How your child's sales money works

1. During the weekend: the money is held

Customers pay through the team's pay link. The money goes into Founders School's own Stripe account, not to your child. It is held there, safely, until your family chooses what happens to it. We don't take a cut of what students earn.

The pay link closes at the end of the weekend (or term). An organizer can keep one team's link open a little longer, for example to finish a delivery.

2. After selling closes: you choose

Your choice opens 30 minutes after the pay link closes, and we email the parent or guardian who manages the money soon after. In the parent portal you choose, for the money your child made:

• Pay out to your family, or
• Refund it to the buyers.

If your child sold on their own, you choose sale by sale. On a team, the money is split between the students' families (evenly, or by the team's agreed shares), and each family chooses for its own child's share. No other family can choose for yours. Nothing moves until you choose.

3. Refunds

• Refunds you choose are sent back to the buyer automatically, shortly after you choose.
• Stripe says a card refund usually reaches the buyer in 5 to 10 business days.
• If a buyer asks for their money back, we give it. These are children learning to sell, and we would rather refund a customer than have a first sale become a dispute. During the weekend your child asks for the refund in the app and a mentor sends it.
• For weekends from 26 September 2026, Stripe's processing fee on a refunded sale comes out of the team's remaining sales. Before that date, the program paid it.

4. Payouts

• To be paid, set up a payout account in the parent portal. You enter your name and bank details on Stripe's own form; we never see or store your bank details.
• Once that account is ready, your family's money is sent automatically and we email you when it goes. Stripe then moves it to your bank, usually within a couple of business days.
• To change the bank your payouts go to, press “Update bank account” in the parent portal. It opens your own Stripe payout dashboard. If a payout to your old bank failed, Stripe sends it to the new one automatically.
• On a team where each family chooses for its own share, your share is sent without waiting for the other families. Where the choice is made sale by sale, it is sent once every refund chosen is done and every family being paid has a ready account.
• Families who made their choice before 23 September 2026 are paid by an organizer by hand (by bank transfer or Wise), not automatically.
• For weekends from 26 September 2026, Stripe's card fees, the fee for paying your family, and any chargeback fees come out of the team's sales before payout. The portal shows the amount after fees. Earlier weekends are paid without those fees taken off.

When an organizer has to check first

If a sale arrives after the pay link closed, a buyer disputes a charge, or the numbers no longer match, an organizer checks before any money moves. The money stays held while they check, and the portal says so.

Seeing where your money is

The parent portal shows each of your child's ventures with a short timeline: when selling closed, whether your choice is done, what has been refunded, and what has been paid to you and when. Sign in with the email address your child listed for their parent or guardian.

Questions

Email events@founders.school and an organizer will help. Taxes on anything a student earns are the family's responsibility. The full rules are in our Terms of Service.