Operating Policies for SOFL Season 1

SOFL operates as a seasonal startup ranking and recognition platform. To maintain fairness, projects directly owned or operated by SOFL, CONSYF, founders, the core team, or the operating entity are not eligible for main awards in the season SOFL organizes.

Organizer-affiliated projects may still appear as clearly labeled demos, case studies, or exhibition profiles if they help explain how the system works — but they must be explicitly tagged and excluded from the award list.

If a partner, sponsor, advisor, data provider, or operating team member has a direct interest in a participating startup, that relationship must be disclosed. SOFL may exclude the startup from a specific category, reassign it, or require the party to recuse themselves from data handling and dispute resolution involving that startup.

SOFL does not use subjective judgment to pick winners. Admin's role is to normalize data, check eligibility, handle missing or incorrect data, and resolve disputes according to the published methodology.

SOFL does not maintain two separate sets of scoring rules. The Methodology page is the single authoritative source for Awards V2, covering the award list, growth thresholds, Data Trust, support caps, Founder Choice, and organizer/admin review process.

This Policies page covers only supplementary operating rules: conflict of interest, data policy, dispute process, record immutability, sponsor policy, and partner & contributor policy.

If anything on this page conflicts with the Methodology page, the Methodology page takes precedence.

SOFL collects only the data needed to operate the leaderboard, verify eligibility, contact participants, and publish seasonal results.

• Data self-declared by the startup at registration.
• Public data from websites, app stores, GitHub, Product Hunt, LinkedIn, Crunchbase, SimilarWeb, G2/Capterra, DealStreetAsia, press, or similar public sources.
• Data from partners, incubators, funds, or support organizations where the startup or partner has the right to share it.

SOFL distinguishes between public data and self-declared data. Sensitive or private data will not be published without consent, unless used in aggregate or anonymized form.

Startups may request corrections to incorrect data, add verification sources, or withdraw from the season. Withdrawal may result in the startup losing eligibility for rankings and awards in that season.

If a startup believes its data, score, eligibility, sector classification, baseline snapshot, or award outcome is incorrect, it may file a dispute with SOFL within the published season window.

• Startup name.
• The disputed metric or category.
• Reason for the dispute.
• Supporting links, sources, or documentation.
• Representative contact.

SOFL will review disputes based on verifiable data, the published methodology, and the fair interests of other participating startups. Admins may request additional information, update the score, maintain the result, or flag the data as insufficiently confirmed.

Final decisions in Season 1 prioritize practical operability. For contested cases, SOFL may publish a handling note so the community understands the decision and so rules can be improved next season.

All information provided by a startup — at registration and at each subsequent update — is stored as a timestamped version and cannot be edited or deleted after locking.

• The original version is the information at registration and is the authoritative reference for all review decisions.
• Each update a startup submits creates a new version.
• The full version history is retained for organizers to reference when reviewing, scoring, or resolving disputes.
• Startups cannot delete profile history. If they want to start fresh, they may request deactivation and re-register; the prior history is retained per policy.

Sponsors may fund gifts, services, credits, media support, mentorship, or named awards for a SOFL season. However, sponsors cannot buy ranking influence, change scores, create private rules for one startup, or decide outcomes in independent SOFL award categories.

• Who the sponsor is.
• What the award or gift includes.
• Eligibility conditions.
• Claim timeline.
• Geographic, sector, or platform restrictions if any.
• Whether a substitute is possible if the sponsor cannot deliver as committed.

If a sponsor has an interest in a participating startup, that relationship must be disclosed. SOFL may restrict sponsorship rights, adjust attribution language, or prevent the sponsor from naming a category where a related startup is competing.

In the beta/Season 1, award categories may start as recognition-only. Sponsor prizes or gifts should be considered confirmed only when SOFL has an explicit commitment from the sponsor and can publish specific claim conditions.

SOFL welcomes partners, builders, operators, researchers, community members, media organizations, data contributors, advisors, and technical contributors who want to help build a league with better data, better tools, stronger distribution, and more practical founder support.

Contributions can include product feedback, data source suggestions, methodology review, code, documentation, founder introductions, sponsor introductions, community coordination, event support, media distribution, or ecosystem research.

Contributing to SOFL does not create preferential scoring, eligibility, or award treatment for the contributor, their company, their portfolio, or related startups. If a contributor has a relationship with a startup in the season, that relationship must be disclosed and handled under the Conflict of Interest Policy.

SOFL may publicly acknowledge significant contributions on the website, in reports, or in season recaps. Acknowledgment does not imply ownership, scoring control, or influence over award outcomes, unless separately agreed in writing.

Technical and data contributions should be reviewable, reversible, and clearly attributed. SOFL retains final editorial, product, methodology, and governance authority to keep the league consistent and fair for all participants.