Indie Valley

You already did the hard part. You built the thing. You're shipping, you're learning, you're fighting for every number. The cruel part is that almost none of it is visible — the work disappears into a feed that rewards the loudest screenshot, not the truest one.

Indie Valley is where the real work finally counts. You add your startup, connect your real revenue, and the journey you're already living becomes a story people follow — like a series, with a live sourced line they can't fake and can't look away from.

Here's what building in the open gets you:

Discovery for the work, not the thread. Your sourced traction is the algorithm. Real numbers rise; hype can't buy its way to the top. The right people find you for what's actually moving.
Credibility you can't manufacture. One sourced line beats a thousand claims. "Sourced on Indie Valley" becomes a number people trust — in a fundraise, a hire, a launch.
A room of peers with skin in the game. Not followers — builders. The team two weeks ahead of you is solving your exact problem in public, and you're doing the same for someone behind you. You'll pull lessons here you couldn't buy.
And as the Valley grows, you grow with it. Indie Valley rewards the creators who make it worth watching — out of its own revenue, at its discretion, growing as the platform grows. The more your story earns its place — the people who greenlight you, the work you put in, the consistency you show — the more Indie Valley rewards you for it. The details are in Section 5.

Listing is light. Connect your revenue read-only — we can never touch your money or move a cent — choose what's public (your sourced line shows; the deeper numbers stay yours), and publish an episode when something actually moves, not on a schedule. You can disconnect anytime. And we'll be upfront: at launch, rewards accrue rather than pay out — your earnings bank in your ledger until we switch payouts on (Section 6).

This is a partnership, not a marketplace. You're not selling anything to anyone here, and no one is buying you. You're building in the open on a platform that finally makes that count — in attention, in trust, in peers, and in real rewards as the platform grows.

The rest of this document is the plain-language agreement that keeps the partnership fair to both of us.

This Creator Partner Agreement (this "Agreement") governs your participation as a Creator in the Creator Partner Program operated by Indie Valley. It is the separate creator-facing agreement referenced by our Terms of Service ("Terms") and is entered into in addition to, and incorporates by reference, those Terms and our Privacy Policy. Capitalised terms used but not defined here have the meanings given to them in the Terms.

This Agreement applies specifically to Creators. The buyer-facing subscription described in the Terms (the Indie Pass) is unchanged by this Agreement and is not modified by anything set out here.

This Agreement is between:

Aleksei Stepankov, Individual Entrepreneur (acting as a sole proprietor under applicable law), who owns and operates the Indie Valley website, platform, and related services (the "Service") at https://indie-valley.com — referred to as "Indie Valley", "we", "us", and "our"; and

You, the founder, builder, or team that publishes one or more projects on the Service and enrols in the Creator Partner Program — referred to as "you", "your", or the "Creator".

By enrolling in the Creator Partner Program, publishing a project, connecting a payment processor for Sourced Metrics, or otherwise participating in the Program, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by this Agreement, the Terms, and the Privacy Policy. If you are accepting on behalf of a company or team, you represent that you are authorised to bind it, and "Creator" refers to that entity.

If you do not agree, you must not participate in the Creator Partner Program.

To participate, you must be at least 18 years old, legally able to enter into contracts, and the legitimate owner of (or duly authorised to represent) the project(s) you publish. You must comply at all times with the Terms and our Acceptable Use rules. The Service and this Program are offered in English and intended for a global audience.

The Creator Partner Program is an independent partnership and rewards program. Your participation does not create, and must not be represented as creating:

employment of any kind — you are not our employee, worker, or staff member;
an agency — neither party may bind the other or act as the other's representative;
a joint venture, partnership in the legal sense, or co-founder relationship — you are not our co-founder, business partner, or joint owner of any undertaking;
an investment, security, equity stake, share, profit-share, or financial interest in Indie Valley, in any other Creator, or in any business — the rewards described in this Agreement are not, and must not be characterised as, returns on an investment, dividends, distributions, or a share of profits; or
a sale by you to any buyer — you are not selling any product or service to subscribers through the Service, and subscribers do not buy anything from you here. Subscribers buy a subscription from Indie Valley.

You and Indie Valley are independent parties. Each party bears its own costs, taxes, and liabilities, and neither party has authority to incur obligations on behalf of the other. Nothing in this Agreement transfers any ownership interest in the Service to you, or any ownership interest in your project or business to us.

The Creator Partner Program is the framework through which Creators publish their projects as living "shows" on the Service, expose Sourced Metrics ("Pulse"), publish public Posts and Episodes (whose full text is subscriber-only), receive Greenlights from subscribers, and become eligible to receive Creator Rewards funded by Indie Valley out of its own revenue (Section 5).

A Greenlight is the way an Indie Pass subscriber unlocks your story. On your project page, a subscriber presses "Greenlight" — the way a studio greenlights a production: I want to see this made. Each Greenlight (a) unlocks that subscriber's access to your project's subscriber-only Episodes, and (b) is one of the inputs Indie Valley considers when it allocates its Creator Rewards (Section 5).

For clarity, a Greenlight is an access feature of the subscriber's Indie Pass subscription to Indie Valley. A Greenlight is not currency, store credit, a voucher, stored value, a wallet, a redeemable balance, or a payment to you or any Creator; it has no cash value, and it is non-transferable. A subscriber's Greenlight is not a buyer-to-Creator transaction, a donation, a tip, a gift, or crowdfunding, and the subscriber's payment does not "go to" you — it is a subscription payment to Indie Valley. Subscribers cannot Greenlight their own project (anti-fraud; see Section 9).

A Creator who subscribes to the Spotlight tier of the Indie Pass gets a presentation feature of their own subscription that surfaces their own Indie Valley project page on a showcase area of the Service. It features only the Creator's own on-platform project and links only to that project's page on Indie Valley (never an external link); it sells no impressions, reach, or third-party exposure and carries no audience or performance guarantee. Spotlight is governed by the Terms and is not part of the Creator Rewards described in Section 5.

Enrolment in the Program is subject to our acceptance. We may set, apply, and update reasonable eligibility criteria and may decline, suspend, or remove a project or Creator from the Program where required for legal, anti-fraud, compliance, integrity, or operational reasons, in accordance with the Terms and this Agreement.

Nothing in this Agreement requires you to publish exclusively on the Service. You remain free to operate your project and publish your content elsewhere.

"Creator Content" means everything you submit to or publish on the Service in connection with your participation, including your profile, projects and project details, Episodes (whose full text is subscriber-only), Posts (public), comments, Gems, images and other media you upload (logos, covers, avatars, and post media), and the metrics you connect for display. As between you and us, you retain ownership of your Creator Content, subject to the license below.

To operate, host, and promote the Service and the Program, you grant Indie Valley a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable (to a successor operator of the Service) license to host, store, reproduce, adapt (for formatting and display), publish, publicly display, distribute, make available, and promote your Creator Content through the Service and its discovery surfaces, feeds, leaderboards, newsletters, digests, and related promotional materials about the Service.

This license expressly covers subscriber-only Episodes for the purpose of making them available to entitled subscribers, and covers the use of your project name, logo, and selected metrics in our marketing and promotional materials about the Service.

Public Creator Content (including Posts and the public teaser of each Episode) is accessible by default; subscriber-only Episodes are made available to entitled subscribers. You acknowledge and authorise this distribution model as a condition of participation.

This license continues for Creator Content you have already made available, including for backups and lawful records, after termination of this Agreement, and ends for actively displayed content when you delete it or close your account, subject to reasonable technical and backup retention windows.

You represent and warrant, for all Creator Content, that you own it or hold all rights, licenses, and consents necessary to submit and publish it and to grant the license in Section 3.2; that it does not infringe or misappropriate any intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, or other right of any third party; that it is not unlawful, defamatory, harassing, hateful, deceptive, or misleading; and that any media you upload does not include the image, likeness, or voice of any identifiable person without that person's consent.

You may connect your own third-party payment processor (for example, Stripe, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Dodo Payments, RevenueCat, Superwall, or Creem) to the Service on a read-only basis. By connecting, you represent that you are authorised to do so and you authorise Indie Valley to retrieve revenue, MRR, paying-user, and related metrics (refreshed approximately hourly).

For the avoidance of doubt, a Creator's own read-only connection (including any read-only connection to Paddle) is solely for displaying Sourced Metrics on the Service and is entirely separate from Indie Valley's use of Paddle as Merchant of Record for Indie Pass billing. The two have no bearing on each other.

You authorise Indie Valley to publicly display the resulting Sourced Metrics on your project and across the Service's discovery surfaces. "Sourced" means a metric was pulled directly from the connected processor's API at the time of retrieval.

You are solely responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and appropriateness of what you connect and display. Sourced Metrics are not an audit, certification, or guarantee of accuracy, completeness, or future performance. We do not independently verify, endorse, or warrant any metric, and figures may be delayed, incomplete, or inaccurate.

You may disconnect a connected processor at any time. Disconnecting may remove or freeze the display of the associated Sourced Metrics and may affect your project's standing in the Program.

We'll be upfront: these rewards are real but discretionary, they grow as the platform grows, and at launch they accrue rather than pay out — your earnings bank in your ledger until we switch payouts on (Section 6). Here is exactly how it works, and why it's built this way.

Creator Rewards are discretionary program amounts that Indie Valley may pay you under this Program, funded by Indie Valley out of its own revenue. They are not payments from buyers, not money held in escrow or on your behalf, not currency or stored value, and not equity, securities, a profit-share, or a return on an investment.

The Indie Pass is a bona-fide subscription that subscribers buy from Indie Valley (through Paddle as Merchant of Record). Indie Valley books that subscription revenue as its own. No buyer-to-Creator transaction exists, and Paddle does not process Creator payouts.

Out of its eligible Indie Pass subscription revenue, Indie Valley sets aside a discretionary Creator Rewards budget funded entirely from its own revenue, and distributes it among participating projects. Allocation reflects the value your project brings to the community — your contribution (the depth and consistency of the story you publish), your editorial standing in the Program, and, as one of several inputs we weight at our discretion and that is not determinative, the Greenlights your project earns. We may reward a project with few Greenlights and may decline to reward a project with many. Allocation is never a pass-through of any individual subscriber's payment to you.

Indie Valley funds this budget out of its own revenue, at a level it sets in its discretion and may change under Section 5.4. It is not a fixed share of any subscriber's payment, not a fixed per-Greenlight payment, not escrow, and not funds held for Creators — it is a discretionary program of Indie Valley's, funded from its own revenue.

Eligible Indie Pass subscription revenue across all tiers — the Indie Pass (Standard), the AI Trend Analytics add-on, and the Spotlight tier — contributes to the Creator Rewards budget, as Indie Valley's own revenue. Creator Rewards remain discretionary and funded by Indie Valley regardless of which tier a subscriber holds.

Indie Valley may apply anti-fraud holdbacks and eligibility rules to any reward, and may withhold, adjust, or reverse amounts associated with metrics or activity it reasonably believes to be fake, manipulated, or otherwise in breach of the Terms or this Agreement.

Indie Valley may change the funding level, the allocation approach, or the eligibility rules. Any material change will be made only upon reasonable advance notice under Section 12, and will apply prospectively only — it will not affect rewards that have already been finally calculated. Reward calculations made by us in good faith are final absent manifest error.

Participation in the Program does not guarantee any particular reward amount, frequency, or outcome. Rewards depend on the Greenlights your project earns, your contribution and standing, the size and rules of the budget, your eligibility, and your compliance with this Agreement and the Terms.

Creator Rewards accrue in an internal ledger. This ledger is an accounting record only. It is not a stored-value, payment, deposit, or escrow account; the accrued amounts are not held on your behalf as a balance you control; and they confer no interest. Accrued amounts represent a discretionary program amount of Indie Valley's, subject to the eligibility, holdback, forfeiture, and change provisions of this Agreement.

Receiving a payout is a separate step and requires you to complete payout setup, including:

providing valid bank details via Wise; and
completing a tax form (W-9 or W-8BEN, as applicable) via Track1099.

Payout setup becomes available when payouts are enabled (see Section 6.4). Until payout setup is available, complete, and verified, rewards continue to accrue but are not paid.

When payouts are enabled, they are made on a monthly cadence (around the 15th of each month), in USD, subject to a minimum payout threshold (for example, USD $100 at launch). Amounts below the threshold roll over and accrue until the threshold is met.

The Program is rolled out in phases:

Phase 1 (launch). Payouts are not yet enabled, and payout setup is not yet available; rewards accrue in the internal ledger. Indie Pass billing runs through Paddle on the founder as a physical person.
Phase 2. Payouts and payout setup go live via a US LLC with Mercury, Wise (payouts), and Track1099 (tax documentation).
Phase 3. Optional pivot to Stripe.

We will provide reasonable notice of the transition to enabled payouts and of the steps required to receive them.

Payouts and tax documentation are administered through third parties (currently Wise for bank transfers and Track1099 for tax forms). We are not responsible or liable for the delays, failures, fees, or acts and omissions of any such provider. Your use of those providers is subject to their own terms.

You are solely responsible for determining, reporting, and paying any and all taxes, levies, or charges due on rewards you receive under this Program, and for the accuracy of any tax information you provide. We do not provide tax advice.

For eligible U.S. recipients, applicable U.S. tax documentation (such as Form 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC — the forms for non-employee partner rewards, not Form 1099-K) is issued via Track1099. Where required, payouts may be withheld until valid tax documentation (W-9 / W-8BEN) is on file, and amounts may be subject to withholding as required by law.

If you never complete payout setup, your rewards continue to accrue, but after prolonged inactivity (approximately 12 months from the date payouts become generally available), unclaimed accrued rewards may be forfeited to the platform. We will, where reasonably possible, provide notice before forfeiture takes effect.

If a project is banned for fake or fraudulent metrics or other serious violations of the Terms or this Agreement:

the Greenlights pointing at that project are released back to the affected subscribers (so they can re-apply them to other projects);
that project's Episode access ends; and
its pending rewards are forfeited.

Participation in the Program is conditioned on the integrity of the metrics and engagement that drive it. You must not:

connect, present, fabricate, inflate, or manipulate revenue, MRR, paying-user counts, the Pulse, or any other metric, or present unverified figures as verified, or connect a data source you are not authorised to connect;
manipulate engagement, including Greenlights, Gems, follows, comments, views, or leaderboard standings (such as "Top Voices"), whether manually, through coordinated activity, or by automated means;
manipulate the Greenlight or rewards mechanics, including by self-Greenlighting, operating multiple or coordinated accounts, or otherwise gaming reward allocation;
impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your affiliation, identity, or ownership of a project.

You must comply at all times with the Terms and our Acceptable Use rules, and you must not use the Service or participate in the Program for any purpose prohibited by Paddle's Acceptable Use Policy — including donations, tips, crowdfunding, community access with no bona-fide software or content, the sale of advertising or sponsorship to or on behalf of third parties or the placement of third-party or external advertising content, marketplaces enabling non-Paddle sellers to sell to customers, money transmission or payment facilitation, and investment, business-opportunity, or securities offerings. You must not characterise Greenlights, the Indie Pass, Spotlight, or Creator Rewards in any way that conflicts with Sections 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, and 5.

We may, with notice where reasonably possible, apply holdbacks, withhold or reverse rewards, remove or lock content, free or reset Greenlights, reverse manipulated engagement, suspend or remove you from the Program, and report illegal activity to authorities. We may act immediately and without prior notice where required by law or necessary to prevent harm or protect the platform.

The Service and the Program are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant uninterrupted, secure, or error-free operation, the accuracy of any metric, or any particular reward outcome, audience, exposure, or result from participation.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, our total aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or relating to the Program or this Agreement shall not exceed the greater of (i) the total Creator Rewards actually paid to you in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (ii) USD $100.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages; loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or business opportunities; reputational harm; or any decision made or action taken in reliance on the Program, its metrics, or its rewards — even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Nothing in this Section limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, including liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or any non-waivable statutory rights you may have.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Indie Valley and its operator, affiliates, contractors, and partners (the "Indemnified Parties") from and against any third-party claims, demands, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and reasonable legal fees arising out of or relating to:

(a) your Creator Content, including any media you upload;
(b) the revenue data and Sourced Metrics you connect and choose to display;
(c) your breach of this Agreement, the Terms, or our Acceptable Use rules;
(d) your violation of any applicable law or of any third party's rights (including intellectual-property, privacy, or publicity rights); and
(e) any misrepresentation by you regarding your project, your metrics, your authority, or your tax status.

We may, at our option, assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, in which case you agree to cooperate with us; you will not settle any such matter without our prior written consent.

This Agreement takes effect when you enrol in the Program or first participate (whichever is earlier) and continues until terminated under this Section.

You may leave the Program at any time by ceasing participation, removing your project(s), or closing your account, and may disconnect any payment processor at any time (Section 4.4).

We may suspend or terminate your participation in the Program:

For cause — where you breach this Agreement, the Terms, or our Acceptable Use rules; where fraudulent, abusive, or manipulative behaviour is detected; where your participation poses a security, legal, or operational risk; or where required by law, regulation, or by Paddle. We may act with or without notice. Forfeiture under Section 8.2 may apply.
Without cause — where we discontinue the Program or the Service. In that case we will give reasonable notice.

On termination without cause or by you in good standing, eligible accrued rewards remain payable once you complete payout setup and the minimum threshold is met, subject to holdbacks, eligibility, the inactivity rule in Section 8.1, and applicable law.

On termination for cause arising from fraud, manipulated metrics, or other serious violations, pending rewards are forfeited under Section 8.2, the project's Greenlights are released back to the affected subscribers, and that project's Episode access ends.

All provisions which by their nature are intended to survive termination shall survive, including without limitation Sections 1.5, 4.3, 5.1, 6.1, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.4, and 13.

We may update this Agreement, the Program's rules, the funding level, the allocation approach, the minimum threshold, payout cadence, and eligibility criteria from time to time. For any material change — including a change to the funding level or the allocation approach — we will give you reasonable advance notice by email or via the Service. Material changes are not retroactive to rewards already finally calculated. Non-material updates (such as clarifications, formatting, or contact details) take effect when posted. Continued participation after a change becomes effective constitutes acceptance of the updated Agreement. The "Last updated" date above reflects the most recent revision.

This Agreement, and any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to it or the Program, are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, consistent with the Terms.

Before initiating formal proceedings, you agree to first contact us at [email protected] and attempt to resolve the matter informally; we will make reasonable efforts to resolve disputes within 30 days. Subject to that, the courts of England and Wales shall have jurisdiction over any dispute or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the Program. Nothing in this Section deprives you of the protection of any mandatory provisions or jurisdiction available to you under the law of your country of residence where applicable.

If you have questions about this Agreement or the Creator Partner Program, contact us at:

Aleksei Stepankov, Individual Entrepreneur Email: [email protected] Website: https://indie-valley.com

Creator Partner Agreement

Why build in the open here

1. About This Agreement

1.1. What This Agreement Is

1.2. Parties

1.3. Acceptance

1.4. Eligibility

1.5. Relationship of the Parties — What This Is and Is Not

2. The Creator Partner Program

2.1. Purpose of the Program

2.2. Greenlights

2.3. Spotlight (Optional)

2.4. Enrolment, Approval, and Discretion

2.5. No Exclusivity

3. License to Indie Valley

3.1. Your Content

3.2. License Grant

3.3. Public and Subscriber-Only Distribution

3.4. Duration and Deletion

3.5. Your Warranties

4. Sourced Metrics ("Pulse")

4.1. Read-Only Authorization

4.2. Public Display

4.3. Accuracy Is Your Responsibility; No Audit or Guarantee

4.4. Disconnect Anytime

5. Creator Rewards

5.1. Rewards Are Funded by Indie Valley Out of Its Own Revenue

5.2. How Rewards Are Determined

5.3. What Funds the Budget

5.4. Holdbacks, Eligibility, and Changes

5.5. No Guarantee of Amount

6. Accrual and Payouts

6.1. Accrual in an Internal Ledger

6.2. Payout Setup Is a Separate Step

6.3. Cadence, Currency, and Minimum Threshold

6.4. Launch Status (Phased Rollout)

6.5. Third-Party Payout and Tax Providers

7. Taxes

8. Forfeiture

8.1. Inactivity

8.2. Banned or Fraudulent Projects

9. Acceptable Use and Anti-Fraud

9.1. Integrity Obligations

9.2. Compliance with the Terms and Paddle AUP

9.3. Enforcement

10. Disclaimers, Limitation of Liability, and Indemnification

10.1. No Warranty

10.2. Limitation of Liability

10.3. Creator Indemnification

11. Term and Termination

11.1. Term

11.2. Termination by You

11.3. Termination by Us

11.4. Effect of Termination on Accrued Rewards

11.5. Survival

12. Changes to the Program and This Agreement

13. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

14. Contact

A note on cookies