Principles
Lessware exists to make useful digital and financial services available free, or as close to free as sustainable, without quietly extracting value from the people who rely on them. These principles govern product behavior, consent flows, and public disclosure—not marketing language alone.
Operating principle
When Lessware faces a conflict between earning money and maintaining user trust, it discloses the conflict before asking users to make the choice.
Trust Contract
Ten public commitments about information, money, and conflicts. Canonical text: Trust Contract · Source history
1. No sale of identifiable financial information
Identifiable financial information is never sold. Lessware does not treat user financial records as a data product for third parties.
2. Disclosure only with specific authorization
Identifiable information is disclosed only when the user specifically authorizes the recipient, information involved, purpose, duration, and relevant compensation.
3. Compensation does not determine recommendations
Compensation never determines financial rankings, scores, or recommendations. Paid relationships may exist; they do not reorder what Lessware presents as best for the user without clear prior disclosure.
4. Visible monetization
Users can see what Lessware monetizes, who pays, why they pay, and what they receive through the Open Ledger and Revenue Register.
5. Meaningful free core
Free users receive meaningful core functionality rather than a deliberately impaired trial. Optional paid capacity does not require advertising, referrals, or data-sharing monetization.
6. Direct funding choice
Users may choose direct subscription or usage-based funding when they prefer not to participate in optional monetization. Direct funding is an alternative path, not a penalty tier.
7. Public economic disclosure
Product costs, revenue sources, operating profit or loss, major conflicts, and material policy changes are disclosed publicly through the Open Ledger on a published schedule.
8. Honest anonymity and de-identification claims
Information is not described as anonymous or de-identified unless re-identification risk has been assessed under the applicable process.
9. Conflicts disclosed before action
Material conflicts between revenue and user interests are disclosed before asking users to act—not discovered only after clicking through.
10. Governance before institutional capital
Mission commitments will be translated into appropriate governance protections before accepting significant institutional capital.
Privacy boundary
Summary of authorization and data boundaries. Canonical: Privacy policy · Source history
Identifiable financial information is never sold. Disclosure requires specific authorization naming recipient, data scope, purpose, duration, and compensation.
Each authorization produces a private consent record. The public Open Ledger shows aggregate counts only—never identifying participants.
Pre-launch, GetLessware.com collects data only through public forms (funding interest, waitlist, ideas)—not bank credentials or live financial account data.
Public form submissions are stored separately from the financial product domain and do not enter Plaid connectivity or transaction stores.
Revenue ethics
How Lessware may earn and disclose revenue. Source history
Permitted revenue categories include mission-aligned capital, grants, disclosed sponsorships and referrals, aggregated de-identified insights, organizational services, optional subscriptions, and individually authorized disclosures.
No monetization relationship may launch until it passes a Commercial Relationship Review covering economics, user information involvement, product influence, and disclosure plan.
Compensation never determines financial rankings, scores, or recommendations. Sponsored or paid presentation is clearly labeled and structurally distinct from organic results.
Each active relationship appears in the public Revenue Register with paying party, reason for payment, information treatment, and influence disclosure.
Governance — Stage 0
Lessware is defining its legal and governance structure before accepting institutional capital. Our goal is to protect free core access, user control, recommendation independence, and public economic transparency in the company's governing documents, not leave them as optional marketing promises.
Lessware is a founder project (Stage 0): published commitments, honest pre-launch disclosure, and non-binding funding conversations without published securities terms. Entity formation and encoded governance protections follow counsel review before outside capital and before real consumer financial data.
Canonical documents
Inspectable economics on the Open Ledger.