Terms, in plain English.

This site is stevetan.com, operated by Steve Tan as a sole-operator personal brand. When these terms say "I" or "me", it means me · the human typing this. When they say "you", it means the person visiting the site, reading the archive, signing up for the newsletter, filling out a form, or engaging me for paid work.

This site is a personal publishing platform. No paid services are offered or delivered through it. If we end up working together commercially, that engagement is contracted separately through my company under a written engagement letter.

By using the site you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, the right move is to close the tab. If you've already signed up for the newsletter or sent an inquiry, see Section 10 · you can ask for your data and association to be removed.

You can read, share, link, sign up, fill out forms, download the free resources, and forward the newsletter. Use the site like a normal human and we have no friction.

You can't do any of the following:

• Scrape, harvest, or mass-download content using bots, crawlers, or automated tools, except for standard search-engine indexing.
• Reverse-engineer or strip the site to extract code, design patterns, or proprietary structures.
• Attempt to break authentication, bypass paywalls or gates, or access content that isn't openly published.
• Submit false information through the contact form, newsletter, or any other input, including impersonating someone else.
• Spam, harass, threaten, or abuse me or anyone connected to the site via any channel.
• Train any AI or ML model, commercial or otherwise, on the content of this site without my written permission.
• Use the site for illegal activity in your jurisdiction or mine.

Some links on this site may be affiliate links. I disclose this in the relevant post when applicable.

If you do any of the above I can block your access without notice. Repeated or severe abuse may be reported to your ISP, hosting provider, or law enforcement.

Everything I publish on this site or through the newsletter · essays, frameworks, playbooks, prompts, diagrams, screenshots, code snippets, logos, the design system itself · is mine. I own the copyright, trademark, and all related intellectual property.

I grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to:

• Read it on this site or in your inbox for your personal and internal business use.
• Apply it inside your own business. Run my frameworks. Use my playbooks. Adapt my prompts in your stack. That's the whole point of publishing them.
• Quote, repost, or share in your own writing, talks, or social posts · as long as you give clear credit and link back to the source. I actively encourage this. Spread the playbooks, run them in your business, post about what worked. Just don't strip my name off the work.
• Share the public URL on social or by email. Forward the newsletter freely.

You can't:

• Repackage and resell. No selling my frameworks as a course, no slapping my playbooks into a paid product.
• Strip credit and republish. Don't lift whole essays, frameworks, or vault entries and post them as your own work.
• Train or fine-tune any AI or ML model, commercial or otherwise, on this content without my written permission.
• Use my name, likeness, or marks in a way that implies endorsement, partnership, or affiliation when there isn't one.

If you're unsure whether a use is allowed, just email me. Most reasonable asks get a fast yes.

When you submit something through the contact form, send me an email, or otherwise share text, ideas, or feedback (a "submission"), you confirm three things:

• It's yours to share. You own the content or have the right to send it. You're not infringing on anyone else's IP, contract, or NDA by submitting it.
• It's not confidential by default. Don't paste anything truly secret into a contact form. If we end up working together, we'll sign an NDA and confidentiality kicks in from that point.
• I can use the lessons. If your submission contains a pattern I want to write about (anonymized, no identifying details), I reserve the right to reference the lesson in my content. I will not name you, your company, or any identifying specifics without your written permission.

I do not claim any ownership of your underlying business, product, or IP just because you described it to me.

The newsletter, the frameworks page, the playbooks archive, and the prompt vault are free at the point of access. Some content is gated by email signup. Some is fully open. The cost is zero in either case.

• I can change what's free, what's gated, and what's paid at any time, including retiring content entirely. Content that's free today may move behind a signup or a paywall tomorrow. Content that's paid today may become free. Content that exists today may not exist next month.
• The newsletter has a one-click unsubscribe at the bottom of every email. Use it any time. No retention pitch.
• I do not guarantee continuous availability. The archive is published as a service to the operator community, not as a contractual offering. If a piece of content disappears, gets edited, or moves URLs, you don't have a claim against me.

If we end up working together (AI Strategy Audit, AI Operations Build, Inner Circle, Nexera, advisory, speaking · anything paid), that engagement is governed by a separate written agreement that we both sign. Not by this page.

The engagement letter will cover scope, fees, payment terms, deliverables, IP ownership of work product, confidentiality, term, termination, and any other commercial specifics. Where the engagement letter conflicts with these terms, the engagement letter wins for that specific relationship.

Until an engagement letter is signed and a deposit has cleared (where applicable), nothing on this site, in any email exchange, or in any free conversation creates a binding obligation to deliver work, achieve a result, or guarantee an outcome. Any proposals, quotes, or scope documents I send before an engagement letter is signed are non-binding offers that I may withdraw at any time.

The plain-English version: I share opinions and operator experience. You make the calls. Don't bet the business on a single blog post.

The site and everything on it is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• No warranties. I make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, availability, or non-infringement of anything on the site.
• No outcome guarantees. If you apply something from this site to your business and it doesn't work · or worse, makes things worse · that's on you. AI is fast, fragile, and changes weekly. Test before you ship.
• No uptime guarantee. The site, newsletter, and free archive may be unavailable from time to time for maintenance, outages, or reasons outside my control.
• Third-party links. The site may link to external tools, products, or pages. I don't control them, can't vouch for them, and am not responsible for what happens once you click through.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, I am not liable to you for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising out of or related to your use of the site, the free content, the newsletter, or any unpaid interaction with me. This includes lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, or business interruption · whether based on contract, tort, negligence, strict liability, or any other theory.

Total cap on direct damages: if I am found liable for direct damages despite the above, my total cumulative liability to you for everything · across all claims, in aggregate · is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid me in the twelve months before the claim arose, or (b) one hundred US dollars.

Some jurisdictions don't allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. If you're in one of those jurisdictions, the limits above apply to the maximum extent permitted by your local law.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under Singapore law.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold me harmless from any claim, loss, damage, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

• Your willful misuse of the site or breach of these terms, including any application of my frameworks, playbooks, or prompts in your business that gives rise to a third-party claim.
• Your infringement of any third party's rights, including IP, privacy, or contract rights.
• Your violation of any law or regulation in connection with your use of the site.

I'll cooperate with you in any defense at your expense. I reserve the right to take over the defense of any matter you would otherwise indemnify, at my own cost, if I choose to.

You can stop using the site any time. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter any time. You can ask me to delete your data any time · email me and I'll remove your data within 30 days, in line with Singapore's PDPA. See the privacy policy for the full process.

I can suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to the site, the newsletter, or any free resource at any time, with or without notice, for any reason · including violation of these terms. The disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, IP ownership, and governing-law sections survive termination.

These terms are governed by the laws of Singapore, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms, the site, or any free interaction with me will be brought exclusively in the courts of Singapore, and you consent to personal jurisdiction there.

Where you're a consumer in a jurisdiction that grants you mandatory protections under your local consumer law, nothing in these terms removes those protections.

Before filing anything, the strong preference is that you email me first and try to resolve the issue directly. Ninety percent of disputes end there.

If I change these terms, I update the version number and the effective date at the top of the page. Material changes (anything that meaningfully affects your rights or obligations) get an email notice to newsletter subscribers and a banner at the top of the site for at least 30 days.

Continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated terms. If you don't agree, stop using the site and unsubscribe from the newsletter.

If you believe something on this site infringes your copyright, email me with the following:

• A description of the work you say is being infringed, with a link or copy where possible.
• The exact URL on this site where the infringing content appears.
• Your contact details · name, email, and (if relevant) the rights holder you represent.
• A short statement that you have a good-faith belief the use isn't authorized by the rights holder, the law, or fair use, and that the information you're providing is accurate.

I review every complaint personally and respond within seven days. If the claim is valid, I take the content down or edit it. If I think it's mistaken, I'll explain why and we can talk it through.