Terms of service

Podkin is a peer discussion service operated as a sole trader based in London, United Kingdom ("Podkin", "we", "us"). Our full trading name and postal address are available on request — email hello@podkin.co.uk and we'll provide them. These terms form a contract between you and us. By creating an account, subscribing, 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 How it works. You subscribe to a monthly plan. Each plan grants credits every month. Credits buy seats in individual sessions.

Each pod page shows its tier, the number of sessions in the run, and therefore the total credits required.

4.2 Credit rules.

• Credits are granted at the start of each billing period.
• Your balance is capped at the figure above. Credits granted above the cap are lost and are not carried forward or refunded. If your balance is at the cap when a grant is due, you will receive fewer credits than the headline number, or none.
• Credits are charged when a session seat is confirmed, ahead of the session taking place.
• Credits have no cash value and cannot be exchanged for money, sold, or transferred to another person or account.
• If you cancel, unused credits remain usable until the end of the period you have paid for, and are then removed. They are not refunded.
• If you do not have enough credits when a session is due to be charged, your seat is held for 48 hours and we will email you. If the balance is still short after that, the seat is released to someone else.

4.3 Changes to pricing and credit values. We may change plan prices, credit grants, caps or session costs. We will give at least 30 days' notice by email before any change affects you, and it will take effect from your next billing date after that notice. If you don't accept the change you can cancel before it takes effect.

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 What we do not guarantee. We do not guarantee that a particular pod will run, that it will fill, that you will be matched into any specific pod, or that any particular person will host it. Requesting a seat is a request; seats are confirmed at our or the host's discretion.

5.3 If a session or pod does not go ahead.

• We cancel a session: the credits for that session are returned to your balance.
• A pod is cancelled before it starts: all credits charged for it are returned.
• We cancel and cannot reschedule the whole run: you may ask for a cash refund of the proportion of your subscription attributable to those sessions, rather than credits.
• 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 charged for past sessions are not returned; future sessions in that run are not charged.

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. By subscribing you agree to Stripe's terms as they apply to you.

6.2 Renewal. Your subscription renews automatically every month until you cancel. We take payment on the same date each month using the card you provided, and email you a receipt.

6.3 Cancelling. You can cancel at any time from your account page or by emailing hello@podkin.co.uk. Cancellation stops future payments. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you have already paid for, and you keep access to any pod you are already seated in for that period. We do not pro-rate or refund the remainder of a month already paid for, except where clause 7, clause 5.3, or your statutory rights say otherwise.

6.4 Failed payments. If a payment fails we will retry and email you. If it cannot be collected, your subscription may be suspended and any seat you hold in a future session may be released.

6.5 Price changes: see clause 4.3.

6.6 VAT. Prices shown include any VAT that applies.

This clause gives you rights on top of clause 6.3. Because you are buying online, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you the right to cancel within 14 days, starting the day after you subscribe, without giving a reason.

7.1 How to cancel. Email hello@podkin.co.uk within the 14 days, or use the cancellation form at the end of these terms. Telling us clearly is enough — you don't have to use particular wording.

7.2 If your first session falls inside the 14 days. Many pods start within days of you subscribing. If you want your pod to start before the 14 days are up, you must ask us to begin straight away, and you will be asked to confirm this at checkout. By confirming you acknowledge that you have expressly requested the service to start during the cancellation period; that if you then cancel within the 14 days we may charge you for what you have already received, in proportion to the sessions you have attended; and that once the full service you bought has been delivered you lose the right to cancel under these Regulations. If you do not confirm this, we will not seat you in a session falling inside your cancellation period.

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

Separately from clause 7, we operate a first-session refund. If you attend the first session of your first pod and it isn't for you, you can request a refund of the credits charged for that session within 48 hours of the charge, from your account page. One request per member. We review each request and tell you the outcome by email. Approved requests are returned as credits.

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.

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 a share of the value of each session they run, at the rate confirmed with you when your application is approved and shown in your host dashboard, paid to the bank account you give us in arrears once a 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.

We may change these terms. For material changes affecting a live subscription 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 and to resolve things properly. If we can't, you may be able to use an alternative dispute resolution scheme or take the matter to 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.