Privacy, in plain English

Effective November 1, 2026. When this page changes, the date changes.

Onward exists because selling a business is private, personal work. This page says what we collect, what we do with it, and — just as important — what we never do.

The estimator is anonymous unless you ask for it by email

When you use the valuation estimator, we store what you typed — industry, revenue, years, the owner question — with a random session token. If you don't give us your email, that's where it ends: no name, no email, nothing that traces back to you. We use those entries to calibrate the estimator's benchmarks.

If you ask for your estimate by email, we keep your answers together with your email. That way, when you start on Onward, we can fill in what you've already told us instead of asking again. Your answers are never shown to buyers or published anywhere unless you choose to put them in your own listing. To have them deleted, email privacy@onwardlegacy.com.

We only know who you are if you tell us

• If you ask for your estimate by email, we'll send it, keep your answers with your email as described above, and may follow up with a few notes about what to do next, including how to get started on Onward. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe that works immediately.
• If you check the guidance box, we'll send occasional plain-English guidance — and every one of those emails has a one-click unsubscribe that works immediately.
• If you ask for early access, we store your name, email, the role you picked and your answers to the short questions we ask. We use it only to invite you to the preview and to tell you when Onward opens. Asking for early access doesn't sign you up for guidance emails or anything else, and every email we send has a one-click way off the list.
• If you create an account, we store your email, sign-in activity, and whatever you choose to put in your profile. Every question in the app is optional and says so. We also send occasional plain-English guidance and product emails, as the sign-up form says; every one has a one-click unsubscribe that works immediately, and you can turn them off any time in Settings.
• If you answer our preview feedback form, we store your answers with your account if you're signed in, the invite you came from if there was one, and your email if you give it. Every question is optional. If you say yes to a call and give us your phone number, we use it only to set up that call. We use them only to decide what to build and how to price it. They're read by the people building Onward, never shown to other members or published, and never sent to our analytics tools. If you answer more than once, we keep each set of answers.
• If you tell us about someone else in that form, we keep the name and email you give us with your answers. We may email that person to invite them to the preview and mention that you suggested it, using the name on your invite or your account. We don't add them to any mailing list. Anyone you told us about before October 14, 2026 was promised no email, and we keep that promise.

If you hold a founding rate

During the preview, you can ask us to hold a founding membership rate for you. There's no card and nothing to pay. Here's what happens to what you give us.

• What we keep: your email, the rate we're holding (plan, price and how long it's locked), whether the hold is active or you let it go, and when.
• What we send: a confirmation that your rate is held, and, when Onward opens, a link to subscribe at that rate. That's all; holding a rate doesn't sign you up for guidance emails or anything else.
• Subscribing is up to you. Nothing happens unless you follow the link and choose to subscribe. If you do, Stripe, our payment provider, takes your card on its own page; Onward never sees your card number.
• Let it go anytime with the link in your confirmation email. We keep a record that the hold existed and was let go.

If you connect an AI assistant

You can connect your Onward account to an AI assistant, such as Claude, so it can answer your questions from Onward's lessons. Nothing is connected unless you do it: you add Onward to the assistant, sign in to Onward, and approve the connection on Onward's own screen. How it works.

• What the assistant can see: Onward's lessons and glossary, which lessons you've marked read, and your name, email and whether you're buying or selling. It can't see your profile, valuation, listing, messages or documents, and it can't change anything in your account.
• What we keep: which assistant you connected, when you connected it and when it last used Onward. The keys the assistant uses to reach Onward are stored only in scrambled form, so they can't be read back. A key lasts an hour and the assistant renews it as it goes. If it goes 90 days without using Onward, you'll need to connect it again.
• What we never see: your conversation with the assistant. Onward receives only each request the assistant makes, such as a lesson to open, a few words to search for, or a term to define. We don't keep a record of what those requests asked. Our hosting provider's standard logs note that a request was made, not what it asked.
• The assistant's own provider handles what you say to the assistant, under its own privacy policy, not this one.
• To disconnect, go to Settings → Connected AI assistants in your Onward account. The assistant's keys are deleted straight away and stop working.

If you ask for help or give feedback

Help, in the Onward app's sidebar, has three tabs: Chat, where our help assistant answers questions about using Onward straight away; Submit a ticket, which sends your question to a person on our team; and Feedback, where you can tell us how Onward is working for you.

• When you use Chat, your question goes to Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, to write the answer. With it go the earlier questions and answers in that conversation, and a short summary of your own account: whether you're buying or selling, your plan, your verification level, whether you've finished setting up and published, and the page you asked from. The text of that page goes too, as it was on your screen when you asked, with what you'd typed or chosen on it (never a password or card number), so it can tell what you mean by "this". That page can show what other members shared with you, such as a listing or a message. The only other thing about another member that's ever sent is what a search finds for you, below. We don't keep the page's text: it's used for that one answer.
• When the assistant searches for you, for instance when you ask which buyers are looking for a heating business in Michigan, it looks only at what Onward would show you on your own Browse, Listings and Community pages, and only in the way you'd see it there: buyer profiles, if you're an owner, or a broker whose plan includes browsing buyers; live listings, if you're a buyer, and only the parts your plan opens; the businesses you represent, if you're a broker, drafts included; and published community questions and answers, with names or aliases as they appear to you. What it finds is sent to Claude with your question, the same way and under the same agreements as below. Nobody's contact details, messages or documents are ever part of it. A profile that isn't published is never searched, and neither is a buyer or a listing's owner who has blocked you.
• If you publish a buyer profile, a listing or a community post, the assistant can read it to answer another member who can already see it on Onward, in the same words they'd see. It never tells them anything Onward keeps from them, such as the parts of a listing their plan doesn't open.
• Where it goes: the request travels through Vercel's AI Gateway, which keeps none of it, and only to providers with zero-data-retention agreements. They don't keep your question once they've answered it, and they never use it to train AI models. Claude may be run by Anthropic itself, or by Google Cloud or Amazon Web Services under those same agreements. Anthropic's commercial terms also bar it from training its models on what it receives.
• What we keep from Chat: your conversations — the questions and answers — whether you rated an answer and why, and whether the assistant offered to pass you to a person. We delete a conversation 12 months after it was last used, and you can delete any conversation, or all of them, at any time under Chat → Past questions. People at Onward read the conversations where the assistant couldn't answer, declined, or got a thumbs-down, to see which help articles to write next. When the assistant searched for you, its answer stays in your conversation like any other, so it can name the buyers, listings or posts it found. We keep the words it searched with, but not the full list it got back.
• When you submit a ticket, we keep what you write and our replies, plus a few details captured when you send it, so you don't have to explain them: the page you were on, your browser and device, the version of the app, and your role, plan, verification level and setup progress. If you choose to include your chat, we keep that with the ticket too. If you attach screenshots, they're stored encrypted, checked when they arrive, and opened only by you and the people at Onward who answer tickets; each time we open one is recorded on your profile, and you can remove one until we've replied. Tickets are read only by the people at Onward who answer them and kept for as long as your account exists. We email you through Resend when we reply.
• When you give feedback, we keep your rating, what you write, what kind of feedback it is if you say, the page you were on (unless you tell us it isn't about one) and whether you're buying or selling. If you attach a screenshot, it's stored encrypted and opened only by you and the people at Onward who read feedback. We contact you about your feedback only if you tick that it's OK to. It's read by the people building Onward to decide what to improve, never shown to other members, and kept for as long as your account exists.
• Please don't send deal documents — tax returns, financial statements and the like — in a ticket or in Chat. If we need them, we'll ask you to share them securely.
• Chat isn't advice. The assistant answers questions about using Onward. It isn't a broker, attorney or accountant, and it won't tell you what a business is worth or whether to take an offer.

If you use Refine on an answer

When you choose ✦ Refine on an answer you're writing, that answer and the question it's for go to an AI model to suggest a clearer version: Claude, made by Anthropic, or Gemini, made by Google, if Claude isn't available. Like Chat, it goes through Vercel's AI Gateway only to providers with zero-data-retention agreements, which don't keep your answer once they've replied and never train on it. Nothing changes unless you choose to use the suggestion. We keep a record that you used Refine — which question, the model, what it cost and whether you used the suggestion — but not the text.

If you turn on document reading

Insights in your data room can read the documents you've put in your vault, such as tax returns and statements, to tell you what a buyer will find in them. Nothing is read unless you turn document reading on, in your vault, and then start an analysis yourself.

• What's sent: only the files filed where that analysis looks, for your own business. Each result lists every file it read. Files someone else added to your data room are never read, and nothing about any other member is ever sent.
• Where it goes: to Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, and only Anthropic, through Vercel's AI Gateway with zero data retention. Neither keeps your documents once Claude has answered, and Anthropic's commercial terms bar it from training its models on them.
• Who sees the results: only you, until you choose to share them. No buyer, broker or lender can run this on your documents.
• What we keep: the results, until you turn document reading off or delete your account; when you agreed and to which wording; and, for each run, which files it read, the model and what it cost, but not what it read or wrote.
• To turn it off, go to Insights in your vault. Every result made from your documents is deleted straight away, and nothing is read again unless you turn it back on. Your documents stay as they are.
• The Advisor and your documents is a separate switch, under The Advisor and your documents in your vault. With it on, when you ask the Onward Advisor something your files answer, Onward picks the files that could answer it by their names and filing alone, sends those files (no more than three) and your question to Claude the same way as above, only to Anthropic, and gives the Advisor back a short answer naming each file it used. Only you see it, no buyer, broker or lender can ask the Advisor about your files, and files someone else added to your data room are never read. We keep that answer in your conversation, and for each read which files were read, the model and what it cost. Turning it off deletes every Advisor answer that drew on your files, and the rest of that conversation, straight away. It doesn't change Insights' document reading, or the other way round.

If you import from QuickBooks or connect your bank

Instead of uploading financial records one by one, a seller can bring them into their vault from QuickBooks Online or straight from their bank. Both are one-time imports that you start yourself, and both end the connection as soon as the import is done. Nothing is connected unless you do it.

• QuickBooks Online: you sign in to QuickBooks on Intuit’s own page and approve Onward there; Onward never sees your QuickBooks password. Onward then reads your company’s name, the month your fiscal year starts, and your profit and loss statements and year-end balance sheets for the last three years and this year so far. It only reads, and never changes anything in QuickBooks.
• Your bank, through Plaid: you pick your bank and sign in inside Plaid’s window, not Onward’s, so Onward never sees your bank sign-in and can’t move money. Onward asks Plaid for your monthly statements for the months you choose, and nothing else: no balances, transactions or account numbers beyond what the bank prints on the statement itself. Plaid handles your bank connection under its own end user privacy policy.
• Disconnecting: Onward ends the connection to QuickBooks or your bank as soon as your reports or statements have been fetched, before you decide what to keep, and also if you cancel or something goes wrong. The keys that allow access are stored encrypted and only for those minutes. If Intuit or Plaid doesn’t confirm the disconnection, we try again daily; after five tries we delete the key, which then expires on its own.
• What’s filed: only the reports or statements you tick, each saved in your vault, encrypted, and labeled as imported from QuickBooks or from your bank through Plaid. Like anything in your vault, nobody can open them until you share them, and deleting one is immediate. What was fetched but not filed is deleted when you finish or cancel, or within two days if you leave it.
• What we keep about the import: when you did it, which company or bank, how many reports, accounts and statements were fetched, and whether it finished. We also log each request Onward makes to Intuit or Plaid by its type and result, never what was in it.
• Reading them: imported files are read only if you turn on document reading, the same as files you upload. For a QuickBooks report, Onward takes the figures from the report itself, and only the account names are sent to Claude to sort them into categories.

How we measure and improve Onward

We use Google Analytics to see which pages people visit and where they get stuck, so we can make this site better. It sets cookies and records usage data — pages viewed, device type, rough location — which Google processes on our behalf. It never sees your name, your email, or anything you type into a form: no estimator answers, no profile details.

On this site and in the app, we also use Vercel Web Analytics, from the company that hosts Onward, to count visits and three steps: creating an account, opening a listing, and running an estimate. It sets no cookies and doesn't identify you. It gets the page address without anything that could point to you or open your account: no sign-in or unsubscribe links, no account or listing numbers. It never sees your estimator answers.

Inside the Onward app, we also use Pendo, a product-analytics service, to learn how people use Onward so we can improve the product. Pendo records the pages you visit and what you click, and we send it a record of the main steps you take — finishing a profile, running a valuation, requesting an introduction, sending a message. Once you're signed in, that record is tied to your account: your name, email, role, and verification level, along with some of what you enter, such as the industry and figures in the valuation tools and the names you give saved searches. Pendo processes this on our behalf. It never receives what your messages say or the documents you upload — only that you sent or added one.

If your browser blocks analytics, everything here still works.

We send email through Resend, which processes your email address and the messages we send you on our behalf. It doesn't use them for anything else.

Onward is hosted by Vercel. Chat, Refine and document reading reach AI models through Vercel's AI Gateway, as described above.

If you import from QuickBooks or connect your bank, Intuit and Plaid provide those connections, as described above.

We use Stripe to verify identity and, when you subscribe or buy something once, to take payment. Stripe handles those under its own privacy policy; Onward keeps only the results and Stripe's reference numbers.

What we never do

• We don't sell your information, and we don't share it with brokers, marketers, or anyone else for their own use.
• We don't signal anything to the market about you. Learning what your business might be worth tells nobody anything.
• We don't run advertising trackers, and nothing you tell us is fed to ad platforms. Beyond the cookie that keeps you signed in, the only other cookies here belong to the analytics tools described above. Analytics data is used to understand and improve Onward, never to advertise to you.

Verification

Identity checks are handled by Stripe Identity. You photograph your ID and yourself on Stripe's own page, and Stripe keeps those images under its own privacy policy; they never reach our systems. Onward stores only the result: that you were verified, when, and the name on your ID. Where we review a document ourselves (like an owner's proof of ownership), the reviewer can open it only until we decide, and we keep the outcome. If you sent evidence through our earlier review form, we delete it within 30 days of the decision.

Documents you upload to your profile or data room are stored encrypted; you choose who else can open them, and you can see each time someone does. Onward reads them only if you turn on document reading. Screenshots on a support ticket are kept with the ticket. Agreements you sign on Onward, like an NDA or a letter of intent, are kept as the record of what was agreed, for both people who signed. How long we keep each of these, including when a paid plan ends, is below.

When a paid plan ends

Keep your own copies of your documents and the agreements you sign. That's your responsibility, not ours. When a paid plan ends (you cancel, your subscription lapses, or a 90-day pass runs out), here's what happens. A plan we gave you at no charge counts as a paid plan.

• That day, we email you a way to download everything: the documents you uploaded and the agreements you signed, like NDAs and letters of intent.
• 30 days later, we delete the documents you uploaded. Copies can stay in our encrypted backups for a short time after that, until those backups are replaced.
• A signed agreement is shared by the two people who signed it. We delete it only once each of them is past their own 30 days or no longer has an account. Until then, the other signer keeps it.
• Renew within the 30 days and nothing is deleted.
• If you've never had a paid plan, your documents stay while your account exists.

How long we keep things

• Anonymous estimator entries: kept for calibration; they identify no one.
• Contact details with no activity for 24 months: deleted, or we ask again before keeping them.
• Estimator answers you asked for by email: kept with your email until you create an account (they move into it) or until 24 months pass with no activity, whichever comes first.
• Feedback answers, and anyone you told us about in them: kept with your email under the same 24-month rule as other contact details.
• Founding rate holds: kept while the hold is active. One you let go keeps only the record that it existed.
• Chat conversations: deleted 12 months after they were last used, or sooner if you delete them.
• Documents you upload: kept until you delete them or your account. If you've had a paid plan, deleted 30 days after it ends unless you renew, as described above.
• Signed agreements (NDAs, letters of intent): kept for both people who signed. Deleted once each signer is 30 days past the end of their paid plan or no longer has an account. Until then, the other signer keeps it, even if you've deleted your account.
• Reports and statements imported from QuickBooks or your bank: once filed, kept like documents you upload. Anything fetched but not filed is deleted when you finish or cancel, or within two days if you leave it.
• Support tickets, their screenshots, and feedback: kept while your account exists.
• Account data: kept while the account exists; deleting your account removes your profile, sessions, assessments, plans, documents, support tickets, feedback and Chat conversations. An agreement you signed stays with the other signer until it's deleted as above.

Your choices

Unsubscribe from guidance emails with one click, any time. To access or delete what we hold about you, email privacy@onwardlegacy.com and a person — not a system — will handle it.

Who we are

Onward is operated by Product Detroit. Questions about this page go to privacy@onwardlegacy.com.