Terms of service

Podkin ("Podkin", "we", "us"). Email: hello@podkin.co.uk. These terms form a contract between you and us. By creating an account, buying credits, or backing or joining a pod, you accept them.

Podkin is a peer discussion service. A pod is a small group — up to five members plus a host — meeting online for one or more sessions to think through a shared topic. Members and hosts share their own experience, reading and frameworks with each other.

Podkin is not: an investment service, investment platform or advisory service of any kind; a financial advice service; authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; a platform that pools capital, sources deals, manages money or makes recommendations; or a substitute for professional advice of any kind.

This applies to every pod, including pods hosted by people with professional backgrounds in finance. A host's career history is context for the discussion, not a qualification to advise you. Hosts speak in a personal capacity and not on behalf of any current or former employer.

You make all your own decisions independently. Nothing on this website, in any pod session, or in any material we send you is financial advice, a personal recommendation, a financial promotion or a solicitation. Capital is at risk in any investment. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. If you need advice on your own circumstances, speak to a suitably qualified regulated adviser.

You must be at least 18 and able to enter a contract. The information you give us must be accurate, the account is yours alone, and you must keep your login details secure. One account per person.

4.1 Credit packs. You buy credits in one-off packs. There is no subscription and nothing renews automatically.

Each pod page shows its tier, the number of sessions, and the total credits needed before you commit.

4.2 Credit rules.

• Purchased credits do not expire and there is no limit on your balance.
• Credits can only be used on Podkin and cannot be sold or transferred to another person.
• You can ask for a cash refund of unused purchased credits at any time from your wallet page. We refund to the card you paid with, at the price per credit you paid for the pack those credits came from, within 14 days of approving your request. Credits on hold for a pod that has not yet opened can be released first and then refunded.
• Promotional or free credits (if we ever give them) have no cash value, are not refundable, and may have an expiry date that we will tell you about when you receive them.

4.3 Changes to prices. We may change pack prices or session credit costs for future purchases. Changes never reduce the value of credits you have already bought, and a pod's credit cost is fixed once you have backed or booked it.

5.1 What we commit to. A pod has a maximum of five members plus the host. Sessions run online over Zoom, normally for 60 minutes, at the day and time shown on the pod page, in UK local time. We will send you the joining details by email before each session.

5.2 Backing proposed pods.

Some pods are "proposed": they open only if a minimum number of members (shown on the pod page, normally four) back them before the stated deadline.

• When you back a pod, the credits it needs are put on hold. They are not spent.
• You can withdraw your backing at any time before the pod opens, and the held credits return to your balance.
• If the pod reaches its minimum by the deadline, it opens and your held credits are spent on your seat. We will email you the session dates.
• If it does not reach its minimum by the deadline, it does not run and all held credits return to your balance automatically.
• A pod has at most five seats. Once full, further people can join a waitlist.
• We only list a pod for backing once its host has confirmed the dates.

5.3 If a session or pod does not go ahead.

• We or the host cancel a session: the credits for that session are returned to your balance.
• A pod is cancelled after opening but before it starts: all credits spent on it are returned to your balance, and you may then request them as a cash refund under clause 4.2.
• You miss a session: credits are not returned. We will normally share the session summary with you.
• You leave a pod part-way through: credits already spent on past sessions are not returned; credits for future sessions in that run are returned to your balance.

5.4 Rescheduling. We may move a session's date or time where necessary, giving as much notice as we reasonably can. If a new time doesn't work for you and the session cannot be moved again, we will return that session's credits.

5.5 Times, currency and language. All session times shown on Podkin are UK local time — that is Greenwich Mean Time in winter and British Summer Time in summer. If you're joining from another country, check the equivalent local time for you; the calendar invitation we send converts automatically. If a pod runs across the date the UK clocks change, sessions stay at the same UK local time, so the time in your country may shift by an hour.

All prices are in pounds sterling and all payments are taken in pounds sterling. If your card is issued outside the UK your bank may apply its own currency conversion or foreign transaction fee, which we don't control and can't refund.

Podkin is provided in English, and this contract is concluded in English. Sessions are held in English unless a pod page says otherwise.

6.1 Payments are taken by card through Stripe, our payment processor. We do not store your full card details.

6.2 Credit packs are a single payment. There is no automatic renewal.

6.3 VAT. Prices shown include any VAT that applies.

6.4 Existing monthly members. If you joined on a monthly plan before 13 October 2026, your plan continues on its existing terms until you cancel, which you can do at any time from your account page or by emailing hello@podkin.co.uk. Credits you hold when you cancel stay in your wallet and do not expire.

Because you buy online, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you the right to cancel a credit purchase within 14 days, starting the day after you buy, without giving a reason.

7.1 How to cancel. Email hello@podkin.co.uk within the 14 days, use the cancellation form at the end of these terms, or request a refund from your wallet page.

7.2 Pods that start within the 14 days. If you want to back or book a pod whose first session falls inside your 14-day period, you must ask us to start the service early by ticking the box shown when you back or book it. By doing so you acknowledge that if you cancel within the 14 days, we may deduct the value of sessions already delivered; and that once all the sessions you paid for have been delivered, you lose the right to cancel those credits under these Regulations. If you don't tick the box, you can still back pods that start after your 14 days.

7.3 Refunds under this clause. We refund you within 14 days of your cancellation, to the card you paid with, less the value of any sessions already delivered under clause 7.2.

On top of clause 7 and clause 4.2: if you attend the first session of your first pod and it isn't for you, you can ask within 48 hours for the credits for that session back. One request per member. Approved requests are returned as credits, which you can then request as cash under clause 4.2.

Nothing in these terms removes your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, including the right to a service performed with reasonable care and skill.

9.1 Recording. Sessions may be recorded, and notes or transcripts produced from them. We will tell you before a session is recorded, and recording only goes ahead with the agreement of everyone present. You can ask for recording to be turned off; if any member objects, the session is not recorded. Recordings and transcripts are available only to the members and host of that pod, and to us for running the service. We do not publish them, sell them, or share them outside the pod. You can ask us to delete a recording you appear in.

9.2 AI features. Podkin uses automated tools to draft session agendas, summarise sessions, suggest reading and answer questions about your pods. Session content and things you write in the product are processed by an AI provider on our behalf. Details are in the Privacy Policy. Automated summaries can be wrong — treat them as notes, not a record.

9.3 What you contribute. You keep ownership of what you say and write. You give us permission to use it as needed to run the service — to show it to your pod, produce summaries, and store it.

Pods only work if people can be candid. You agree that what's said in the pod stays in the pod — don't repeat, publish, post or forward what other members share, and don't share recordings, transcripts or summaries outside the pod. Don't make your own recordings, screenshots or transcripts. Treat other members and the host with respect: no harassment, discrimination, abuse or intimidation. Don't use a pod to sell, recruit or promote, or to solicit members for your own products, funds or services. Don't give other members personal financial, legal, medical or other professional advice, or hold yourself out as qualified to.

These rules apply in the pod chat as well as in sessions. Members can mute, report or leave the pod chat at any time. The host or Podkin can remove someone from a pod chat; that removes chat access only and does not change their seat, credits or payments.

We may remove you from a pod or close your account for a serious or repeated breach. Where we do, we will normally return credits for sessions not yet received, unless the breach was serious.

This clause applies if you host a pod. Hosts are independent and self-employed, and are not employees, workers or agents of Podkin; you are responsible for your own tax, National Insurance and any registration you need. Hosts receive 70% of the value of the credits spent on each session they run (unless a different rate is agreed in writing when your application is approved and shown in your host dashboard), paid weekly in arrears to the bank account you give us, once the session has taken place. Hosts must turn up on time and prepared for every session they have committed to, and tell us as early as possible if they cannot. Hosts must not give regulated financial advice, make personal recommendations, promote investments, or use a pod to market their own services. Hosts are vetted and may be removed at our discretion, and we may withhold payment for sessions that did not take place or that breached these terms. Hosts are bound by clause 10 as well.

Don't submit false information, disrupt or attempt to hack the service, scrape it, use it to send spam, create multiple accounts for one person, or use it for anything unlawful.

The Podkin name, website, design, copy and structure belong to us or our licensors. You may not copy, republish or redistribute them beyond ordinary personal use such as sharing a link. Session materials prepared by a host remain the host's and are licensed to you for your own personal use only.

We provide the service with reasonable care and skill. We do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that a pod will produce any particular outcome. We are not liable for any decision you make as a result of a pod, including any investment, financial, career, property or other decision, or for anything another member or host says. Where we are liable, our total liability to you for all claims arising in any 12-month period is limited to the greater of £250 and the total amount you paid us in that period. Nothing in these terms limits our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by our negligence, breach of your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, or anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. We are not liable for losses that were not foreseeable, or for business losses — the service is supplied for personal use.

You can close your account at any time by emailing us. We may suspend or close your account if you breach these terms, if payment fails, or if we stop offering the service. If we close the service we will give reasonable notice and refund the unused portion of anything you have paid. If you close your account, or we close it other than for a serious breach, we will refund unused purchased credits in cash under clause 4.2.

We may change these terms. For material changes affecting credits you have already bought, or a monthly plan that is still active, we will give at least 30 days' notice by email, and you may cancel before they take effect. The "last updated" date shows the current version.

Email hello@podkin.co.uk. We aim to respond within five working days. If we can't resolve your complaint, we will tell you in writing. We are not currently a member of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, but you can get free advice from Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk, 0808 223 1133) and you may take a claim to the small claims court.

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes will be dealt with by the courts of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere in the UK you keep the benefit of any mandatory protections of your local law.

If any clause is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another business and will tell you if we do; your rights are unaffected. No one other than you and us has any rights under these terms.