Terms & Conditions

Agreement to Terms

By engaging TierOne Labs — whether by submitting our contact form, entering into a partnership agreement, or using any of our services — you agree to be bound by these Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree with any part of these terms, please do not engage our services.

These terms govern the relationship between TierOne Labs and clients, founders, incubators, accelerators, and organisations that partner with us for product delivery, technical leadership, and related services.

Our Services

TierOne Labs provides product delivery partnership and technical consulting services, which may include:

• Product Delivery Partnership: Working within your team to plan, architect, and deliver software products aligned with your business goals.
• Fractional CTO Services: Senior technical leadership partnered with your startup on a part-time or project basis.
• MVP to Scale: Post-MVP product iteration, feature delivery, and architecture for growing startups.
• Developer Capacity Building: Placing and mentoring developers within real product environments as part of structured programmes.

The specific scope, deliverables, timeline, and fees for each engagement are agreed upon in a separate written Engagement Agreement before work begins. In the event of any conflict between these Terms and a specific Engagement Agreement, the Engagement Agreement shall take precedence.

Engagement Process

All TierOne Labs engagements follow a structured process:

1. Discovery Call: An initial conversation to understand your product vision, business goals, and constraints. This call is free and carries no obligation.
2. Engagement Scoping: We define the scope of work, delivery milestones, communication cadence, and commercial terms in writing. Work does not begin until both parties have agreed in writing.
3. Build & Iterate: We execute the agreed scope through weekly product sprints, with regular check-ins and transparent reporting against milestones.

Any material changes to scope, timeline, or deliverables during an active engagement must be agreed in writing by both parties before implementation.

Client Responsibilities

A successful partnership requires active participation from you. As a client, you agree to:

• Provide timely feedback and decisions on matters requiring your input, as outlined in the Engagement Agreement.
• Grant TierOne Labs access to the systems, tools, and information required to deliver the agreed scope.
• Ensure that any content, data, or third-party assets you provide us are legally cleared for use.
• Make payments according to the schedule agreed in the Engagement Agreement.
• Designate a primary point of contact who has the authority to make product and business decisions.

Delays caused by failure to fulfil these responsibilities may affect delivery timelines. TierOne Labs will communicate any such impact promptly and in writing.

Intellectual Property

Ownership of intellectual property is as follows:

• Client-owned deliverables: Upon receipt of full payment for an engagement, all custom code, designs, and documentation created specifically for your project are assigned to you. You own what we build for you.
• TierOne Labs tools & frameworks: Any pre-existing tools, internal frameworks, libraries, or methodologies that TierOne Labs brings to an engagement remain our property. Where these are incorporated into your deliverables, we grant you a perpetual, royalty-free licence to use them for the purposes of your product.
• Open-source components: Where open-source software is incorporated into deliverables, it remains subject to its respective licences, which will be disclosed to you.

TierOne Labs reserves the right to reference the engagement (e.g. in a portfolio or case study) unless you request otherwise in writing.

Payment Terms

Specific pricing and payment schedules are set out in the Engagement Agreement. General payment terms are:

• Invoices are payable within 14 days of issue unless otherwise agreed.
• Late payments may result in work being paused until outstanding amounts are settled.
• TierOne Labs reserves the right to charge interest on overdue invoices at a rate of 1.5% per month.
• All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes unless stated otherwise.

Confidentiality

Both parties acknowledge that during the engagement, they may have access to confidential information belonging to the other party.

TierOne Labs agrees to keep your business information, product details, and strategic plans strictly confidential and to use them only for the purposes of delivering the agreed services. We will not disclose your confidential information to third parties without your written consent.

This obligation of confidentiality survives the termination of the engagement for a period of three (3) years.

Limitation of Liability

TierOne Labs provides services with reasonable skill and care. However, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

• TierOne Labs shall not be liable for any indirect, consequential, incidental, or special damages arising from the engagement, including but not limited to loss of profit, loss of business, or loss of data.
• TierOne Labs' total liability in connection with any engagement shall not exceed the total fees paid by the client in the three months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
• TierOne Labs does not guarantee specific business outcomes, user growth, or revenue results from the software we deliver.

Termination

Either party may terminate an engagement by giving written notice as specified in the Engagement Agreement (typically 14–30 days). Upon termination:

• The client shall pay for all work completed up to the date of termination.
• TierOne Labs shall deliver all completed work products and transfer relevant access credentials to the client.
• Any work in progress at the point of termination will be discussed and handled in good faith.

Governing Law

These Terms & Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of Rwanda. Any disputes arising from or in connection with these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Rwanda.

TierOne Labs is committed to resolving disputes amicably. Before initiating any formal proceedings, both parties agree to make reasonable good-faith efforts to resolve the matter directly.

Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms & Conditions from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be communicated to active clients directly. Continued use of our services following any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Contact Us

For questions about these Terms & Conditions or any aspect of our engagement process, please reach out: