Rules

Effective: September 27, 2026 · Last updated: October 6, 2026

These rules decide what can go on the wall and how an entry stays there. They are part of our Terms. Please read them before you buy — payments are final (see the Refund Policy).

The Evolution Wall

The home page is the Evolution Wall, where startups climb a tree of 70 stages by earning points. These rules apply to it, together with everything under "What's not allowed" below.

Your startup: sign in with Google. Each account can add one startup, free, and edit its details later. It must be a public website you own or are authorized to promote. Its website is checked when you add it or change it, and again every month.
Helping others: you can vote for, review, make a suggestion to, or report a bug on any startup except your own, once each per startup. Be genuine: write as a founder or indie hacker would, and never to earn points. Don't trade votes or reviews, and don't use a second account.
Bug reports need clear test cases the founder can repeat. The founder confirms the report (both startups earn the points) or marks it not identified, and then you may report it again. While it is pending you can't send another.
Points for each action are set by us and may change; a change applies to later actions only. Entries that aren't genuine can be removed, and the points they earned leave both startups.
Daily login bonus: a founder with a startup on the wall earns a few points the first time they open the site signed in each day, once per startup per day (the day changes at midnight India time). It grows with the level, from 1 point to 100 a day at the top, and can't be claimed twice, on another account, or for a startup that isn't live. We may change it or switch it off.
Level-ups: the owner of a live startup can pay to move it up whole levels, from level 15 up, a few at a time (the price and the limits are shown before paying). Money can lift a startup only a few levels above the level it has earned by taking part, so effort still decides who leads. A level-up adds the points of the levels bought. It is not refundable, and we may take a purchase back, with its points, after a refund or chargeback or if the startup breaks these rules.
Levels and paths: points raise your level. At a fork you take a path: you choose it, or, when we have that switched off, it is picked for you at random. A path can't be changed afterwards.
The leaderboard shows the most evolved startups. It reflects points only. It is not a recommendation.
Moderation: a startup that breaks these rules can be removed, and so can its points. A startup whose website stops working or breaks the rules is hidden until it passes the next monthly check.

Sponsor widgets are paid, round nodes that float through the background of the wall. In addition to everything under "What's not allowed" below:

Who: a founder signed in with Google. You choose one evolution phase, from the Big Bang up to the highest stage any startup has reached, and how many widgets, within the range shown in the Sponsor dialog. The price of one widget is shown there too, in US dollars.
What you promote: a public website you own or are authorized to promote. We check it against the content rules before we take payment. A sponsor's name, tagline and logo must be your own and must not mislead: no impersonating another startup or person, no claims you can't back up, and no offers that hide what they are.
What is shown: the artwork of your phase with your logo (looked up from your website), your name and your tagline. A click opens your website. Widgets are a faded background layer, so they never cover the tree, a startup or a dialog. How big, how visible, how fast and how animated they are is our choice.
No time limit, but not forever: a sponsorship has no end date. It stays until newer sponsors replace it. Every phase has room for a limited number of sponsor widgets at a time (the most one purchase can hold), and the newest purchases take the places. A newer purchase that finds the phase full replaces the oldest widgets there, one for each widget it bought. Your sponsorship can be replaced in part or entirely, at any time.
The site's own widgets (our logo, or the most evolved startup) give way to paid ones: every paid widget takes the place of one of them.
Removal: we may remove a widget that breaks these rules, and a replaced or removed sponsorship is not refunded (see the Refund Policy).

What's not allowed

On the Evolution Wall, in sponsor widgets, and on the earlier walls:

adult content, gambling, malware, or phishing links;
misleading claims, impersonation, or profiles and sites you don't have the rights to represent;
images, logos or names you don't have the rights to use;
anything illegal, fraudulent, hateful, violent, harassing, or that exploits children;
scams, counterfeit goods, or content that infringes someone else's copyright or trademark;
link shorteners or redirects that hide where the link really goes.

Fair play

Don't inflate points, votes, reviews or clicks, use bots or scripts, create extra accounts, get around rate limits, or interfere with the site. We may remove entries and points connected to that kind of activity, and the points they earned leave both startups.

The earlier walls: Products & People

The Products & SaaS and People walls, where blocks can be bought and linked to a website, are still online. These rules apply to them. They apply to anyone who bought, or claimed free, a rectangle of blocks there.

1. What you can list

Products & SaaS wall: a product, startup, app, tool, or company website that you own or are authorized to promote.
People wall: your own profile — a personal site or social profile — or one you are authorized to represent.
The link must be a working http or https address.
One listing per link, per wall. A link that is already on a wall can't be added to the same wall again. We compare links without www, the protocol, query strings, or a trailing slash, so small variations of the same address count as the same link. The same link can appear once on each wall.

2. Buying blocks

You can select any shape and size — there's no minimum or maximum.
The price per block is set per wall and shown before you pay. Prices are in US dollars; the checkout may show your local currency and add applicable taxes.
While you fill in your details, your selection is held for you for 15 minutes, extended to 30 minutes once you reach checkout. If you close the form or leave without finishing, the blocks are released for others.
Your listing goes live on the wall as soon as your payment is confirmed.
Your listing shows a name (up to 80 characters), a category, an optional tagline, and an image. You don't upload an image file: we look one up automatically for your link — from a logo service, your page's own preview image, or its favicon. On the People wall you can give a link to a profile image instead.

3. Free blocks

The first 10 claims on each wall were free, for up to 4 blocks, once per browser per wall. The banner under the header shows how many free claims are left, and the claim form shows whether your selection is free before you continue. The offer ends when those 10 claims are used and may end sooner. Using extra browsers or devices to collect more than one free claim on a wall is not allowed, and we may remove those listings.

4. Keeping your listing on the wall

On the 1st of every month we automatically re-check every live listing. A listing fails if:

the link doesn't load, or returns an error;
the link redirects to a different domain; or
the page contains adult or gambling content.

First failed check: your listing is hidden from the wall, but the blocks stay yours. Fix the problem and, if it passes the next monthly check, it comes back automatically.

Second failed check in a row: the listing is removed and its blocks are released for anyone to buy. Removed listings are not refunded.

Separately from the monthly check, we may hide or remove any entry at any time if it breaks these Rules, the Terms, or the law, or if we receive a valid complaint about it.

5. Changing your listing

Listings have no accounts, so you can't edit one yourself. To ask for a change to its name, link, tagline, or category, message @Parthivv13 on X with the email address you used at checkout. The image is set when you claim and can't be changed afterwards. We may decline a change that would break these Rules.

6. Clicks and the side cards

Each listing's click count goes up at most once per device, no matter how many times that device clicks it. The "Biggest spot on the wall" and "Most clicked" cards beside the wall are calculated automatically from block counts and clicks — they are not recommendations or endorsements.

Reports and appeals

To report something that breaks these Rules, or to appeal a startup, widget or listing of yours being hidden or removed, message @Parthivv13 on X with its name or link. We aim to reply within 48 hours.