Terms of service.
How Collectual works, what clients and experts can expect, and the rules for sharing professional knowledge.
Draft for review. These terms are not yet effective. The service provider’s legal name, registered address, country and support email must be confirmed before publication as binding terms.
1. About these terms
These terms cover the Collectual website, project research, candidate screening and consultation coordination. “Client” means the person or organisation requesting expertise. “Expert” or “candidate” means a person invited to share their professional experience. “We” means the service provider identified in the final published version.
You must be at least 18 and able to enter into an agreement. If you act for an organisation, you must have authority to do so. Any separately agreed written engagement terms take priority for that engagement where they conflict with these terms, subject to applicable law.
2. What Collectual provides
Clients describe the expertise they need, set screening questions and specify a budget per call and a duration of 30 minutes to three hours. Our team sources potential experts and sends them private screening invitations. Clients do not need to find candidates or distribute links.
We aim to provide a shortlist within 48 hours of receiving a complete, actionable brief. This is a target, not a guaranteed deadline. Timing depends on the specialist profile, responses and availability. A project does not guarantee that a suitable expert will be found or that a consultation will take place.
3. Accounts and invitations
Clients sign in using Google. Keep your account secure and provide accurate project and contact information. Experts can respond through an invitation without creating an account. Invitation links are personal: do not publish them, forward them to another respondent or use someone else’s link. Tell the research coordinator if you suspect unauthorised access.
4. Screening and AI matching
Experts provide professional details and may take a recorded AI voice interview powered by Google Gemini, or answer individual questions in text, audio or video. Voice interviews use the project questions and relevant sourcing follow-ups, and save audio and transcripts as the conversation progresses. You may stop at any time. Individual recorded answers are uploaded when you save them. Once the screening is completed, Google Gemini analyses the profile and answers against the project brief and may transcribe recordings and produce summaries, strengths and gaps.
The current matching score assigns up to 40 points for relevant background, 40 for demonstrated expertise and 20 for relevance to the project. Candidates with completed scores above 80 out of 100 appear automatically in the client’s shortlist, ordered by score. Candidates scoring 80 or below are not displayed to that client. The Collectual team can review all submissions.
This score is an AI assessment, not a probability of success or a verification of identity, employment, credentials or claims. AI can misunderstand an answer or recording. Experts may contact their research coordinator to request human review, explain an answer or correct information. Clients must exercise their own judgment when selecting an expert and using their advice. Selection is not guaranteed.
5. Budgets and expert fees
All quoted budgets and expert fees apply to the whole call at its agreed duration, in the displayed currency. They are not hourly rates unless expressly stated. The recommended expert fee is 65% of the client’s per-call budget; the remaining 35% is the intended allowance for Collectual’s sourcing and coordination service. For example, a $300 budget gives a recommended expert fee of $195.
Experts choose their proposed fee. A lower fee may make a proposal more attractive to a client but does not increase the AI match score or guarantee selection. A fee above the recommendation may require a higher client budget and separate approval. We will not treat a higher proposal as permission to increase the client’s budget.
A project budget, screening submission or booking request does not authorise a charge. This version of the website does not process payments. Before a paid engagement is confirmed, the written booking details must identify the client’s total price, the expert’s fee, service fees, applicable taxes, who pays whom, payment method and due date. No payment for completing screening is promised unless agreed in writing beforehand. Any consultation extension or additional work requires agreement on its price first.
6. Booking, changes and cancellations
A requested time is provisional until the client, expert and our team agree on the time, timezone, duration, fee and consultation details. Calls normally take place by audio or video within Collectual. Neither submitting screening answers nor requesting a time obliges an expert to accept a call.
Tell the research coordinator promptly if you need to cancel, reschedule or report a missed call. Any cancellation, late-arrival or no-show charge must be disclosed and agreed before booking. These terms alone do not impose such a charge. If an agreed paid service is not delivered, we will address rescheduling or any applicable refund under the booking agreement and applicable law. Mandatory cancellation and refund rights are unaffected.
7. Professional conduct and conflicts
Be truthful about your identity, experience, qualifications and ability to answer the project’s questions. Experts must check that participating is permitted by their employment, professional duties and other agreements, obtain necessary approvals and disclose relevant conflicts to the research coordinator before participating.
Do not request, disclose or use trade secrets, confidential employer or client information, material non-public information, privileged communications or personal data you have no right to share. Do not use Collectual to facilitate insider trading, bribery, fraud, tax evasion or other unlawful activity. Stop a question or call if answering would breach an obligation, and notify the coordinator. Payment never requires an expert to disclose restricted information.
Expert consultations share professional experience for research. They do not establish a legal, medical, tax, investment or other regulated advisory relationship. If you need regulated advice, arrange a separate engagement with an appropriately qualified professional.
8. Confidentiality and permitted use
Treat non-public project briefs, screening questions, candidate profiles, answers, contact details and consultation discussions as confidential. Use them only to assess or carry out the relevant engagement. We may share relevant project information with prospective experts to source and screen them; clients should identify sensitive material and agree any additional restrictions before submitting it.
Clients may share engagement information internally with colleagues or advisers who need it for that project and are bound to protect it. Do not publish, resell, redistribute or use another participant’s recordings or answers to train AI models without separate permission. Confidentiality does not restrict information independently obtained lawfully, already public without a breach, or disclosure required by law. Where lawful, give advance notice of a required disclosure.
9. Content, recordings and privacy
You retain your rights in the content you submit. You give us a non-exclusive permission to store, process, transcribe and analyse it, and share it with the relevant participants and service providers as necessary to source, screen and coordinate your engagement. This permission does not authorise public advertising with your name or recordings. It applies only for those service purposes and any lawful retention needed to meet obligations or resolve disputes.
Screening recording permission does not authorise recording a later consultation. Embedded consultations require separate express consent before joining to recording, transcription and AI analysis for a research brief shared with the client and authorised Collectual team. Contact the team before joining to arrange an alternative without recording. Anyone adding another recording tool or AI meeting assistant must obtain every participant’s express permission and explain its use and sharing.
Our privacy notice describes the current data flow and how to request access, corrections or deletion. These terms do not replace required privacy notices or any separate consent.
10. Independent participants and third-party services
Participation does not by itself create employment, a partnership or authority to act for Collectual or another participant. Experts remain responsible for their own professional permissions and applicable tax obligations, subject to any duties the law places on us or a client.
Google sign-in, Daily and other third-party services may have their own terms. Google’s Terms of Service govern Google’s services, not the Collectual service agreement. Our privacy notice separately links the Google policies applicable to reCAPTCHA.
11. Service availability and responsibility
We will use reasonable care in providing the service. We cannot promise uninterrupted availability, error-free AI assessments, a particular commercial outcome or the accuracy of every participant’s statements. Report material errors so we can investigate them. Each participant remains responsible for their own conduct and decisions.
Nothing in these terms excludes liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any liability or statutory right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
12. Suspension and ending use
We may restrict access or remove content where reasonably necessary to address abuse, false information, security incidents, unlawful conduct or a material breach of these terms. Where practical and lawful, we will explain the reason and allow you to respond. You may stop using Collectual and request account closure through the team. Closing an account does not automatically cancel a confirmed booking or settle an existing payment obligation. Confidentiality obligations and rights concerning completed engagements continue as applicable.
13. Changes, questions and disputes
The final terms will identify the service provider and support contact. For now, send questions about this draft to your Collectual research coordinator. We will date published updates and provide reasonable notice of material changes before they take effect. Updates will not retroactively change an agreed booking price or remove accrued rights.
Raise concerns with the team so they can be investigated. These draft terms do not select a governing law, exclusive court or compulsory arbitration process. Applicable law determines those matters unless a valid later agreement provides otherwise; mandatory consumer protections and access to competent courts remain unaffected.