Privacy Policy

This policy applies to BridgeStar Ventures (“BridgeStar”, “we”, “us”) and to this website. It covers people who browse the site, submit one of its forms, or correspond with us as a result.

It does not cover the organizations listed in the BridgeStar network, who each operate their own websites and their own privacy practices, or any relationship you go on to form with one of them.

We collect three kinds of information, and only the first is anything you would recognise as personal.

What you tell us

Your name and email address, and, where you choose to give them, your organization, role, website, and location. Our matching and introduction forms also ask what you are building or trying to solve, what stage you are at, which markets you operate in or want to reach, and what kind of resource you are looking for. Everything beyond your name, email, and the description of your need is optional.

What your visit produces

Our hosting provider records standard server logs — IP address, browser and device type, the pages requested, and the time of the request — to serve the site and to keep it secure. We also record which parts of the site are used, in aggregate, so we can tell whether the network is actually usable. These records are not used to build a profile of you and are not combined with what you submit through a form.

What we learn elsewhere

If you ask us to look for a resource on your behalf, we may consult public sources — company registries, published funding records, an organization's own website — about you or your company. We do not buy personal information from data brokers.

This site does not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and it does not carry third-party advertising.

We use what you send us to do the thing you contacted us for, and for very little else:

• To understand what you are looking for and to reply to you.
• To assess whether a connection in the BridgeStar network is genuinely relevant — and to tell you when none is.
• To make an introduction, where you have asked for one and agreed to it.
• To keep a record of what was discussed, so a later conversation does not start from zero.
• To operate, secure, and improve the site.
• To meet our legal and tax obligations.

Where the law requires a lawful basis for processing, ours is your consent for introductions and marketing, the performance of a contract where you engage BridgeStar for a service, and our legitimate interest in operating the network and responding to enquiries for everything else. You can withdraw consent at any time.

Founders describe unreleased products and unannounced plans to us. That information is the reason this section exists.

• We do not publish what you submit. Nothing you send through a form appears on this website or in any public directory.
• We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• We do not pass your description of what you are building to a specific investor, factory, or partner without asking you first and telling you who they are.
• When we do share it, we share the least that makes the introduction work — not your whole submission.
• Our own notes and assessments about a relationship are internal. They are never displayed in the public network.

If you need a confidentiality agreement in place before you tell us something, say so before you tell us.

The BridgeStar team

Our team works across the United States and Asia-Pacific. Whoever is best placed to help will see your submission.

People we introduce you to

Only with your agreement, and only the context needed for the introduction to make sense.

Service providers

The companies that host this site, deliver our email, and store our records process information on our behalf, under contract, and only on our instructions.

Professional advisers and authorities

Our lawyers and accountants where necessary, and any authority where we are legally required to disclose. We will tell you if that happens, unless we are prohibited from doing so.

A successor

If BridgeStar is acquired or merges, information may transfer to the acquiring entity, which would remain bound by this policy until you are notified otherwise.

BridgeStar is a cross-border business, so information you send us will cross borders. Our team and the organizations in our network are located principally in the United States and in Asia-Pacific, including mainland China, and the laws protecting personal information differ between them.

Where we transfer personal information out of a jurisdiction that restricts such transfers, we rely on the appropriate safeguards for that jurisdiction — standard contractual clauses or an equivalent mechanism — and we transfer only what the purpose requires. If you would rather your information were not reviewed outside a particular country, tell us and we will either accommodate it or tell you plainly that we cannot help on that basis.

• Enquiries and matching submissions: kept while the conversation is live and for up to three years afterwards, because a connection that is wrong today is often right later. Ask us to delete it sooner and we will.
• Records of an engagement: kept for as long as our legal, tax, and accounting obligations require.
• Server logs: kept for a short operational period, typically no more than 12 months.

Wherever you are, you can ask us to show you what we hold about you, correct it, delete it, stop using it, or send it to you in a portable form. You can also tell us to stop contacting you, and we will.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, these are your rights under the GDPR, including the right to complain to your supervisory authority. If you are a California resident, the CCPA gives you rights to know, delete, correct, and opt out of sale or sharing — we do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined, and we will not discriminate against you for exercising any right.

Ask by any of the routes below. We will respond within 30 days, and we may need to confirm your identity first.

The site is served over encrypted connections, access to submissions is limited to the team members who need it, and our records sit with established providers rather than on anyone's laptop. No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise; if a breach affects your information we will notify you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

This site is intended for people acting in a professional capacity and is not directed to anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect information from children, and we will delete it if we find we have.

When this policy changes we will update the date at the top of the page. If a change materially affects how we use information you have already sent us, we will contact you directly rather than rely on you noticing.

Questions about this policy, or a request about your information, can be sent through the contact form on this site or by post to BridgeStar Ventures, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States. Please mark privacy requests clearly so they reach the right person.