Applicant & Submission Terms

Updated October 18, 2026.

1. Apply without giving away your résumé or portfolio

Applying lets HartBeat evaluate your skills and fit. It does not transfer your résumé, identity, pre-existing portfolio, general knowledge or all future inventions. Applications may describe areas of interest and experience without delivering an original solution. Unless a separate agreement authorizes delivery of original work, please submit only a nonconfidential skills/interest summary; do not send original source files, invention details or proprietary proposals.

2. Three different submission paths

3. Optional feedback permissions

Only when you separately accept a feedback agreement containing this grant: you authorize HartBeat to use, reproduce, adapt, implement and commercialize the designated nonconfidential feedback under a worldwide, nonexclusive, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free license for the duration of the applicable rights, subject to nonwaivable law. You retain any ownership not expressly assigned. This permission does not depend on hiring or recognition and does not require additional payment except as a separate agreement provides.

This grant applies only through a separately accepted feedback agreement; submitting an application alone does not activate it. It does not cover résumés, confidential submissions, separately licensed works or portfolio samples supplied only for evaluation. Abstract ideas are not made exclusively owned merely by calling them property.

4. Company ownership of contributed work

HartBeat’s contribution program requires a Contribution Assignment Agreement for work it will acquire. Once that agreement’s signatures and stated consideration/effective conditions are satisfied, HartBeat owns the transferable rights specified for that contribution. The agreement must address prior materials, third-party licenses, patents where relevant, collaborators and AI-assisted elements. An application alone, rejection email or Hall of Fame designation is not that assignment.

5. Hiring and recognition are separate

No application guarantees an Architect designation, job, bounty, shares or payment. The intended Top 10 paid remote job pathway remains subject to finalized funded roles and published challenge rules. Accepted meaningful contributions may earn recognition under those rules. A signed assignment may expressly allow HartBeat to use designated work even if the contributor is rejected, not hired, not selected for the Top 10 or not recognized. Such use must remain within the rights actually obtained and the agreed compensation terms; it cannot erase promised awards or wages.

6. Similar and independently developed work

HartBeat may already be developing or receive similar concepts from other sources. Similarity alone does not establish copying, exclusivity or an entitlement to hire or pay. This statement is not permission to copy protected expression, breach an agreement, misuse confidential information or misappropriate trade secrets. Keep provenance and development records; if a dispute arises, HartBeat should preserve relevant evidence and investigate rather than rely on a blanket disclaimer.

7. Confidentiality, provenance and rights

Do not disclose third-party secrets, employer-owned code, restricted data or materials you cannot lawfully share. A nonconfidential-submission route does not override an existing nondisclosure agreement or privacy duties. If confidentiality, payment or other conditions are essential, request and sign an agreement before disclosing the work. Identify coauthors and permissions, licenses and AI assistance accurately. HartBeat may decline, quarantine or request clarification of uncertain material.

8. Voluntary participation and paid work

Applicants need not buy anything or produce substantial free work to request consideration. No cash bounty opens without published funded terms. Commissioned production work requires an appropriate agreement before it begins. Program labels and IP assignments do not determine employment status or waive mandatory wage, discrimination, whistleblower or other protected rights.

9. Privacy and publication

Reviewers and necessary providers may handle applications under the Privacy Policy. We seek separate permission before publishing identity or a public contributor profile. A permission to use work commercially does not itself permit publishing the contributor’s résumé, email, phone or likeness. Withdrawal from career messages does not automatically terminate an existing valid IP grant; personal-data rights and legal retention still apply.

10. Earlier submissions and final consent

These terms do not take ownership of earlier ideas or work. Inventory prior submissions, apply their original conditions and obtain any needed fresh, voluntary agreement before reuse. For a new grant, retain the exact document/version, identified work, signatures, timestamp, consideration and a copy delivered to each party. Do not treat a browser-only checkbox or an unverified email note as a completed assignment. If a participant is not legally able to contract, obtain a counsel-approved process before accepting a grant.

Questions or requests: legal@hartbeatos.com. Please identify the policy, submission or request concerned; do not email identity documents unless a secure, necessary verification method has been agreed.