Master Terms of Service

The agreement

These Master Terms of Service (“Master Terms”) are an agreement between Crucible Group, LLC, a Georgia limited liability company (“Crucible,” “we”) and the organization accepting them (“Customer,” “you”). They govern every Crucible service line the Customer purchases; each line is additionally governed by its Service Schedule (Schedule TR, Schedule SI, Schedule RA, or Schedule AR). If a Schedule conflicts with these Master Terms, the Schedule controls for that line. Capitalized terms not defined where used are defined in §12.

1. The agreement, and who is bound

1.1 The person accepting these terms represents that they are authorized to bind the Customer. Acceptance is recorded electronically against the version accepted, with the accepting person and the time. When we change these terms materially we change the version and effective date and re-prompt for acceptance; continued use after the effective date is acceptance. We do not change the rules quietly.

1.2 The Customer is responsible for the people it brings into the services: its users, its administrators, and — for Strategic Initiatives — the committee members and workshop participants it involves under Schedule SI. “Customer Personnel” means all of them.

2. The services, generally

2.1 Crucible provides the service lines described in the Schedules the Customer has accepted. We may improve the services continuously; we will not materially degrade a purchased service during a paid term.

2.2 The Customer receives a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the services during the applicable term, for its internal business purposes, in accordance with this agreement.

2.3 The Customer will not: reverse engineer the platform; resell or provide service-bureau access to it; use it to build a competing product; probe or test its security except through coordinated disclosure to security@gocruciblegroup.com; or use it in violation of law. The platform is a workplace tool: the Customer will not direct anyone under 18 to use it.

3. Customer Data

3.1 “Customer Data” means data submitted to the services by or for the Customer, including data about Customer Personnel and, under Schedule AR, about the Customer’s drivers. As between the parties, the Customer owns Customer Data.

3.2 For records the Customer controls — its talent program, its engagement and program records, its safety records — the Customer is the decision-maker and instructs the processing; Crucible processes to provide the services, as described in the Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into this agreement by reference. The Customer is responsible for having the right to submit Customer Data, including any notice to or consent from Customer Personnel or other individuals that applicable law or its own policies require.

3.3 Access control is enforced server-side and every query is scoped to the Customer’s organization. Administrative actions and views of individual results are recorded in an audit log the Customer can export.

3.4 On termination of a line, Crucible retains and then disposes of records as the Privacy Policy’s retention section and the applicable Schedule describe, including the Customer-configured retention window for departed personnel. The Customer may export its records before closure; Crucible will assist on request.

3.5 Security and incidents. Crucible maintains reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards for Customer Data, as described in its Information Security Policy and published at gocruciblegroup.com/trust, including the gaps stated there. Crucible will notify the Customer without undue delay, and in any event within 72 hours of confirming it, of any unauthorized access to, or disclosure or loss of, Customer Data in Crucible’s possession or that of its subprocessors, will provide the information reasonably available to it about the incident and its remediation, and will cooperate reasonably in the Customer’s response, including any notification the Customer is required by law to make.

3.6 Data Processing Agreement. Where the Customer requests one, or where applicable law requires processor or service-provider terms, Crucible’s Data Processing Agreement applies to Crucible’s processing of personal information in Customer Data and is incorporated by reference. If it conflicts with these Master Terms on the processing of personal information, the Data Processing Agreement controls.

4. Artificial intelligence

4.1 Parts of the services use AI (Anthropic’s models) to draft text for human review. The boundaries are structural: no model scores, ranks, bands, or decides anything about a person; assessment scoring is deterministic arithmetic; AI output is a draft a human accepts, edits, or discards.

4.2 For assessment and engagement records, AI processing receives the minimum the task needs — first names, strength names, and narrative text written for the record — and never receives surnames from structured records, email addresses, scores, or proof documents. Workshop capture under Schedule SI is a stated exception: a photographed worksheet is read as written. Audit documents under Schedule AR are a second stated exception: they are processed only as that Schedule states — redacted and pseudonymized by default, with narrow consented pass-through, never-classes that no election unlocks, and AI assistance applying only after Crucible’s written notice that it is available.

4.3 Crucible does not permit its AI processors to train their models on Customer Data.

4.4 AI-drafted text is a starting point, not a deliverable. The human who accepts it — Crucible’s advisor for Crucible-authored content, the Customer’s personnel for Customer-authored content — is responsible for what is accepted.

5. Confidentiality

5.1 Each party will protect the other’s non-public information with at least the care it uses for its own, and use it only to perform this agreement. Standard exclusions apply (independently known, independently developed, lawfully received, public through no fault). Compelled disclosure is permitted with notice where lawful.

5.2 Crucible may state that the Customer is a customer. Any other use of the Customer’s name, and any case study, requires written consent.

6. Intellectual property

6.1 Crucible owns the platform, its methodology, templates, checklists, sampling methods, question banks, scoring frameworks, and everything it brings to the engagement, including improvements informed by aggregate, de-identified use. No rights transfer except the licenses stated here.

6.2 The Customer owns Customer Data and — as the Schedules state — receives ownership or a perpetual internal-use license of the deliverables prepared for it, excluding Crucible’s underlying methodology.

6.3 Feedback may be used without obligation.

7. Fees and payment

7.1 Fees are as stated in the applicable Schedule, order form, or engagement letter. Payment processing runs through Stripe; Crucible never sees or stores card numbers. Fees are exclusive of taxes, which are the Customer’s responsibility (excluding taxes on Crucible’s income).

7.2 Amounts unpaid thirty days after the invoice date may bear interest at the lesser of 1.5% per month or the legal maximum, and Crucible may suspend the affected service after notice and a ten-business-day cure period. Suspension for non-payment does not erase the Customer’s data; the retention rules of §3.4 apply.

8. Warranties and disclaimers

8.1 Crucible warrants that it will provide the services with reasonable skill and care consistent with industry practice, and that it has the right to grant the licenses it grants.

8.2 EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED, THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND CRUCIBLE DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. CRUCIBLE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE. NO ADVICE, FINDING, OR DELIVERABLE IS LEGAL ADVICE, CREATES AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP, OR IS A DETERMINATION OF COMPLIANCE BY ANY REGULATOR; THE CUSTOMER REMAINS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS COMPLIANCE WITH LAW AND REGULATION AND FOR EVERY OPERATIONAL DECISION. SCHEDULE RA §5 STATES THIS IN FULL AND APPLIES ACROSS ALL LINES.

8.3 The Customer is responsible for its own employment decisions. The services inform human judgment; they do not exercise it. No output of the services — a score, a readiness state, a risk map, a finding — is a determination about any person, and the Customer will not represent otherwise to its personnel or use it as the sole basis for adverse action against any individual.

9. Indemnification

9.1 Crucible will defend the Customer against third-party claims that the platform, as provided, infringes a US patent, copyright, or trademark, and will pay resulting damages finally awarded, provided prompt notice, control of the defense, and reasonable cooperation. If the platform is enjoined, Crucible may procure the right, modify, or replace; failing those, either party may terminate the affected line and Crucible will refund prepaid, unused fees. This section states the entire liability for infringement.

9.2 The Customer will defend Crucible against third-party claims arising from Customer Data; from the Customer’s breach of §3.2 (rights and notices, including Schedule SI §4.3’s participant notice and Schedule AR §4’s warranties) — including any claim that records were disclosed to Crucible without authority or in violation of the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, 49 CFR Parts 40, 382, or 391, or state privacy or consent law; or from the Customer’s use of outputs in violation of §8.3, a Schedule, or law — on the same procedural terms.

10. Limitation of liability

10.1 NEITHER PARTY IS LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, OR DATA, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY.

10.2 EACH PARTY’S TOTAL LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT IS CAPPED, PER SERVICE LINE, AT THE FEES PAID OR PAYABLE FOR THAT LINE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY.

10.3 NOTWITHSTANDING §10.2, CRUCIBLE’S TOTAL LIABILITY FOR A BREACH OF §3.5, §5, OR THE DATA PROCESSING AGREEMENT IS CAPPED, PER SERVICE LINE, AT THE GREATER OF TWO TIMES THE FEES PAID OR PAYABLE FOR THAT LINE IN THOSE TWELVE MONTHS OR $50,000.

10.4 The caps do not apply to: the Customer’s payment obligations; either party’s indemnification obligations under §9; or a party’s gross negligence or willful misconduct.

11. Term and termination

11.1 These Master Terms run as long as any Schedule is in effect. Each Schedule states its own term and termination mechanics.

11.2 Either party may terminate a Schedule (or, if all Schedules, this agreement) for material breach uncured thirty days after written notice, or immediately on the other’s insolvency.

11.3 Sections 3.4 through 3.6, 5, 6, 8 through 10, and 12, and accrued payment obligations, survive termination.

12. General

Governing law. Georgia, excluding conflicts rules.

Dispute resolution. Any dispute arising out of or relating to this agreement or the services will be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules before a single arbitrator seated in Atlanta, Georgia, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in court to protect confidential information or intellectual property, and either party may bring a claim within the jurisdiction of a small-claims court in that court. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Each party bears its own costs unless the arbitrator awards otherwise. Claims proceed individually; neither party may bring or join a class or representative proceeding.

Assignment. Only with consent, except to a successor in a merger or sale of substantially all assets, with notice.

Relationship. Independent contractors; no third-party beneficiaries.

Notices. To Crucible: Crucible Group, LLC, 8735 Dunwoody Place, Atlanta, GA 30350, with a copy to legal@gocruciblegroup.com. To the Customer: its administrative email of record.

Force majeure. For events beyond reasonable control other than payment.

Entire agreement. These Master Terms, the accepted Schedules, order forms and engagement letters, the incorporated Privacy Policy, and the Data Processing Agreement where it applies; order of precedence in that order for line-specific matters, with the Data Processing Agreement controlling on the processing of personal information.

Electronic acceptance. Electronic acceptance and electronic signatures are valid under the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act and the Georgia Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.

Miscellaneous. Severability and non-waiver as standard. “Including” means “including without limitation.”

Schedule TR — Talent Readiness

Applies when the Customer subscribes to the Talent Readiness platform.

TR-1. The service

The Talent Readiness platform: assessments with consent capture, reviews, development actions, recognition, credentials with proof storage, readiness and health reporting for the Customer’s organization. Tiers are Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise, with tier contents as described on the pricing page or order form at purchase.

TR-2. Seats, activation, and billing

2.1 Billing is per activated seat. A seat is “activated” when a person first signs into the Customer’s organization. Invited-but-never-activated people cost nothing; unopened seats cost nothing. Deactivating a person (offboarding) ends their seat’s billing at the next billing cycle; their records are retained under the Customer’s configured retention window, and retained records do not bill.

2.2 Subscriptions bill monthly or annually in advance through Stripe at the tier prices in effect at purchase; renewal price changes require notice before the renewal. Seat counts true up with activations during the period.

2.3 Trial. New organizations start on a time-limited Professional-tier trial as stated at signup. No payment method is required to trial. At expiry, the organization continues on the Essentials feature floor — functionality reduces; access to existing records is never locked behind payment.

TR-3. Customer responsibilities

The Customer designates its administrators; administrator-role grants and the visibility rules (managers see their direct reports, not peers and not raw scores) are as documented. The Customer is responsible for the accuracy of its roster and for the lawfulness of its own talent-program decisions (Master Terms §8.3).

TR-4. Term and exit

Monthly subscriptions renew monthly and may be canceled effective the next cycle; annual subscriptions renew annually absent thirty days’ notice. On cancelation the organization returns to the Essentials floor rather than a locked door; full closure and data disposition follow Master Terms §3.4, including the Customer’s export rights and the departed-personnel purge mechanics described in the Privacy Policy.

Schedule SI — Strategic Initiatives

Applies when the Customer engages Crucible for a bounded strategic initiative.

SI-1. The engagement

1.1 Strategic Initiatives are bounded: a fixed-fee opener (for example, a Charter Sprint or Architecture Review, as stated in the engagement letter) and, if commissioned, a phased program — Charge, Assay, Cast, Temper — from charter through close. Each engagement is defined by its engagement letter: scope, fees, timeline, named phases. The engagement letter controls over this Schedule for its engagement.

1.2 Fees are engagement-priced as stated in the engagement letter: fixed fee for openers, and phase or milestone billing for programs. Engagements are not per-seat and never bill by headcount.

SI-2. The advisor seat

Delivery requires a Crucible advisor holding an administrator account inside the Customer’s organization, with the same access to program data as the Customer’s own administrators, including individual assessment results where the Customer’s administrators can see them. Every view of an individual’s results is audit-logged; the advisor’s access is confined to the Customer’s organization and ends with the engagement. The engagement does not begin delivery until an authorized Customer representative has acknowledged these access terms in the platform; the acknowledgement is recorded by person, version, and time.

SI-3. Committee participation by signed link

3.1 The Customer’s steering committee participates through signed, expiring, single-purpose links — no accounts are created for committee members, and nothing is collected from them beyond what the engagement requires. A link is a bearer credential: whoever holds it can act. The Customer will designate committee members accurately, distribute links only to them, and instruct them not to forward links. Actions taken through a live link are attributed to the designated member.

3.2 Decisions recorded through links settle first-decision-wins and are timestamped; the decision record is part of the engagement record the Customer owns at close.

SI-4. Workshops, capture, and the participant notice

4.1 Workshops are run by or with the Customer using Crucible’s worksheet templates. Completed sheets may be photographed and read by AI to extract their content into the engagement record; a sheet is read as written, including any names written on it. Extracted content is presented for human verification before it becomes part of the record.

4.2 Crucible’s obligations: the worksheet template carries a printed notice that the sheet will be photographed and read by AI to enter it into the engagement record; the upload screen states the same to the person uploading; and AI processing is bounded by Master Terms §4.

4.3 The Customer’s obligation: the Customer is responsible for informing workshop participants — who are the Customer’s personnel, in the Customer’s session — that workshop materials are processed as described in §4.1, and for any consent its own policies or applicable law require. Crucible will supply notice language on request. This allocation exists because Crucible has no relationship with, and no channel to, participants who never touch the platform; the party in the room carries the notice.

SI-5. Deliverables

Charters, recaps, plans, and decision records prepared for the Customer are the Customer’s on payment, excluding Crucible’s methodology, templates, and frameworks, for which the Customer receives a perpetual internal-use license as embedded in the deliverables. Crucible may retain engagement records per the Privacy Policy’s retention section.

SI-6. Term

An engagement runs to its close as defined in the engagement letter. Either party may terminate for uncured material breach per the Master Terms; on early termination the Customer pays for phases delivered and work in progress, and receives the record as it stands.

Schedule RA — Retained Advisory

Applies when the Customer retains a standing Crucible advisory program.

RA-1. The program

A Retained Advisory program is standing: it has no scheduled end. Crucible’s advisor maintains a continuing diligence record for the Customer in a named specialty (for example, FMCSA safety), consisting of advisor-authored findings, guidance, reviews, and their dispositions. Program tiers and monthly retainer fees are as stated in the engagement letter; retainers are flat monthly fees, never per-seat and never per-hour. A credit under Schedule AR §2.4, where earned, applies to the first invoice(s) of the program.

RA-2. How the record works

Findings are authored by the Crucible advisor only. Accepting or declining a finding is the Customer executive’s act alone, and a declined finding remains in the record with its disposition — the record’s value is that it is complete, not that it is flattering. Resolution follows the Customer’s actions and is recorded by the advisor. The advisor seat’s access and audit-logging terms are those of Schedule SI §2, and the same in-platform acknowledgement is required before delivery.

RA-3. What the retainer includes

The advisory cadence stated in the engagement letter: the standing record, periodic reviews, advisor guidance on Customer questions within the specialty, and the platform surfaces that carry them. Work outside the specialty or beyond the stated cadence is scoped separately.

RA-4. Deliverables and the record at exit

The diligence record is the product. At termination the Customer receives its record — findings, dispositions, guidance, and history — in exportable form. Crucible’s methodology and specialty frameworks remain Crucible’s.

RA-5. The advisory disclaimer

5.1 The program is advisory. It is not a compliance system of record, and it is expressly not designed or offered as one. The record documents Crucible’s advice and the Customer’s dispositions; it does not discharge, track, or certify the Customer’s regulatory obligations.

5.2 The Customer retains sole responsibility for its compliance with law and regulation — including, for motor-carrier customers, FMCSA and DOT requirements — and for every operational decision, including safety decisions. Crucible’s findings and guidance inform the Customer’s judgment; they do not replace it, and Crucible does not direct the Customer’s operations.

5.3 Nothing in the program is legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Where a finding touches a legal question, it will say so and recommend counsel.

5.4 The Customer may describe Crucible’s work accurately as advisory review of its records and program. It will not represent to any regulator, insurer, court, or third party that Crucible operates, certifies, rates, or is responsible for the Customer’s compliance program, or that any Crucible review is a regulatory audit or safety rating.

RA-6. Term

Month to month from the program start date. Either party may terminate on thirty days’ written notice, or for uncured material breach per the Master Terms. The record export of RA-4 applies on any termination. Retainer fees are not refunded for the notice month; there are no termination penalties — a standing program holds its client by being worth keeping.