Terms, Payment & Refund Policy

These are the terms between you and MONARQX when you buy a MONARQX build or subscription. You accept them by completing payment at checkout (every checkout links these terms) or by ticking the agreement box where shown. They're written in plain English on purpose — this is the actual agreement, not a summary of a scarier one. A privacy policy follows the terms.

Acceptance by payment. These terms are linked from every MONARQX checkout and from our website. By paying a deposit, subscribing to a MONARQX plan, or paying any MONARQX invoice, you confirm that you have read and accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not pay — email dylan@monarqx.com with any questions first.

The short version — seven promises

1. You own your business — 100%. Every file, every line of code, all the revenue. We take no cut and no equity, ever.
2. We keep our engine. You own everything it makes for you; the machine that makes it stays ours.
3. We keep the credit. Your business ships with a small "Built by MONARQX" notice — that's our portfolio, it costs you nothing, and you can remove it as a paid option (A$990).
4. We keep each other's secrets. Your numbers and strategy never touch another customer. Our engine's internals stay ours.
5. Don't clone us. Use MONARQX to build your business, not a copy of MONARQX.
6. You can leave any time. No lock-in; you take your whole business with you.
7. If your idea isn't worth building, we tell you and refund your deposit. The truth-gate is a promise, not a slogan.

1What we do

MONARQX plans, builds, and (on the Managed plan) operates the digital side of your business (your "Venture") using MONARQX's engine, systems, and operating doctrine — per the package you buy (Build & Go — Lean, Build & Go — Full, or Managed by MONARQX). The free idea test on our site is a non-binding preview and creates no obligation on either side. Your exact deliverables, timeline, and assumptions are confirmed in writing before the deposit is taken; that written scope plus these terms is our agreement.

2Payment & deposits

All prices in AUD; any GST shown separately on your tax invoice; payment via Stripe. Work begins only once the deposit has cleared.

• Build & Go — Lean (A$2,900): 50% deposit (A$1,450), 50% on delivery.
• Build & Go — Full (A$5,900): 50% deposit (A$2,950), 50% on delivery.
• Larger/multi-system builds: quoted in writing before any deposit, staged schedule in the written scope.
• Managed by MONARQX (A$1,190/month): flat monthly subscription, billed in advance; never a percentage of your revenue, never equity; heavier-management ventures quoted at a higher flat rate in writing before signup — your rate never changes mid-subscription.

Invoiced balances due within 7 days; late balances accrue 1.5% per month (or part); we may pause work while an invoice is overdue. Final deliverables and access release on final payment.

3Refunds & cancellation

• Before work begins: cancel and your deposit is refunded, less costs already incurred on your behalf (domains, tools, subscriptions bought for your build).
• Once work has begun: the deposit is non-refundable — it reflects committed time, planning, and third-party costs, a genuine pre-estimate, not a penalty. Nothing here limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law, including a remedy (which may include a refund) if our services fail a consumer guarantee — e.g. not delivered with due care and skill or within a reasonable time.
• Cancelling mid-project: 7 days' written notice; you're charged for work completed (including the retained deposit); prepaid amounts beyond that are refunded, less costs incurred. Approved refunds process within 14 business days.
• Cancelling the Managed subscription: anytime, via billing portal or written notice; effective at the end of the current billing period; current-period fees not refunded (ACL rights unaffected). You keep your entire business — brand, site, code, content, customers, 100% of revenue — plus an Exit Pack: a full snapshot and a plain-English runbook for running it yourself. Your domain, hosting, and accounts were registered in your name from day one; nothing needs reclaiming. What ends is the MONARQX engine — the automated running and improving — and your licence to it (§5). Re-subscribe within 90 days and you resume at the rate you left on.

4Scope & revisions

Your written scope defines what's included; anything not expressly listed is out of scope and quoted separately in writing before we proceed. Each delivery stage includes up to two rounds of revisions against the agreed scope. Out-of-scope requests and changes of direction are estimated and agreed in writing first. Rush turnarounds may carry a surcharge, quoted up front.

5What you own — and what you licence

You own, fully and forever (on final payment): your data and business context, your Venture — brand, content, configuration, customer relationships — every file and line of code we hand you, and 100% of its revenue, equity, and upside. This clause is that IP assignment, in writing. Until final payment, deliverables remain MONARQX's. On the Managed plan your business is yours throughout — the subscription pays for the running, never the owning.

You licence (and don't own): the engine that builds and runs your Venture — MONARQX's software, architecture, prompts, templates, playbooks, operating doctrine, and improvements (the "Background IP") — stays MONARQX's property. You get a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to benefit from it for your own Venture only — for subscriptions, while active; for one-off builds, permanent but covering only the MONARQX materials embedded in your delivered Venture. In practice you agree not to (or help anyone else to): resell, rent, sublicense, white-label, or offer the MONARQX system as a service; redistribute or open-source any part of the engine or doctrine; reverse-engineer or extract it (except as permitted by law that can't be excluded, incl. ss 47D–47F Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)); clone the MONARQX business model or use the service to build a competing venture-builder; or circumvent technical protections. None of this limits what you do with your business — build it, grow it, sell it, franchise it.

6Our name, and the credit we keep

"MONARQX" and our product names are ours; you agree not to register anything confusingly similar, and to transfer any such registration to us on request. Because we take no revenue or equity, the credit is what we keep instead:

1. Badge. Your deliverables ship with a small "Built by MONARQX" notice and link (e.g. site footer). Please don't remove or obscure it; removal is available as a paid option (A$990), any time from handover.
2. Attribution. You grant MONARQX a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free licence to identify your Venture as built by MONARQX in our portfolio, site, socials, and pitch materials. Survives this agreement and travels with the Venture if sold.
3. Your protections: we showcase only after public launch; anything you designate confidential in writing stays out; you can have specific materials removed on reasonable notice — the permanent part is only the bare fact "built by MONARQX."
4. Case study: reasonable cooperation with one per engagement (≤3 hours of your time); nothing publishes until you approve the draft, every quote and figure included.
5. Testimonials are always voluntary; your numbers are yours. We publish revenue/traction figures only with separate, specific, written consent per figure — withdrawable for future use at any time.

7Confidentiality — both directions

Our engine, doctrine, prompts, and playbooks are MONARQX's confidential trade secrets; you won't disclose or use them outside this agreement (continues after termination). Equally, your proprietary business information is confidential to you: your numbers, customer data, and named strategy stay in your instance and are never fed to another customer's results. MONARQX retains generalised, non-identifying know-how (how to run ventures of a type well) and applies it across the engine for everyone; your identifying specifics are expressly excluded.

8Don't clone us (restraint)

For 24 months after termination (18 if a court finds that unenforceable; failing that 12), in Australia (failing that, NSW), you won't use MONARQX Confidential Information to build, operate, or assist a competing venture-builder, operator-brain, or AI-operations service, or solicit MONARQX's customers, operators, or key suppliers to cut MONARQX out. Each combination is a separate, severable restraint. This restrains copying us — never running, growing, or selling your business.

9Human safeguard

Anything touching money, contracts, or the real world goes through a person. MONARQX never moves your money, makes payments, or signs anything on its own. Some steps therefore require your explicit action — that's a safeguard, not a limit.

10Warranty & liability

We deliver the agreed scope with reasonable care and skill. Nothing here excludes rights under the Australian Consumer Law that can't lawfully be excluded. To the extent permitted by law: neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, and each party's total liability is capped at the fees you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Damages would be an inadequate remedy for breach of §§5–7; MONARQX may seek injunctive relief in addition to other remedies. A built business carries real running costs (domains, tools, subscriptions) — itemised up front, and yours after handover. We don't guarantee any commercial outcome of your Venture; no honest builder can.

11General

Governed by the law of New South Wales, Australia; parties submit to NSW courts. This document (with your order and written scope) is the entire agreement. Changes bind you only if you accept a new version, or we give reasonable notice and you continue a subscription; the version you accepted is recorded against your account. No assignment without written consent — except with the sale of your whole Venture, in which case §§5–8 bind the buyer. If any part is unenforceable, the rest continues.

Questions before you buy? Email dylan@monarqx.com — a human answers. We'd rather explain a clause than surprise a customer.

★Privacy policy

We collect only what we need to deliver your build and take payment: your name, business name, contact details, billing address, and any tax ID you provide at checkout, plus the details of your idea and scope. Card payments are processed by Stripe — we never see or store your full card number.

• Your information is used solely to deliver the service, invoice you, and stay in contact about your build.
• We do not sell your data or share it except with the tools needed to run your build (e.g. Stripe for payment), and only as required.
• You can ask us what we hold, correct it, or request deletion (where we're not required to keep it) at dylan@monarqx.com.

The free demo: when you run the demo we store the idea text you enter, a salted one-way hash of your IP address (for rate-limiting), your browser type, and how you arrived (referrer/campaign tags) so we can prevent abuse and understand demand. If you ask for your plan by email, we store your email address and send you that plan — nothing else, no marketing list, and every email we send tells you how to opt out of any future contact.

Service providers: to run MONARQX we use a small set of processors — Stripe (payments), Anthropic (the AI engine that processes your idea and demo text), Neon (database), Netlify and Vercel (hosting), Resend (email delivery) and Calendly (bookings). Some of these providers store data in the United States; we send them only what each needs to do its job. Build artifacts you generate are stored with our hosting providers to deliver your download and previews.

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles.