BidStar Terms of Service

Last updated: Nov 2, 2026

These terms are an agreement between you and Tech Stars University, a Duluth, Minnesota business ("BidStar", "we", "us"), of 28 West Austin Street, Upper, Duluth, MN 55803. They cover the BidStar website (bidstar.us), the BidStar app (app.bidstar.us) and our emails. Please read them. By signing in or using BidStar, you agree to them. If you don't agree, don't use BidStar.

1. Who can use BidStar

BidStar is for businesses: contractors, subcontractors and the people who work for them. You must be at least 18. If you use BidStar for a company, you're agreeing for that company, and you confirm you're allowed to.

2. What BidStar does

BidStar reads public bid notices and planning announcements from public owners (cities, counties, school districts, state agencies and others) and from public-notice websites. It lists the facts of each one (the project, the owner, the place, the dates and the trade) with a link to the owner's notice. It sorts the list by how well each job may fit your shop, and it can email you when something new fits.

3. The owner's notice is the official word

• Always check the owner's notice and bid documents before you act. Dates, times, places, addenda, bonding, prequalification, plan-holder registration and every other requirement come from the owner, not from BidStar.
• BidStar can be wrong or late. Listings and fit rankings come from public sources that change. We may miss a bid, show an old date, get a detail wrong, or put a job in the wrong trade.
• A fit ranking is a sorting aid. It's not advice, and it's not a prediction that you'll win, make money, or qualify.
• We don't take part in any bid. We don't submit bids, don't represent owners, and aren't responsible for an owner's process or decisions.

4. Your account

• You sign in with a link we email you. Keep it to yourself, and don't share your sign-in.
• Tell us right away if you think someone else has your link or a device you're signed in on: help@techstarsuniversity.com.
• You're responsible for what happens under your account.
• Keep your shop details accurate.

5. Pilot

• The free pilot has ended. BidStar is a paid plan (section 5a).

5a. Paid plans

• You choose a paid plan; we never switch you to one. The free pilot doesn't turn into a paid plan by itself.
• Price. The BidStar plan costs $100 a month, or $1,000 a year paid up front, plus sales tax where it applies. The price is shown before you pay.
• What's included. The bid list in the app for your trade and miles, the morning bid email (on from the start; turn it off under "Shop"), and the permit leads email (section 5b), while we offer each one. If we stop offering one of them, we'll tell you first, and you can cancel.
• Billing. We charge your card when you start. Monthly: again on the same day each month, until you cancel. Yearly: again on the same date each year, until you cancel. We email you 30 to 45 days before each yearly renewal with the date, the price and how to cancel. Our payment processor handles your card; we never see or store your full card number.
• Cancel any time. Cancel in the app, or email help@techstarsuniversity.com. Canceling stops the next charge. You keep the plan until the end of the month or year you've paid for. If you cancel within 14 days of a yearly charge, we refund that charge in full. Otherwise we don't refund part of a month or year, except under "A month with no new bid" below.
• A month with no new bid for your shop is free. If a billing month brings no new bid for your shop, we refund that month's fee within 7 days after the month ends (on a yearly plan, one-twelfth of the yearly price, and each month starts on the day of the month you paid, or on the last day of a shorter month). You don't have to ask. A new bid for your shop is a public bid that BidStar first lists during that month, open when listed, within 100 miles of your shop and in your trade as saved in the app, and not marked "Outside your work" or "Minor overlap". The trade you have saved on the first day of the month counts for that month; if you haven't saved a trade yet, the first one you save during the month counts for the rest of it, and if you never save one, nothing counts as matching. Planning leads, permits in the permit email, and changes to bids you watch don't count.
• Price changes. We'll email you at least 30 days before a new price applies to you. A yearly plan keeps its price until its renewal. If you don't want the new price, cancel before then.
• Founding Member price. If you're one of the first 20 shops to join as a Founding Member on the yearly plan, your yearly price won't go up as long as your plan renews each year without a break. If you cancel, or a renewal payment isn't fixed within 14 days, the founding price ends. Sales tax can still change.
• Passes. A business may give your shop a BidStar pass. It gives you the BidStar plan for the number of days it shows, with no card and no charge, and it ends on its own. To keep BidStar after that, choose a paid plan. One pass per shop, and only for a shop without a paid plan. The refund for a month with no new bid applies only to months you paid for. The business that gave you the pass never sees your account, your searches or the bids you open. We tell it only how many of its passes were used.
• If a payment fails, we'll email you. If it isn't fixed within 14 days, we may pause your paid features until it is.
• If we stop offering BidStar, we'll tell you, stop charging you, and refund any month you've paid for but can't use.
• The company directory comes with paid plans. It's for your own company's use when you look for other companies to work with. You agree not to copy, scrape, download in bulk, resell or share it, and not to use its phone numbers for robocalls, texts or spam. The directory may include a few test listings that help us spot misuse. We may end directory access for anyone who breaks this.
• Your directory card. If you make a card for your company, it stays hidden until you turn it on, and you can hide or delete it any time in the app. It shows only to other shops with a paid plan, and only while you have one. You promise the card is about your own company, that it's accurate, and that you're allowed to share what's on it. We may hide or remove a card that's wrong, misleading, or about another company.
• Claiming a listed card. If we already list your company, you can claim its card to fix, hide or delete it. The same promises apply to what you change.

5b. Permit leads email

• What it is. A daily email of building permits that city governments publish as public records (the app lists which cities), sorted by trade, with a link to the city's records. You get the cities within the miles you set for your shop; set a wider distance to get more.
• It comes with the BidStar plan (section 5a).
• Facts as the city published them. City records can be late, incomplete or wrong, and we don't correct them. Our trade sort is our best guess. Check the permit with the city before you rely on it.
• People's names. We don't show the names of property owners or of people who pull permits. We show a name only when a business pulled the permit. We show the city's work notes with contact details and name credits removed. If a note still names a person, tell us and we'll take it out.

Your use. It's for your own company's business. You agree:

• not to resell, republish or forward it in bulk;
• not to use it for robocalls, robotexts, or calls to numbers on Do Not Call lists;
• to follow the laws that apply when you contact a property owner.

We may end your access if you break this.

• Stop any time. Turn it off in the app or with the link in any email. Stopping the email doesn't cancel your plan; section 5a says how to cancel.

6. Using BidStar fairly

You agree not to:

• share, sell or republish BidStar's lists, emails or rankings outside your own company;
• copy BidStar's lists with robots, scripts or scrapers, or build a competing product from them;
• use BidStar to send spam or unwanted messages to owners or anyone else;
• try to get into accounts, data or systems that aren't yours, or test, probe or overload BidStar;
• take apart or copy BidStar's software;
• use BidStar in a way that breaks the law or an owner's bidding rules.

We may suspend or end access for anyone who breaks these rules.

7. Your information and content

• You keep ownership of the information you give us: your shop's name, trade, town, the work you do, your settings and anything you send us.
• You let us use it to run BidStar for you: to store it, sort bids for you, email you and support you. The Privacy Policy explains what we collect and how we protect it.
• Only give us information you have the right to share. For example, if you ever send us a bid invitation, it must be yours to share.
• Feedback: if you send ideas or suggestions, we may use them freely without paying you or naming you. We'll never quote you by name, or say your company uses BidStar, without your written OK.

8. Our property

BidStar's name, flag logo, software, design and our own lists and rankings belong to Tech Stars University. We give you a limited, personal, non-transferable right to use BidStar for your own business while these terms are in effect. The bid notices themselves belong to the owners and publishers who issued them. Links to their websites lead to their own terms and, sometimes, their own fees.

9. No warranty

BIDSTAR IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE". TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, TIMELINESS, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DON'T PROMISE THAT BIDSTAR WILL LIST EVERY BID, BE ERROR-FREE, OR BE AVAILABLE WITHOUT INTERRUPTION.

10. Limits on our liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS:

• WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST BIDS OR CONTRACTS, MISSED DEADLINES, LOST DATA, OR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD THEY WERE POSSIBLE.
• OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS ABOUT BIDSTAR IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) WHAT YOU PAID US FOR BIDSTAR IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) $100.

Some places don't allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

11. If you misuse BidStar

If a claim is brought against us because you broke these terms or the law while using BidStar, you'll cover our reasonable costs of that claim, including reasonable lawyers' fees.

12. Ending

• You can stop using BidStar at any time. Tell us if you'd like your information deleted.
• If you're on a paid plan, canceling works as section 5a says.
• We can suspend or end your access if you break these terms, if the law requires it, or if we stop offering BidStar. We'll give notice when we reasonably can.
• Sections 3, 5a, 7–11 and 14 still apply after the end.

13. Changes to these terms

• We may update these terms. If a change matters, we'll email you, or show a notice in the app, at least 14 days before it takes effect.
• Using BidStar after that date means you accept the change.
• The "Last updated" date at the top always shows the current version.

14. Law and courts

• These terms are governed by Minnesota law. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts serving St. Louis County, Minnesota, and both of us agree to those courts.
• Before anyone files anything, we both agree to try to settle it by talking first. Write to us and give us 30 days.

15. The rest

• This is the whole agreement about BidStar, together with the Privacy Policy and any pilot agreement you accept. If a pilot agreement conflicts with these terms, the pilot agreement wins for the pilot.
• If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies.
• If we don't enforce a term right away, we haven't given it up.
• You may not transfer these terms. We may transfer them to a company that takes over BidStar, and we'll tell you if we do.

16. Contact

BidStar, 28 West Austin Street, Upper, Duluth, MN 55803 · help@techstarsuniversity.com