site. Removal does not entitle you to a refund.
You don't upload an image file. When you add a startup or buy a sponsor widget, we look up a logo for the website automatically — from a logo service, the page's own preview image, or its favicon — and display it. We use third-party names, logos, and images only to identify the startup or sponsor and to show visitors where a link leads; that use does not mean the rights holder is affiliated with or endorses the site, unless they are the one who added it. You are responsible for having the right to use whatever image is shown for you.
You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, resize, and publicly display what you add — your startup's name, website, pitch and logo, and a sponsor widget's name, tagline and logo — on the wall, on its own page, and in share images and previews the site generates, for as long as it is on the site, plus a limited time in backups. What you write in a review, suggestion or bug report is shown only to the founder it was sent to, and we may read it to moderate it.
If you believe something on the site infringes your copyright, trademark, or other rights, or that a linked site is unlawful, message @Parthivv13 on X with: your name and contact details; what it is and where it appears on this site; the destination it links to; what the problem is; and a statement that your notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorized to act for them. We may hide it while we review it, and we may share your notice with the person who added it.
We don't verify the claims, prices, or products of the websites on the wall. Counts of visitors, clicks, votes and points show what our systems recorded and are not a promise of what anything will get. Links on the wall take you to other sites with their own terms and practices, which we don't control and aren't responsible for.
Don't scrape the site to build a competing product, create extra accounts, trade votes or reviews, inflate points or clicks, use bots or scripts, get around rate limits, or interfere with how the site works. We may remove entries, points and accounts connected to that activity.
The Products & SaaS and People walls, where a rectangle of blocks could be bought and linked to a website, are still online but are no longer the home page. Everything above applies to them as well, together with this section, and what was promised when you bought stays in force.
We may update these Terms, the Rules, and our other policies. When we make a material change we'll update the date at the top of the page; continuing to use the site afterwards means you accept the update. A payment already completed stays under the terms that applied at its checkout, unless a change is required by law or needed to address a security or legal risk. Changes to the price, the range of one purchase, the number of places in a phase, or how widgets look and move are changes to how the site runs, and apply from when they are made.
The site is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied. We don't promise the site will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that points, rankings, click counts, or other figures are accurate or complete.
We don't limit liability that the law says can't be limited. Otherwise, to the fullest extent the law allows: we are not liable for lost profits, revenue, data, or goodwill, or for any indirect, incidental, or consequential damages; and our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for the purchase the claim relates to.
You agree to cover us for claims, losses, and reasonable legal costs that arise from what you added, the site it links to, your breach of these Terms, a chargeback you open without a legal basis, or your infringement of someone else's rights.
These Terms are governed by the laws of India, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, and disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of India. If you are a consumer, this doesn't take away the protection of mandatory consumer laws of the country where you live.
Questions about these Terms: @Parthivv13 on X.