Community Rules

Giolinko is a collective: every member puts in £1 a week — billed monthly — and every week the community votes on which founders receive a grant from the shared fund. These rules keep that simple idea fair. By joining, listing a business, or voting, you agree to them.

1. One pound, one seat, one vote

• Membership is £1 per week, billed monthly through Stripe. The charge covers the payment fees so a full £1 a week reaches the fund; the exact amount is shown before you pay.
• Membership gets you three things: a seat at the table, one vote in each weekly cycle, and access to the member perks — partner-funded credits, tools and support, which are funded by partners rather than out of the community fund.
• Votes are equal — no member's vote counts more than another's, and votes cannot be bought, sold, traded, or delegated.
• Only members with an active membership at the moment of voting can vote.

2. The weekly rhythm

• Monday–Friday — the fund builds. Membership contributions flow in as they renew, and members can watch the pool grow in their dashboard.
• Saturday–Sunday — voting is open. The window closes Sunday night, votes are tallied, and recipients are announced.
• Selection is always by member vote, on merit. There is no lottery, no draw, no randomness — ties are broken deterministically (the higher vote count is placed first; if equal, the earlier submission is).

3. Listing a business

• Your first business listing is free; each additional one is a one-time £1.
• Listing requires a connected X account — your business goes active once it's linked.
• Everything in your profile — the pitch deck answers, traction, the ask — must be truthful and yours. No claiming businesses you don't own, no duplicate listings: one business name, one website, one listing.
• Drafts are private. Once you submit, your profile becomes visible to members and gets a public page you can share.

4. Backing: how businesses reach the ballot

Getting on the ballot takes people who believe in you. Once submitted, your business gets a shareable backing link, and members who open it can back you.

• A business needs a set number of backers — currently 10 — before it can be listed in a cycle. The current number is shown on your business in the dashboard.
• Backing is not a vote. It decides whether a business reaches the ballot; it never affects how much a business receives, its position, or the outcome of a vote. Every listed business competes equally.
• Only members with an active membership and a settled payment can back a business. You can back up to 3 businesses at a time and withdraw backing whenever you like.
• You cannot back your own business.
• Once a business has enough backers it joins the queue and is listed in an upcoming cycle. There is no gatekeeper choosing between backed businesses — listing order follows the published queue rules.
• Listings that break these rules can be removed before or during a cycle, and backing obtained through fake or duplicate accounts will be voided.

5. Voting

• One vote per member per cycle. Choose carefully — a vote can't be changed once cast.
• You can't vote for your own business.
• Read before you back: every ballot card carries the founder's full pitch deck and a link to their public page.

6. Grant recommendations

• When you vote, you can optionally recommend how much the business should receive, guided by the founder's stated ask.
• Recommendations are capped at this week's grant pool — you can't suggest money that isn't there.
• Recommendations are advisory: the community's average is shown to everyone, but final grant amounts are set by the weekly pool and split among that week's recipients.

7. Grants & payouts

• Each cycle, up to 5 businesses with the most votes receive a grant.
• The weekly pool is a fixed share of the fund's available balance (currently 50%), split among that week's recipients — the rest stays in to keep the fund alive week after week.
• Payouts run through Stripe Connect; recipients complete Stripe's identity verification (KYC) before money moves.
• Every movement — contributions in, our platform fee, grants out — is itemised on the fund ledger, visible to every member in their dashboard.

8. Fair play

• No vote manipulation: no buying or trading votes, no fake or duplicate member accounts, no coordinated schemes to game a cycle.
• No misrepresentation: inflated traction, someone else's business, or a fabricated ask will get a listing removed.
• Promoting your listing is encouraged — share your public page anywhere. Rallying genuine supporters to join and vote is what Giolinko is for; manufacturing fake ones is not.
• Violations can lead to removal from a cycle, delisting, forfeiture of awarded grants, or account termination.

9. Changes

We may update these rules as the collective grows. Material changes will be announced, and the effective date above always reflects the current version. Questions? Reach us via Support.