Terms of Service

1. Engagement & Scope of Services

Starks Enterprise provides principal-level cybersecurity engineering and advisory services, including:

• Security Consultations & Architecture: AI Security Evaluations, Privileged Access Management (PAM) & IAM migrations, Cloud Security Architecture (AWS, Azure, GCP), Compliance & Risk Assessments, Penetration Testing, Incident Response advisory, Virtual CISO Advisory, and HashiCorp Vault implementation.
• Build My Agent Engineering: Custom design, orchestration, security hardening, and deployment of autonomous AI agents and multi-agent systems.

All engagements may be further specified in a written Statement of Work (SOW) executed between you and Starks Enterprise. In the event of a direct conflict between these general Terms and an executed SOW, the terms of the SOW shall govern for that specific project.

2. Fees, Billing & Payment Terms

• Pricing Schedules: Approved prices for initial consultations and hourly offerings are published on our Consultation Pricing Schedule. All prices are listed in United States Dollars (USD).
• Online Checkout: Online consultation payments are securely processed through our payment gateway provider, Stripe, Inc. By providing a payment method through Stripe Checkout, you authorize Starks Enterprise (via Stripe) to charge the authorized amount for the selected hours or fixed package.
• Hourly Consultations: Hourly engagements are billed at the agreed hourly rate (e.g. $275.00/hour for PAM/IAM or Agent Build hours; $140.00/hour for HashiCorp Vault implementation) in one-hour increments.
• Flat-Rate & Retainer Packages: Multi-agent build tiers (Tiers 1–3) and monthly retainers are scoped via SOW and invoiced according to agreed milestones or billing cycles.
• Taxes: Fees do not include any applicable sales, use, excise, or value-added taxes, which remain the responsibility of the purchaser.

3. Cancellation & Refund Policy

• Consultation Cancellations: You may cancel or reschedule a booked consultation without penalty up to 24 hours prior to the scheduled start time by emailing [email protected].
• Refunds on Services: Due to the professional advisory and technical nature of our engineering services, once consulting hours, discovery sessions, or engineering work have been initiated or delivered, all associated fees are non-refundable.
• Retainers & SOWs: Retainer cancellations and SOW termination terms are governed by the specific termination provisions outlined in your executed agreement.

4. Client Authorizations & Representations

When retaining Starks Enterprise for security assessments, penetration testing, architecture reviews, or agent implementations:

• You warrant and represent that you are the owner of, or possess all necessary legal authorizations, licenses, and rights from all third parties to grant Starks Enterprise access to, the applications, networks, cloud accounts, and data systems included in the project scope.
• Under no circumstances will Starks Enterprise be required to perform security testing or tool execution against systems without documented, explicit client authorization.

5. Intellectual Property

• Client Deliverables: Upon full and final payment of all applicable fees, you shall own all custom reports, architecture diagrams, compliance matrices, and project-specific deliverables created specifically for you under an engagement.
• Pre-Existing Tools & Methodologies: Starks Enterprise retains all right, title, and interest in and to our proprietary assessment methodologies, templates, software libraries, base agent harnesses, scripts, and pre-existing intellectual property developed independently of the client engagement.

6. Confidentiality

Both parties agree to hold in strict confidence all proprietary technical data, security findings, network architecture, and business information disclosed during the engagement (“Confidential Information”). Neither party will disclose Confidential Information to any third party without prior written consent, except to authorized contractors or advisors under equivalent confidentiality covenants or as required by law.

7. Disclaimer of Warranties & Limitation of Liability

• No Guarantee of Total Security: Cybersecurity threats, vulnerabilities, and adversarial techniques continuously evolve. While Starks Enterprise applies rigorous, industry-recognized methodologies, we do not warrant or guarantee that our services will identify every vulnerability or prevent all security breaches or incidents.
• Disclaimer: EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED IN AN EXECUTED SOW, OUR SERVICES AND SITE ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
• Limitation of Liability: TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL STARKS ENTERPRISE LLC BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY. OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS OR ANY ENGAGEMENT SHALL NOT EXCEED THE TOTAL FEES ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU TO STARKS ENTERPRISE FOR THE SPECIFIC SERVICE GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM DURING THE THREE (3) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM.

8. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or related to our services shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles. The parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located within North Carolina for any legal proceeding arising out of these Terms.

9. Contact & Customer Support

For customer support, billing questions, or general inquiries, please contact us:

• Customer Support Portal: starksenterprise.com/support
• Customer Support Email: [email protected]
• Consultation Inquiries: [email protected]
• Company: Starks Enterprise LLC