Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 19, 2026
This Privacy Policy describes how The Venture Capital Institute ("the Institute," "we," "us") collects, uses, and shares information when you use this website, including Shawna, the Institute's concierge, and any related services.
This is a plain-language summary of our current practices, not a substitute for legal advice. If you have specific concerns about how your information is handled, please contact us using the details at the bottom of this page.
Information We Collect
We collect information in a few distinct ways:
- Information you provide directly: anything you type into the interview with Shawna, including details about your company and plans, and, if you request an engagement, your name, email address, and a note about what you are building.
- Interview transcripts: as stated beside the interview itself, transcripts are received and reviewed by the Institute so that a person can follow up where it would help. Please share nothing you would not want read.
- Automatically collected information: privacy-focused web analytics (pages visited, aggregate visit counts) collected via Vercel Web Analytics, which does not use cookies, and advertising measurement collected via Google (described below).
Your conversation with Shawna is held in your browser only while the page is open, and is cleared when you reload or close the tab. There are no user accounts on this site, and we never collect payment details through this site.
How We Use Information
We use the information collected to: operate and improve the interview and the Institute's related tools; respond to engagement requests you submit; follow up personally where the Institute believes it can genuinely help; and understand, in aggregate, how the site is used. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
AI Processing and Third-Party Service Providers
To generate Shawna's responses, the text of your conversation is sent to Anthropic (the provider of the underlying AI model) for processing. We use Resend to deliver email, including interview transcripts and engagement requests sent to the Institute, and Vercel to host the site and provide analytics. Each of these providers processes data under their own privacy terms, and we encourage you to review them if you have specific questions about how they handle information in transit.
Advertising Measurement and Cookies
This site uses the Google tag (gtag.js) to measure whether visits that arrive from our advertising lead to an interview being started or an engagement being requested. This measurement relies on cookies and similar technologies set by Google. It tells us that a conversion happened; the content of your interview is never shared with Google. You can control cookies through your browser settings, and most browsers let you block or delete them; doing so may affect how parts of the site function. Vercel Web Analytics, by contrast, uses no cookies and does not track you across sites.
Data Retention
Interview transcripts and engagement request details are retained by the Institute as needed to respond to your inquiry, improve our services, and maintain reasonable business records. Identifiable details from your interview are not published or shared outside the Institute without your authorization.
Your Choices and Rights
You may ask us to tell you what personal information we hold about you, correct it, or delete it, by contacting us using the details below. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under applicable law (for example, under the California Consumer Privacy Act or the EU General Data Protection Regulation); we will make reasonable efforts to honor requests consistent with those laws.
Children's Privacy
This site is intended for founders and business professionals evaluating a venture. It is not directed to, and we do not knowingly collect information from, children under 16.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision. Material changes will be reflected on this page.
Contact Us
Questions about this policy or your information can be directed to the Institute through the engagement request form at the bottom of the home page. Include the word "Privacy" in your note and a director will see that it reaches the right hands.