Terms of Service

Nobody enjoys reading these, so we kept it short and wrote it like people. The gist: you hire us for a piece of work, we agree on what it is and what it costs, and we both hold up our end. If anything below reads like fog, email us and we'll explain it in plain words.

1. Who we mean by "we" and "you"

When we say Shoman, we, or us, we mean the consultancy run by Nicanor Korir, based in Berlin with a second home in Nairobi.

When we say client or you, we mean the person or company that hires us.

2. What we do

We take on AI and machine learning work, custom software builds, technical strategy, and the occasional training or workshop.

What exactly we're doing for you, by when, and for how much lives in your proposal or statement of work, not on this page. That document is the one that counts if it ever disagrees with anything here.

3. How a project actually goes

It starts with a call

Free, no pitch, no pressure. We want to understand what you're trying to do and whether we're the right people to help. Sometimes the honest answer is no, and we'll say so.

Then a proposal

If it's a fit, you get the scope, the timeline, and the price in writing. Nothing begins until you've read it and said yes.

Then we build

You'll hear from us regularly and always know where things stand. We want your input along the way, not just at the finish line.

Then we hand it over

You get the finished work with documentation, and we stick around for 30 days afterward to answer questions and smooth out the small stuff.

4. You see it before you sign off on it

We'd rather show you working software than send you a status report. In practice that means:

Regular demos

You see real, running software throughout the project, not one big reveal at the end. Depending on the size of the work, that's every week or two.

Your sign-off before anything ships

Nothing goes to production until you've seen it and said go. You always get to review, test, and approve first.

A safe place to test

We give you a staging or preview environment, a copy of the real thing, so you can click around and try features before they go live.

Room to push back

Demos aren't a performance. We genuinely want the questions and the second-guessing. Catching something early is a lot cheaper than fixing it after launch.

5. Getting paid

• Deposits: for new clients we usually ask for 50% up front.
• Milestones: bigger projects are billed in stages we agree on beforehand.
• Timing: invoices are due within 14 days unless we've agreed otherwise.
• Late payments: if an invoice slips more than 14 days past due, we may pause work until it's sorted.
• Currency: we invoice in USD unless we've agreed on something else.

6. Who owns what

Your stuff stays yours

Anything you give us, your data, content, and materials, stays yours. That never changes.

Work we make for you

Once you've paid in full, the custom code, designs, and deliverables we built for your project are yours to keep.

The tools we bring with us

The general tools, frameworks, and ways of working we use across clients (like the Shoman Delivery Model) stay ours. You get a license to use them inside your project.

Open source

Where we use open-source components, they keep their original licenses, and we'll tell you which ones we leaned on.

7. Keeping things private

We treat what you tell us as confidential. Your business, your project, your data, none of it goes to anyone else without your say-so.

Showing our work: we may mention that we worked with you and use your company name, unless you'd rather we didn't. We won't share the details of the project without asking you first.

NDA: want a formal NDA before we get into the sensitive parts? Happy to sign one.

8. What we need from you

Good projects go both ways. To keep things moving, we'll need:

• Reasonably timely answers when we ask a question or need feedback
• Access to the systems, data, or accounts the work depends on
• One person who can make the call when a decision is needed
• Payment on the terms we agreed

If things stall on your side, the timeline moves with them. We'll flag it early rather than let it surprise you.

9. When the scope shifts

Projects grow and change. That's normal. Here's how we keep it fair:

• Small tweaks: the little stuff is on us, no extra charge.
• Bigger changes: anything that moves the timeline or budget, we talk through before we touch it.
• Genuinely new work: it gets its own quote.

You'll never get a surprise on the invoice for work that affects the budget. We ask first, every time.

10. What we stand behind, and what we can't

What we promise

• We'll deliver what the agreed scope says we will
• The work will be our own and won't step on anyone else's IP
• We'll fix bugs in our code for free for 30 days after delivery

What we can't promise

• A specific business result. We can't hand you a revenue or user number.
• That third-party services and APIs will always behave
• Outcomes that hinge on the quality of your own data

Where our liability lands

If something goes wrong, our liability is capped at what you paid us for that particular project. We're not on the hook for indirect or knock-on losses.

11. If we need to part ways

If you want out

You can end a project any time with 7 days' written notice. You cover the work done up to that point.

If we do

We'll only step away if an invoice is 30+ days overdue or the project has drifted far from what we agreed. Either way, you get 14 days' notice and everything we've finished.

Refunds

Deposits for work we haven't started yet come back to you. Work that's already done isn't refundable, but it's yours, and we'll hand it over.

12. If we disagree

If something feels off, talk to us first. Honestly, most things get sorted with one good conversation.

If that doesn't do it, we both agree to try mediation before anyone calls a lawyer. These terms run under the laws of Germany.

13. If these terms change

We might update this page now and then. Any changes won't touch projects already under contract. Those stay on the terms you agreed to when we started.

Still have questions?

Anything here you want in plainer words? Just ask, that's what we're here for: info@shoman.digital