FirstHand
Legal · Last updated November 1, 2026

Terms of Service

The short version
  • FirstHand connects apprentices with real shops through events, openings and a verified record of hours.
  • Free for apprentices. Shops pay monthly, can cancel anytime, and payments aren’t refunded.
  • Events are for meeting and watching, not unpaid work. Real work is a job, and jobs are paid.
  • Only log hours you actually worked. Shops only approve hours they can stand behind.
  • Your record is yours. You can leave a shop and keep it.

These terms are an agreement between you and FirstHand (“FirstHand,” “we,” “us”) for using the FirstHand website and app (the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to them. If you don’t agree, don’t use FirstHand.

1. What FirstHand is

FirstHand helps people get into the skilled trades. Shops and other organizations post events (like open houses, ride-alongs, meetups and info nights) and openings. Apprentices RSVP, show up, and build a record of approved hours, events attended and shop responses. FirstHand is a place to meet and keep records. We are not an employer, staffing agency or apprenticeship sponsor, and we don’t guarantee that anyone gets hired, finds an apprentice or completes an apprenticeship.

2. Who can use FirstHand

  • You must be at least 18 to make an account or go to events.
  • You must give accurate information and keep it up to date, including your name, trade and zip code.
  • One person per account. Keep access to your email secure, since that is how you sign in.

3. Apprentices

  • FirstHand is free for apprentices.
  • Only log hours you actually worked for the shop you log them with. Paper logbook imports must match your real records.
  • If you RSVP, show up or cancel. Your attendance rate is part of your record that shops can see.
  • At events, follow the host’s safety rules and instructions, and bring the gear the event asks for.

4. Shops and other hosts

  • Information about your shop must be accurate. If you submit a license for the verified badge, it must be yours and current.
  • Events are for meeting and observing, not unpaid work. Attendees may watch, ask questions and try supervised demonstrations. Do not ask attendees to do productive work for your business without pay. If someone does real work for you, hire and pay them as the law requires.
  • You are responsible for the safety of your events and job sites, for having appropriate insurance, and for following employment, wage, safety, anti-discrimination and child labor laws.
  • Only approve hours you can confirm were worked. Approvals become part of the apprentice’s verified record.
  • Answers you give after an event (“invite back,” “offer,” “not a fit” and the reason) are shown to the apprentice. Keep them honest and respectful.
  • Hiring decisions must not be based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.

5. Plans and payment

FirstHand is free for apprentices. Shops pay for the plan described on our pricing page, billed monthly until cancelled. Founding Shop pricing stays locked while the plan is active or paused and ends if the plan is cancelled. We will tell you before any price change affects you.

Who you pay. Payments are handled by Lemon Squeezy, our reseller and merchant of record. Lemon Squeezy sells you the subscription and processes your payment, so its name appears on your card statement, and its own terms also apply to your purchase.

Free trial. Founding Shops get the first 2 months free. You won’t be charged until the trial ends, and if you cancel before then, you’re never charged.

Cancelling. Cancel anytime in FirstHand, under Shop → Billing. Your plan stays active until the end of the month you’ve already paid for and doesn’t renew after that.

Refunds. Payments are non-refundable, and we don’t give refunds or credits for partial months or unused time, except where the law requires it.

Taxes. Prices don’t include sales tax. Where the law requires it, tax is added at checkout.

6. Your content and your record

  • You own what you put on FirstHand (photos, logbook pages, event details and other content).
  • You give us permission to store, display and process that content to run the Service, including showing it to the people it is meant for (for example, your logged hours to your shop).
  • Your record of approved hours, events attended and shop responses belongs to you and stays with you if you leave a shop.
  • Photos of paper logbooks may be read by an AI service to turn them into draft entries. You check every entry before saving, and your shop approves them before they count.

7. Things you can’t do

  • Log fake hours, approve hours that weren’t worked, or post fake events, openings, reviews or licenses.
  • Harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone, or post anything illegal, hateful or sexual.
  • Use FirstHand to recruit people for a staffing agency or to sell them something unrelated to the trades.
  • Collect other people’s information, scrape the Service, or try to break, overload or get around its security.
  • Pretend to be someone else or another business.

8. Ending your account

You can stop using FirstHand at any time and ask us to delete your account by emailing kphillips3753@gmail.com. We may suspend or close accounts that break these terms or put other people at risk. Approved hours already on another person’s record may stay on their record.

9. Disclaimers

FirstHand is provided “as is.” We don’t check every event, opening, shop or apprentice, and we aren’t responsible for what happens at events, on job sites, or in any job or apprenticeship you find through FirstHand. A verified badge means we checked a license once; it is not an endorsement. FirstHand’s hour records are a convenience and may not replace the official records your state apprenticeship program requires.

10. Limit of liability

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

11. Disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York. Any dispute will be handled in the state or federal courts located in New York, and you and we agree to those courts’ jurisdiction. Before filing a claim, please email us so we can try to fix it first.

12. Changes

We may update these terms as FirstHand grows. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect. Using FirstHand after that means you accept the new terms.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms: kphillips3753@gmail.com.