Terms of Service

1.1 Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Instant Expert, creating an account, submitting a paid request, booking a call, joining a call, or otherwise using the service, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service.

When a requester submits a paid request and when a respondent confirms a booking, that person also agrees to the paid call and compliance terms below.

If you do not agree, do not use the service.

1.2 Plain-English Summary

This summary is for convenience only. The full terms below are the binding agreement and control if there is any conflict.

Paid calls may cover general, non-confidential professional experience, workflows, needs, purchasing processes, product use cases, and industry context, including experience from a current or former employer. Do not ask for, share, trade on, or misuse material non-public information, trade secrets, confidential or proprietary information, privileged information, personal data, or anything else a person is legally or contractually restricted from disclosing.

Requesters pay under the paid call rules below. Respondents are independent contractors and are paid only for eligible paid calls that satisfy these terms, the posted request terms, and our attendance, compliance, and review processes.

1.3 Service Scope

Instant Expert connects requesters with executives and professionals for informational conversations or research. A person who submits or pays for a request is a requester. A person who receives, answers, books, or performs a request is a respondent.

Instant Expert is not a party to any employment, agency, fiduciary, investment-advisory, medical, legal, tax, accounting, or similar professional relationship between users. Respondents are not our employees, agents, representatives, or partners.

We may modify, suspend, or discontinue features at any time without liability, subject to obligations that cannot be waived by law.

1.4 User Responsibilities

You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information, maintain account security, use the service only for lawful purposes, and comply with all applicable laws, regulations, professional rules, company policies, and contractual obligations.

You may not misuse the platform, attempt unauthorized access, interfere with service operations, circumvent payment or attendance systems, make false statements about your identity or expertise, or use content in violation of third-party rights.

You are responsible for deciding whether you may participate in any request or call. If you are unsure whether participation would be permitted, you must decline or stop participating until the issue is resolved.

1.5 No Professional Advice

Content and paid call conversations are provided for general informational purposes only and do not constitute legal, investment, financial, medical, tax, accounting, employment, or other professional advice.

Respondents may not provide individualized investment advice, legal services, medical advice, or other regulated professional services through Instant Expert. Requesters may not ask respondents to do so.

You are solely responsible for decisions made based on information obtained through the service.

2.1 Paid Call Compliance Rules

Paid calls may cover general, non-confidential professional experience, role-based needs, industry practices, workflows, purchasing processes, software or vendor evaluation criteria, product use cases, pain points, and market context, including use cases encountered at a participant's current or former employer.

Respondents may not disclose, and requesters may not ask for, material non-public information, information about a public company or security that may not lawfully be disclosed, confidential or proprietary information, trade secrets, non-public employer, client, customer, government, patient, clinical-trial, audit, or legal information, attorney work product, personal data, or information subject to a non-disclosure agreement, fiduciary duty, code of ethics, company policy, professional rule, court order, or similar restriction (collectively, restricted information).

Participants speak in their personal capacity unless an authorized representative relationship is expressly disclosed. Participants must not imply that they speak for an employer, client, customer, government agency, board, patient, audit client, represented party, or other third party without authority.

A participant must decline, stop, or refuse to answer any request or question that would cause the participant to violate these terms, any law, any professional duty, or any duty owed to an employer, client, customer, patient, government agency, exchange, regulator, or other third party. Respondents must not overstate their expertise, accept calls outside their areas of experience, or present third-party or AI-generated material as their own expertise.

Requesters may not use Instant Expert to obtain information for insider trading, market manipulation, illegal competitive intelligence, harassment, bribery, improper influence, evasion of compliance controls, or any unlawful purpose. Requesters must not pressure respondents to answer restricted questions and must move on if a respondent identifies a restriction.

If a participant believes restricted information may have been requested or disclosed, the participant must stop that line of discussion and notify Instant Expert promptly.

2.2 Paid Call Terms for Requesters

When you submit a paid request, you authorize Instant Expert and its payment processors to place a payment authorization, charge your payment method, capture authorized funds, release holds, issue refunds, and make related payment adjustments consistent with these terms and the checkout terms shown to you.

A respondent's acceptance or booking does not guarantee that the call will be payable. Final charge and payout eligibility depend on the paid call rules, attendance logs, compliance review, dispute review, and any other terms shown in the product.

If a respondent never enters the meeting room during the scheduled time, you will not be charged for that call, and the respondent will not be paid for that call, except where we determine that platform error, fraud, or abuse requires a different result.

If the respondent waits in the meeting room for at least one third of the scheduled call time (for example, 5 minutes of a 15-minute call) and the two of you are never in the meeting room together for 30 seconds or more, you may be charged the full call price and the respondent may be paid the full eligible payout. This includes when you never enter the meeting room during the scheduled time and when you join only after the respondent has left. Only the respondent's time in the meeting room during the scheduled time and before you join counts toward that wait, and visits by you that add up to less than 30 seconds do not count as joining.

If you never enter the meeting room during the scheduled time and the respondent leaves before that wait, you will not be charged for that call, and the respondent will not be paid for that call.

In other cases, if the respondent connects late, disconnects early, or is absent while you are present during the scheduled time, the charge and payment may be prorated based on attendance during the scheduled time. Unless we determine that a different result is required, the prorated amount is based on the minutes both parties were in the meeting room during the scheduled time, rounded to the nearest minute, divided by the minutes you were in the meeting room during the scheduled time, rounded to the nearest minute.

We may review, reduce, reverse, refund, withhold, or adjust any charge where we believe a call involved restricted information, fraud, abuse, platform error, inaccurate attendance logs, a no-show, a dispute, or a violation of these terms.

2.3 Paid Call Terms for Respondents

Respondents are independent contractors responsible for their own taxes, licenses, registrations, consents, employer approvals, equipment, connectivity, and legal compliance. Respondents have no authority to bind Instant Expert or any requester.

A respondent earns payment only for eligible paid calls that satisfy the posted request terms, these terms, attendance requirements, compliance requirements, and any review process. Booking a call does not itself guarantee payment.

If you are late or disconnect while the requester is in the call, your payment may be prorated based on the amount of scheduled call time that both you and the requester were in the meeting room. If the requester validly ends the call during the vetting window, you will not be paid for that call.

If you wait in the meeting room for at least one third of the scheduled call time (for example, 5 minutes of a 15-minute call) and the requester is never in the meeting room with you for 30 seconds or more, you may be paid the full eligible payout. This includes when the requester never enters the meeting room during the scheduled time and when the requester joins only after you have left. Only your time in the meeting room during the scheduled time and before the requester joins counts toward that wait. If the requester never enters the meeting room during the scheduled time and you leave before that wait, or you never enter the meeting room during the scheduled time, you will not be paid for that call.

We may withhold, reduce, reverse, recover, or refuse payment if we believe a respondent breached these terms, disclosed restricted information, misrepresented expertise, committed fraud or abuse, failed to complete payout onboarding, violated payment processor requirements, or caused legal, compliance, or reputational risk.

Payout timing depends on verification, requester dispute periods, payment processor timing, compliance review, and completion of any required payout onboarding. Respondents are solely responsible for reporting and paying taxes on amounts received.

2.4 Attendance Logs and Review

Instant Expert may use meeting-room join and leave events, metadata from video providers, payment records, user reports, and other platform records to determine whether a call occurred, whether it is payable, and whether a charge, refund, or payout adjustment is appropriate.

Attendance rules count only time during the scheduled call unless the product expressly states otherwise. We may disregard or adjust logs that appear inaccurate because of outages, duplicate sessions, connectivity failures, tampering, fraud, or other anomalies.

A requester may flag a completed call for review within the dispute period stated in the product. We may pause payout while a call is under review and may resolve the call by approving payment, cancelling payment, refunding the requester, issuing a partial adjustment, or taking another reasonable action.

2.5 Payments and Refunds

You agree to pay all listed fees and applicable taxes. Payments are processed by third-party payment processors, and your use of payment features may be subject to their terms.

Unless required by law or explicitly stated otherwise in these terms or the product, fees are non-refundable. Refunds, partial refunds, payout adjustments, and payment reversals may take several business days to appear on a card statement or payout account.

You may not circumvent the platform to avoid fees, payment processor requirements, compliance review, or attendance review for a request introduced through Instant Expert.

3.1 Disclaimer of Warranties

The service is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant uninterrupted access, error-free operation, accurate or complete expert information, a particular call outcome, or that any participant will comply with these terms.

3.2 Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Instant Expert and its operators will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, data, goodwill, business opportunities, investment gains, or investment losses.

Our total liability for any claim arising from or related to the service will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you paid to us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

3.3 Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Instant Expert and its operators from claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from your use of the service, your content, your requests or calls, your payment or payout activity, your violation of these terms, your violation of law, or your violation of any third-party right or obligation.

3.4 Termination

We may suspend or terminate access, cancel requests, decline bookings, pause payouts, withhold payments, or remove content at any time, with or without notice, for conduct we reasonably believe violates these terms or creates legal, compliance, security, reputational, payment, or operational risk.

4.1 Third-Party User Data Accessed

If you sign in with Google, we access basic Google profile data including your name, email address, profile image, and Google account identifier so we can authenticate you and maintain your Instant Expert account.

If you connect Google Calendar, we access your Google account email, calendar list metadata such as calendar identifiers, names, and primary-calendar status, the calendars you choose to use for scheduling conflict checks, and free/busy availability blocks for those calendars.

We store encrypted OAuth access and refresh tokens, token expiration timestamps, granted scopes, connected account email, and selected calendar records. We do not request or store Google Calendar event titles, descriptions, locations, attachments, attendee lists, or event contents.

4.2 Third-Party User Data Usage

We use Google sign-in data only to authenticate you, maintain your account session, personalize account-level UI, prevent abuse, and provide account support.

We use Google Calendar data only to show your connected calendar account, let you choose which calendars should block scheduling conflicts, and calculate whether proposed Instant Expert meeting times conflict with your busy calendar periods.

We do not use Google user data for advertising, do not sell it, and do not use it to train generalized AI or machine-learning models.

4.3 Third-Party User Data Sharing

We do not sell Google user data or share it with third parties for advertising or independent third-party use.

We may share Google user data with service providers that process data on our behalf, such as hosting, database, security, monitoring, and customer-support providers, only as needed to operate and protect Instant Expert and subject to confidentiality and data-protection obligations.

We may disclose Google user data if required by law, to protect the rights and safety of users or the service, or at your direction when you choose to use a feature that requires sharing. Our use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including Limited Use requirements.

4.4 Third-Party User Data Storage and Protection

OAuth tokens are encrypted before storage. Access to stored Google user data is limited to authorized systems and personnel who need it to operate, secure, debug, or support the service.

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards such as access controls, encrypted transport, monitored infrastructure, and least-privilege operational practices designed to protect Google user data against unauthorized access, use, loss, alteration, or disclosure.

4.5 Third-Party User Data Retention and Deletion

We retain Google sign-in profile data for as long as your account remains active or as otherwise needed to provide the service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, or prevent abuse.

We retain Google Calendar connection data only while your calendar remains connected or as otherwise needed for legal, security, or operational reasons. When you disconnect Google Calendar, we revoke the refresh token when possible and delete the stored calendar connection and calendar-selection records from our systems.

You can request deletion of Google user data or your account by contacting team@instant.expert. We may need to verify your identity before completing a deletion request, and limited records may be retained where required by law, security, fraud prevention, or legitimate business obligations.

5.1 Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver

Please read this section carefully. Except for claims that may be brought in small claims court and claims seeking emergency or provisional injunctive relief for unauthorized access, intellectual property misuse, or restricted-information misuse, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these terms or the service will be resolved by final and binding arbitration administered by JAMS.

The arbitration will be conducted under the JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures, except that if the JAMS Consumer Minimum Standards or other mandatory JAMS consumer rules apply, those standards or rules will apply to the extent required. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this arbitration agreement.

The arbitration may be conducted by video, telephone, written submission, or in New York County, New York, as the arbitrator determines is fair and consistent with applicable JAMS rules. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief that a court could award, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction.

Claims must be brought only in an individual capacity and not as a plaintiff, claimant, or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, representative, private attorney general, or mass action. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims or preside over any class, collective, consolidated, representative, private attorney general, or mass proceeding unless all parties expressly agree in writing after the dispute arises.

If this class action waiver is found unenforceable as to a particular claim or request for relief, only that claim or request for relief will be severed and may proceed in court; all remaining claims must be arbitrated. Before filing arbitration, the party seeking relief must email team@instant.expert with a brief description of the claim and requested relief and allow 30 days for informal resolution.

5.2 Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to conflict of laws principles, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs the arbitration agreement above.

Subject to the arbitration agreement, small claims matters and any court proceedings for excluded claims or enforcement of an arbitration award must be brought in the state or federal courts located in New York County, New York, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

5.3 Severability

If any provision of these terms is found invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law and the remaining provisions will remain in effect.

5.4 Changes to Terms

We may update these terms from time to time by posting a revised version on this page. The effective date identifies the current version.

Your continued use of the service after changes become effective constitutes acceptance of the updated terms. For paid requests or bookings, the terms presented or linked at the time of submission or booking apply unless a later version is required by law or accepted by the applicable user.