Terms of Service

These Terms govern your use of LanceNest. By creating an account or using the site, you agree to them and to our Privacy Policy.

Information you may not share

Never post, message, upload, or attach classified information, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), Federal Contract Information (FCI), export-controlled data, procurement-sensitive material, government system credentials, or clearance records. LanceNest is not designed or authorized to handle them, and we remove such content when we find it.

For employers: LanceNest is a sourcing and hiring tool. It does not replace your own legal obligations — for example, federal contractors’ VEVRAA job-listing and affirmative-action duties, pay-transparency rules, equal employment opportunity laws, USERRA, or worker-classification rules. You are responsible for the lawfulness of your job posts, screening questions, and hiring decisions.

Security clearances

LanceNest verifies military service; it does not verify security clearances or clearance eligibility. Clearance information on profiles is self-reported. Members must list only a clearance they currently hold or held within the last two years, must never share classified information, and agree that misrepresenting a clearance is grounds for removal. Employers are responsible for confirming eligibility through official government systems before relying on it.

Freelance work and Protected Payments

Milestone payments through LanceNest are not available yet. Until they are, clients and freelancers agree on and make payments directly with each other. LanceNest is not a party to those payments and does not hold, process, or guarantee them. The payment terms below apply once milestone payments are available on LanceNest.

Freelancers are independent contractors, not employees of LanceNest or of their clients through LanceNest. Clients fund each milestone before work begins. LanceNest holds the funds through its payment processor (Stripe) and releases them to the freelancer when the client approves the work, or automatically 14 days after the work is submitted if the client doesn’t approve, request changes, or open a dispute. LanceNest is not an escrow agent or a party to the work agreement.

Either party may open a dispute on a funded milestone; LanceNest reviews the contract, messages, and delivered work and decides whether to release the funds to the freelancer or refund the client, and that decision is final on LanceNest. Refunds return the milestone amount; the client service fee (the percentage fee and the contract-start fee) covers payment processing and is non-refundable. Milestones are at least $25. Fees are shown before every payment. Stripe verifies freelancers’ identity and may issue tax forms (such as Form 1099-K) as required by law.

Booking fee. When a client hires a freelancer on LanceNest, the client pays LanceNest a booking fee of 5% of the agreed price, at least $4.99 and at most $499, unless the freelancer chose to cover it on their listing or proposal, in which case the freelancer pays it to confirm the booking and the same refund rule applies to them (examples are on the Protected Payments page). It’s shown before payment and is LanceNest’s fee for its service; it is not a payment to the freelancer. The fee is based on the full price agreed for the work; understating the price, or splitting one job into smaller bookings, to lower the fee is circumvention. If invoices sent through LanceNest for a booked job add up to more than the booked price, the booking fee follows the invoiced total (still 5%, at most $499 in all): whoever paid the booking fee pays the difference before the invoice is sent. It’s refunded if the freelancer declines within 48 hours of booking and before the parties exchange messages; otherwise it’s non-refundable, and LanceNest may review other refund requests. When milestone payments are available, a job paid through LanceNest pays the payment fees instead, and the booking fee replaces the contract-start fee.

Contact details. Until a job is booked, don’t share phone numbers, email addresses, outside links, or payment-app details in proposals, listings, profiles, or messages about the work. LanceNest blocks them automatically.

Members who list services are responsible for holding any license, certification, permit, or insurance the work legally requires where it is performed, and for doing the work safely. Members currently serving are responsible for obtaining any required approval for off-duty employment and may not use government time, property, rank, or uniform to promote or perform their services. LanceNest does not supervise or guarantee services, and clients should confirm licensing for regulated trades.

Non-Circumvention Policy (keeping work on LanceNest). For 24 months from the time you and another member first find each other through LanceNest (the “non-circumvention period”), you agree to book all work with that member, and any work that grows out of that relationship, through LanceNest. During that period you agree not to: (a) ask or encourage a member you met here to hire you, work with you or pay you outside LanceNest, or accept an offer to; (b) understate the price of a job, or split one job into smaller bookings, to lower LanceNest’s fees; or (c) refer a member you met here to someone else so the work or payment can happen outside LanceNest. If anyone suggests working or paying outside LanceNest, tell us right away (Report in Messages, or support@lancenest.com). This doesn’t apply to people you worked with before you found each other on LanceNest. If you use LanceNest for a company, it covers everyone at the company who deals with that member. Breaking these rules can lead to removal of your account. You agree to this when you create your account (LanceNest keeps a record of when), and Messages shows reminders about it. Hiring a freelancer you met here as a full-time employee is permitted.

Independence

LanceNest is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Armed Forces, or any branch of service. Service branch names and occupation codes are used only to describe members’ experience. Civilian career paths shown for military occupations are LanceNest’s guidance, not official equivalencies.

Eligibility and accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• Service member accounts are for active duty, Guard, Reserve, transitioning, and veteran members. Veterans must have been discharged under Honorable, General (Under Honorable Conditions) or uncharacterized (entry-level) conditions. An Other Than Honorable discharge is reviewed case by case; Bad Conduct and Dishonorable discharges aren’t eligible unless upgraded.
• Military spouse accounts are for the current or surviving spouse of a service member or veteran. Spouse status is confirmed once a year by the service member or with documents. If it isn’t renewed, or the service member removes the link (for example after a divorce), the status stays on for 90 days and then ends unless the spouse verifies with their own documents. Surviving spouses never need to renew.
• Employer accounts are for organizations and recruiters hiring for real positions. Client accounts are free and are for anyone hiring a verified freelancer for a project; clients can’t browse the member network or post jobs.
• Inviting a spouse: an invite link from your account verifies whoever accepts it as your spouse. Send it only to your spouse. Inviting anyone else is a false statement and grounds for removing both accounts.
• Provide accurate information, keep your password secure, and tell us promptly if you believe your account was compromised. You are responsible for activity on your account.

Verification

A Verified Veteran or Verified Military Spouse badge means our team reviewed a document you provided, or a verified member confirmed you. It is not a background check or a guarantee of anyone’s identity, character, or qualifications. Submitting false, altered or AI-generated documents will result in removal, and we may report document fraud to the appropriate authorities.

Free transition Pro. The 6 months of free Pro for members leaving the service within a year turns on only after a reviewer confirms the separation, ETS or retirement date from orders, an LES, or a DD-214. Each person can receive it once.

Licenses and certificates. A verified license or certificate means a reviewer checked the document you sent (and, for trade licenses, the issuing board’s public lookup) on the day of review. You must keep any license current, hold the permits and insurance your work requires, and remove a license that lapses or is suspended. Offering licensed trade work without a valid license is prohibited.

What you may not do

• Share classified information or Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) anywhere on LanceNest, including messages.
• Upload a military ID card or any document you are not permitted to share.
• Impersonate anyone, claim service you did not perform, or misrepresent a clearance.
• Post fake jobs, scams, spam, or requests for payment from candidates.
• Harass, threaten, or discriminate against anyone, or post unlawful or sexually explicit content.
• Scrape the site, use bots, try to access data you are not authorized to see, or interfere with the service or its security.

Employers

Employers must post only real, lawful positions; comply with applicable employment laws, including equal employment opportunity and veterans’ reemployment protections; and use candidate information only for recruiting. Employers may not charge candidates to apply or be hired.

Public job listings. Unless you turn it off for a job, its details are also shown on LanceNest’s public job pages and may appear in search engines such as Google. Your company’s name, logo and website, and any emails, links or phone numbers in the text, are hidden there. You confirm you have the right to publish every job you post or import, including jobs imported from your hiring system.

Veteran outreach report. The report summarizes activity on LanceNest. It is not legal advice and does not by itself satisfy any legal obligation, such as listing jobs with a state employment service or determining protected-veteran status.

Your content

You own what you post. You give LanceNest a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and distribute it as needed to operate the service, according to the audience you choose. You can delete your content at any time. We may remove content or suspend accounts that violate these Terms.

Employer ratings. Ratings must reflect your own honest, first-hand experience as a current or former employee. Don’t name individuals, share confidential or classified information, or post anything false. Ratings are shown without your name, and employers can reply publicly. We may remove ratings that break these rules, and we don’t edit what anyone writes.

AI tools. AI drafts (such as the résumé writer and job fit) can be wrong. Check everything before you use it; you are responsible for what you put on your profile or send to employers. Don’t paste classified or controlled information, or other people’s personal information, into them.

Ambassadors. Ambassadors follow the ambassador rules on the Ambassadors page, including not soliciting on a military installation without permission and never asking people they supervise to join. Ambassador rewards are plan credit, can change, and end if the rules are broken.

Copyright. Post only content you own or have permission to use. We respond to copyright notices as described in our Copyright policy, and we end the accounts of repeat infringers.

Plans and payments

Core features are free for service members. Paid plans show their price, billing period, and terms before you buy. Subscriptions renew automatically for the same period (monthly or yearly) until you cancel. Price lock: a subscription renews at the regular price it had when you started it, and that price doesn’t go up while the subscription stays active. If you cancel and later subscribe again, or switch to a different plan or billing period, the price shown at that checkout applies. You can cancel at any time in Billing (from your dashboard), without contacting us; canceling stops future charges, and your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for. Founding and other introductory prices apply only for the period stated at checkout; after that, the plan renews at its locked regular price. When you switch plans, the old plan ends when the new one starts and its unused time is credited to your account. Fees for any freelance marketplace will be shown before you accept work.

Free Pro and partner codes. A verified member can get 6 months of Pro free, once: as one of the first 500 verified members, when a reviewer confirms they’re leaving the service within a year, or with a partner code from a base, transition office, veterans’ group or nonprofit. Whichever comes first is the only one; free periods don’t stack, and a partner code can’t be used by someone who already had theirs. Each member can use one partner code, codes have no cash value, and we may end a code that is shared publicly or misused. When free Pro ends you return to the Free plan unless you choose to pay; any first-year discount offered then is shown at checkout.

Proposals returned. On the Free plan, a proposal is returned to you as a proposal credit when the client closes the project without hiring, or hires without opening your proposal.

Public service pages and badges. If you show a freelance service publicly, we display your first name and last initial, city and state, and the service. Employer badges (such as response time, the Guard & Reserve pledge and Military Spouse Employment Partnership) describe what we measure or what the employer told us, and are not endorsements or guarantees.

No refunds. All payments to LanceNest are final and non-refundable, except where the law requires a refund. That includes subscriptions (monthly or yearly, including unused time after you cancel), featured-job boosts, proposal packs, booth and event fees, and booking fees, except for the two cases these Terms list: a booking fee is refunded when the freelancer declines within 48 hours as described above, and a charge made in error, twice, or without your permission is corrected if you contact us within 30 days. Money a client pays into a contract for a freelancer is not a LanceNest fee; it is released or returned under the contract and dispute rules above.

No guarantees

LanceNest connects people; it is not an employer, staffing agency, or party to any job or engagement. We do not guarantee interviews, offers, or the accuracy of what members or employers post. The service is provided “as is” and “as available.”

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, LanceNest is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or data. Our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim or $100.

Ending your use

You may delete your account at any time in Account settings, or ask us to by email.

Suspension and removal. LanceNest may suspend, limit, or close any account, and remove any profile, listing, job, group, post, or other content, at any time and for any reason LanceNest decides in its sole discretion, including a violation of these Terms or the Code of Conduct, a safety, fraud, or security concern, or to protect members and the service. We may do so with or without notice. If we suspend or close your account, you won’t receive a refund of any fee or subscription payment, including any unused time, except where the law requires one. Money held for an open contract is not kept by LanceNest; it is released or returned under the contract and dispute rules. Unpaid amounts you owe stay due.

Changes, law, and contact

We may update these Terms and will notify members of significant changes. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida. Questions: Help page or support@lancenest.com.