Terms of Service

These terms apply when you use the Catalyst website at catalystlearn.app and the Catalyst mobile app. They're written in plain language. By using Catalyst, you agree to them. Catalyst is operated as a sole proprietorship in the Netherlands; full legal identity is in the Contact section at the bottom of this page.

1. What Catalyst is

Catalyst is a calm, audio-first learning service. You pick a topic — philosophy, mental models, practical wisdom — and Catalyst delivers a structured 5- to 7-day path you can read or listen to in 10–20 minute daily sessions. Some paths are curated by hand; others are generated on demand using AI.

2. Beta status

Catalyst is currently in private beta. The mobile app is distributed only through Apple TestFlight to a small invited cohort. The website's purpose is to collect waitlist signups for early access. That means:

• Things will break. We'll fix them, and we'll keep you informed.
• Features will change. What's in the app today may be different next month.
• Beta access is free, granted at our discretion, and can be revoked at any time.

3. Your account

The Catalyst app uses an anonymous account by default — there's no sign-up form, no password. A randomly generated identifier is created on your device the first time you open the app. If you reinstall the app, that identifier is replaced and your previous progress will not carry over (unless we've added an account-linking feature by then).

You're responsible for the device you use Catalyst on. If you lose access to it, you lose access to that anonymous account.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use Catalyst for anything illegal under Dutch or EU law.
• Try to break, attack, or abuse the service — including overwhelming the AI generation endpoint, scraping content, or attempting to reverse-engineer our systems.
• Submit topics for AI-generated paths that are designed to produce harmful, hateful, or illegal content.
• Resell, redistribute, or repackage Catalyst content as your own.

We may suspend or block access if these terms are clearly being violated.

5. Content and intellectual property

The Catalyst service — including the brand, design, copy, curated learning paths, audio narrations, and software — is owned by Catalyst's operator (identified in section 14). You're granted a personal, non-transferable, non-commercial licence to use the service for your own learning while these terms are in effect.

Some of the source material we curate from (philosophy, public-domain texts) is in the public domain. Our written summaries, structures, and audio narrations of that material are not.

6. AI-generated content

When you ask Catalyst to generate a custom learning path, the lesson content is produced by large-language-model AI systems (currently Anthropic's Claude and/or Google's Gemini). The audio narration is produced by ElevenLabs. AI output is helpful but not infallible:

• It may contain factual errors or misattribute quotes.
• It is not professional advice — not legal, medical, financial, or psychological advice.
• It reflects patterns in training data; some perspectives will be over-represented and others missing.

Use Catalyst as a thinking aid, not as a source of professional advice. For decisions that matter — your health, your money, your legal situation — talk to a qualified professional.

7. Payment

During the beta, Catalyst is free to use. We plan to introduce a paid tier in the future (anchored around an annual subscription). When that happens, we'll update these terms and give you fair notice. Nothing about your beta usage commits you to paying for a future paid tier.

8. Availability

We aim to keep the service running, but Catalyst is a small, solo-founder project. We don't promise specific uptime, and we may be unavailable from time to time for maintenance, third-party outages (Supabase, Vercel, ElevenLabs, etc.), or other reasons.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

Catalyst is provided "as is". To the maximum extent permitted by Dutch and EU law, we make no warranties — express or implied — about fitness for purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement. Your statutory rights as a consumer under EU and Dutch law are not affected by this clause.

10. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our liability to you for any claim arising out of your use of Catalyst is limited to the amounts you paid for the service in the twelve months before the claim arose — which, during the free beta, is zero.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages, including loss of data, loss of profit, or distress, except where this exclusion is not allowed by Dutch consumer protection law. In particular, this clause does not limit liability for intent or gross negligence, or for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

11. Termination

You can stop using Catalyst at any time — uninstall the app, ignore the waitlist email. To delete your data, see the Privacy Policy.

We can terminate or suspend your access if you breach these terms, if continuing to serve you would create legal or operational risk, or if we shut the service down.

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms — for example, when we launch the paid tier, change processors, or expand to new platforms. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any change. If the change is material and affects you, we'll contact you by email before it takes effect (where we have your email).

13. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of the Netherlands. Any dispute arising from these terms or your use of Catalyst will be brought before the competent court in the Netherlands, unless mandatory consumer-protection rules in your country of residence give you the right to a different forum.

If you're a consumer in the EU, you can also use the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution platform.

14. Contact

For questions about these terms, refunds, or general support, please email info@catalystlearn.app.

Operator of record: Robin Maximus, sole trader, the Netherlands. A postal address can be supplied on request to the email above.