We ask you to prove yourself. Here is what we do with the proof.

Who we are, and who "we" means

Cream runs a members platform for senior product people, this website, the member app, and the desk our founders use to look after members and the companies we work with, which we call partners. Our work includes recruitment: we find, assess and introduce people for senior product roles.

When this page says the Cream team, it means the people we allow to use our internal desk. Today that is our two founders.

This website keeps nothing about visitors

Browsing this site stores nothing about you, and the site has no way to read member records. When you send one of our two forms, what you type comes to us, and the form says so. Cloudflare also receives your IP address at that moment, to check you are not an automated program. We do not store it.

The preview of what the world can see about your work shows what is public about you and does not store it.

Every contact detail has a source

Each contact detail we hold is marked with where it came from: you, a person who introduced you, a public page, or a business contact data provider. Ask us and we will tell you where we found yours.

Evidence on a member's record says where it came from too: your own word, work you showed us, a conversation with us, or a person who signed for it.

What changes, and what stays

Most of your record keeps its history. When you change an answer, the new one takes its place and the earlier one stays with its date.

Some things are cleared rather than kept. When you rewrite or remove a note in your own words, the earlier wording is not kept. An old contact detail is removed when it is replaced. What you clear about pay and location is different, and the section on it below says how.

What we hold about members

What you give us: your name, your sign in email, and a record of each sign in with its time, your IP address and your device. Your role, title, company and LinkedIn address. Your CV. What you have built and worked on, your own reading of yourself against six areas, the notes and moments you add, your north star, your Build Records, your answers about how you work best and what a new role would need to offer, and the people you name as references. Any extra contact details, each marked with its source.

What others add: our notes, call transcripts and summaries of our conversations with you. Readings of your capability, some made with AI. Feedback and interview notes from partner companies you meet. What your references tell us. How you rank against roles, and what came of each introduction.

Some of it comes from public sources, such as a public GitHub profile or a LinkedIn profile a founder reads. Some contact details come from a business contact data provider. Some is research we did before you joined.

You can see your own record, except what your references and partners told us. The Cream team sees all of it.

How matching works

Our software ranks every member against each role a partner briefs us on. It uses what you told us about how you work best, where you want to work and what a new role would need to pay, together with readings of your capability, some made partly with AI. A role that does not meet what you told us is ranked lower rather than removed.

A person decides every introduction. Someone at Cream chooses what to bring to you and whom to introduce. Software never introduces anyone.

No company sees your name until you release it

Partners see anonymous shortlists and how a search is going. Your name reaches a specific partner only after you confirm your interest in one of its roles. Not when we think you would suit it, and not when they ask. You tell us, and someone at Cream records your confirmation.

Other members may see an unnamed summary of your strengths. They see your name only if you both accept a connection.

Your referees are not a mailing list

When you name someone who would vouch for you, we contact them only about you, and only when you are ready. We keep their name, how they know you and the contact details you gave, and what they tell us if we speak. Only the Cream team can see it. You do not see what they told us.

How you sign in

There is no password to remember or to lose. When you sign in, we email a one time link to the address your invitation went to. Your invitation and your sign in links are sent for us by an email sending service, which receives your email address and the message so that it can deliver them.

A sign in email from us never asks for a password or for anything else.

The page you write yourself

Your north star is where you want your career to go. Four questions, in your own words: what you are doing five years from now, what kind of chapter it is, which parts of your passport that future needs most, and what would make you say yes to the right thing tomorrow. We ask so that every opportunity we bring you is read against where you are heading, not only where you have been.

It is never scored and never checked. You and the Cream team can read it, and partners do not see it. Change it whenever the answer changes. The new version takes its place and the earlier one stays on your record with its date. It is removed with the rest of your record when you ask.

Where you do your best work

We ask seven short questions about the kind of place that gets the best from you: how decisions get made, how much freedom and scrutiny suits you, the person you report to, the support you want when everything is new, how the work actually happens, how far ahead you can see, and what the work asks of your time. Each one has an optional box for your own words. Then four more, one of which you need to answer: anything you would not work with again, whether any of this has changed recently, what you are working on now, and anything our list does not cover.

We ask so that we bring you roles in places you would actually take. Your answers change the order of a shortlist, never whether you are on it. What you are working on now also helps us find members who have solved the same thing.

Your own words are read by a person and nothing else. No software reads them. The box about your time is where some people mention a caring duty, a health condition or life at home, so say as much or as little as you choose. Only you and the Cream team can see your answers and your words. Partners see neither.

Every answer is dated, so that we can ask later whether it still holds. A change adds a new dated answer, and we keep the earlier ones. When you rewrite or remove something you wrote in your own words, the earlier wording is not kept.

What stays after you leave is anonymous. When your record is removed, the answers you picked are added to a running count alongside everyone else's, with no name, none of your own words, and no date more precise than the quarter of the year. Because it no longer describes anyone, it stays with us after your record is gone. We never show a count with fewer than ten people behind it.

A short summary, written by AI

Once you have answered, we write you a short summary of what you bring and where you work best. It is written by an AI model from Anthropic, our AI provider, and it says so under the summary every time you see it.

The model is given the answers you picked and, in words, how strong each part of your record is. It is never given your name, your notes, your salary answers or any other number.

Nobody at Cream reads it before you do. It is the one thing AI writes that a person does not check first. If it gets something wrong, change your answers and a new one is written. It is never evidence, and nothing about you is decided by it. We keep your summaries with your record and remove them with it.

What would make a role worth a conversation

We never ask what you earn now, and there is nowhere on your record to put it.

What we do ask is short. Whether you are open to a new role. Where home is. How you would work: on site, hybrid or remote. Whether you would move, and where you would go. The lowest base salary you would consider, and the most if you want to say. The benefits and package you care about, in your own words. And your current title. We ask so that we only bring you roles worth your time. Your answers change the order of a shortlist, never whether you are on it.

Whether you are open to a new role stays confidential. No partner learns it unless you confirm interest in one of its roles. If you tell us on a call, we may note it, and only the Cream team can see that note.

Only you and the Cream team can see these answers. Partners never see your figures or your words.

You can clear any of it at any time. The earlier answer stays in your record's history, where only the Cream team can see it, until your record is deleted.

We plan, but have not built, a yearly anonymous report of what senior product people expect, including pay ranges and benefits by location. Your range would be counted in it without your name unless you say no. The box is ticked yes on the form, in front of you, and you can untick it whenever you like. We will only ever publish a count that covers at least ten people.

Build Records, and who saw the work

A Build Record is your account of one thing you built: the problem, how you worked, how you used AI tools if you did, how it got out, what came of it, and links to it if there are any. We ask so that your passport can show how you build, beside your six pillars. Software reads the choices you pick, never your own words. A record starts as your own word, and it reads that way until someone at Cream has looked at the work.

You can name somebody who saw it, with their name, how they know you, and how we can reach them. Please ask them first. We treat them exactly as we treat your referees: we contact them only about you, and you do not see what they tell us. Your passport shows that you named someone, without repeating their details, and partners never see who you named.

Only you and the Cream team can read your Build Records. Changing one files a new version and keeps the earlier one with its date. They are removed with your record when you ask. Anyone you name can write to hello@creamconnects.ca and ask what we hold about them.

When we look at your work

When someone at Cream opens work you showed us, or checks an outcome with you on a call, we record that we looked. Software can suggest what is worth a look, but only a person can record one, and a look is never lowered. If you change a record after we looked, the look is cleared and the record reads as your own word again until someone looks at the new version.

Inside Cream, the record notes who looked, when, and anything they wrote about what they saw. That stays with the Cream team. You see only that Cream looked, on your passport and in your timeline. It never changes how good your work is judged to be. It only shows how sure we are of it.

When someone at Cream opens your full record on our desk, we note who it was. Our founders can also reach the database directly, and that is not recorded in the same way.

If we found you before you found us

Like other recruitment businesses, we look for experienced product people who may want to join Cream or hear about a role, and for the people at companies who hire them. We do this whether or not you have contacted us first.

Where we find people. Profiles, articles, talks and work that people or their employers publish, on company websites, professional networking sites and public code sites such as GitHub. We run automated searches of public code sites. Profiles on professional networking sites are read by a person. We read companies' own websites, leadership pages and job boards, some of them with automated tools. We compile lists of people, and members, partners and others suggest people to us. We also use third party data providers, companies that compile and sell professional contact details. They may give us work and personal email addresses and phone numbers.

What we hold. Your name, current and past roles, employer, location and seniority. Links to your public profiles and public work, such as public code or talks, and our assessment of that work, some of it made with AI. Contact details, including work and personal email addresses and phone numbers where a provider supplies them, each marked with where it came from. Who referred you and what they said. A record of our contact with you, and of any no. Only the Cream team can see it. No partner does.

How we get in touch. One to one, by LinkedIn, email, phone or an introduction, with at most one follow up. A founder writes or approves every message, sometimes from a draft made with AI. We never send bulk messages. Every message says how to ask us to stop, and if you ask where we found your details, we will tell you.

Say no and we stop. Reply "no", or write to hello@creamconnects.ca, and all contact stops at once. A no is permanent. We delete your details within a year of the last step we took with you, by a job that runs every month. We keep a coded fingerprint, so that we never contact you again, even if a provider gives us your details later.

You can also write to us without ever having heard from us, and ask what we hold about you and where it came from, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it.

If your company names you on its website

When a company's own website or job board names someone, we note the name, title, the page and the date, so that we know whom to approach about that company. We read those pages partly with automated tools. Only the Cream team can see the note, and we keep it for one year after we last saw the page, unless you become a contact of ours.

If you work with us at a company

If you ask for a conversation on our website, we keep what you type into the form: your name and work email, and, only if you choose to give them, your company, your phone number, the kind of help you want, and a short note. We use it to arrange the conversation and prepare for it. Only the Cream team can see it. We do not sell it or add you to a mailing list.

If we decide not to go ahead, we delete it 180 days after it arrived. Otherwise we delete it one year after we last acted on it, unless your company becomes a partner. To have it deleted sooner, write to hello@creamconnects.ca.

When we work with your company, we keep details for the people we deal with there: your name, job title, employer, LinkedIn address, work contact details and how we know you, and, where a provider supplies them, other contact details. They come from you, from public sources such as company websites and professional profiles, from business contact data providers, and from our own records. We also keep the roles you brief us on, our notes on how your team works and is managed, and emails with us. Only the Cream team can see any of it.

We ask before a call is transcribed. We may use a transcriber on calls so nothing important gets missed, and only with everyone's consent. If anyone would rather not, or changes their mind, we do not keep a transcript and we take notes by hand instead. AI may pick out key points from a transcript, and we keep a key point only if its quote appears word for word in the transcript.

We keep call transcripts and copies of emails for two years after we were last in touch with you. We keep your contact details, our notes and key points until we end the relationship and delete them. You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, at hello@creamconnects.ca.

How we use AI

We use one AI model provider, Anthropic, based in the United States. A person at Cream reviews what it produces before it is used to decide anything about anyone. The one exception is the short summary a member sees about themselves, which nobody reviews before the member sees it.

Your summary. Given the answers you picked and your strengths, as words. Never your name, notes, salary or other figures. Shown to you, unreviewed.

Reading a member's record and calls. Given your name, what you told us when you joined, your CV and a call transcript. It produces readings of your capability, which the Cream team reviews and which feed the ranking described above.

Reading public profiles and work. Given a named person's public profile or public code site profile. It produces an assessment, which the Cream team reviews.

Drafting a message. Given material about the person to be contacted. A founder edits the draft and sends it, or throws it away.

Key points from a partner call. Given the transcript of a call recorded with everyone's consent. The Cream team reads the key points.

Research about companies and roles. Given public information about companies, role briefs, and occasionally a description of someone's work with no name. It uses the provider's web search, and the Cream team reads the notes.

We log each AI request's task, model and size. We keep the results we use as part of the record, and we never keep the full request we sent. What Anthropic keeps of what we send is governed by its terms with us.

We do not sell anything about you

No data sales, no data sharing for advertising, and no analytics or advertising trackers on this site or in the member app. Cream is paid by partners, the companies that brief us, when a placement is made. That is the whole business model, and it is the only one.

We share a member's name with a partner only after the member confirms interest in one of its roles. We do not otherwise share personal information with partners.

What loads from elsewhere, and what your browser keeps

This site sets no advertising or analytics cookies and loads no tracking code. Two things load from Cloudflare. The request form and the booking form each carry a check that keeps automated submissions from burying real ones. And Cloudflare hides the email addresses on our pages from programs that harvest them.

The member app keeps your sign in in your browser so that you stay signed in, and keeps a copy of some of your answers there until you sign out. Our internal desk uses a secure sign in cookie.

Who else handles your information

Cream runs on services we do not own, and you should know which. Each handles personal information only to provide its service to us.

Supabase holds our database, member sign in and server functions. The database is in Canada, in the Montreal region. Its server functions may run elsewhere. It can reach every record we hold.

Render runs the server behind our founders' desk, in the United States (Ohio), and sends the desk's AI tasks to Anthropic. It holds our database key, so it can reach every record.

Anthropic, in the United States, is our AI model provider. It receives only what each task sends.

Cloudflare hosts this website and the member app on its global network, protects our forms from automated abuse, and hides email addresses on our pages. It sees website and app traffic, and your IP address when a form is checked.

Sentry, in the European Union (Germany), tells us when the member app breaks so we can fix it. It receives a fixed list of technical details about the error, and it is told not to record IP addresses.

GitHub, in the United States, runs our daily backup and our monthly deletion jobs, and stores encrypted backups for 90 days. It can reach the database while those jobs run.

An email sending service sends sign in links and invitations. It receives your email address and the message.

Microsoft 365 holds our founders' email, including the emails you exchange with us.

A phone and transcription provider carries our calls with partners and, only with consent, their transcripts.

Third party data providers are sources rather than services that work for us. We get business contact details from them, and they receive our searches.

Your information may leave Canada. Our database is in Canada. Some of these services are in the United States and the European Union, and some run on global networks, so your information may be viewed or processed outside Canada and may be reached by courts and authorities there. We choose services that protect information to a standard comparable to our own, and we give each one only what its task needs.

How long we keep things

A member's record, including transcripts, CVs and readings, until you ask us to delete it. People you name as references or on a Build Record are kept as long as your record.

A prospective member who never joined, one year after our last step with them. A no stops all contact at once.

A request to talk from a company, 180 days after it arrived if we decline it, and otherwise one year after we last acted on it, unless the company becomes a partner.

Partner call transcripts and copies of emails, two years after our last contact with that person. Partner contact details, our notes and key points, until we end the relationship and delete them.

A name from a company's own pages, one year after we last saw it, unless that person becomes a contact.

Do not contact fingerprints, with no end date for anyone who asked us not to contact them. For others we approached, they are kept with the date we may next contact them.

Encrypted backups, 90 days, and then they are deleted automatically.

Not yet set. We have not yet set how long we keep a request to join, the record of each AI request, the record of who opened a member's record, or the record that a deletion happened. Ask us and we will delete a request to join now.

Our deletion jobs run on the first day of each month, so something may stay for up to a month after its date.

What deleting your record means

Write to us and we delete your sign in, your record and everything linked to it in our database, check that nothing remains, and record that the deletion happened. A few things stay, and we would rather name them than have you find them.

If you asked us never to contact you, a do not contact fingerprint of your email, profile address, phone, or name and company. It cannot be turned back into your details. When we let go of somebody we approached who did not join, we keep the same kind of fingerprint, with the date we may next contact them.

The anonymous counts described above, which no longer point to you. A record that the deletion happened, without your words. A record of each AI request, which holds its task, model and size and none of your words.

Copies outside our database. Emails in our founders' mailboxes. Encrypted backups, deleted within 90 days. Anything our AI provider keeps under its terms. If we ever restore a backup, we will apply every deletion again before using it.

What you can ask us

Write to hello@creamconnects.ca to see what we hold about you and where it came from, to correct anything wrong, to delete your record or your information, or to withdraw a consent you gave, such as being counted in a salary report or being contacted.

We reply within 30 days. We check it is you before we act, usually by replying to the email address we hold for you. Members can also change or clear many answers themselves in the member app, including pay and location.

How we protect it

Members and the Cream team sign in with a one time link sent by email. We do not use passwords.

Our database enforces who can see what. Members see their own record. Partner companies see only what this page describes. Everything else is visible only to the Cream team. Our desk needs a Cream team sign in.

Backups are encrypted on the machine that makes them, before they are stored. We give each service only what its task needs. If a breach creates a real risk of significant harm, we will tell you and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, as the law requires.

Two more things

Cream is for experienced professionals. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.

When this page changes, we post the change here with its date, and we tell members by email before a material change takes effect.

Who is responsible for privacy

Scott Cook, co-founder, is our Privacy Officer. Write to hello@creamconnects.ca with any question or request about your information, and Scott will answer it personally.

If you are not satisfied with the answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, at priv.gc.ca.