This page describes what information Fern Capital LLC collects, through ferncap.com and in the course of its business, and how it is used.
Site analytics
This site uses an analytics service to understand how the site is used — which pages are viewed, how visitors arrive, the approximate (city-level) location of visits, and the type of device and browser used. The service sets cookies in your browser to distinguish one visitor from another. The reports Fern Capital receives are aggregated and do not identify you by name, email address, or other personal details. The analytics provider processes this information on Fern Capital's behalf.
Forms on this site
The inquiry form on the contact section asks for your name, work email address, firm, what the enquiry is about, and an optional message. The newsletter sign-up asks for your name, company and email address. What you enter is used to reply to you and to keep an ordinary record of the enquiry. You receive the newsletter if you asked for it, or if Ernest Rolfson later adds you as a business contact, and every issue lets you unsubscribe in one click. What you enter is never sold, rented, or used for advertising.
The research download form asks for your name, company and email address, and records which paper you downloaded and when. It is used to keep an ordinary record of who reads Fern Capital's research and to follow up. Ticking the box adds you to the newsletter; otherwise the rules above apply.
The OpenResidual early-access sign-up asks for your work email address. It also records the payment processor you picked on that page, if you picked one, and the date you signed up. These are used to email you when OpenResidual is ready for your processor, and to decide which processors to support first. Signing up does not add you to the newsletter. The record is kept while OpenResidual early access runs, and you can ask to be removed at any time by writing to er@ferncap.com. No file is ever uploaded to this site.
Submissions are delivered to the email service Fern Capital uses to send mail and hold its contact list, which processes the information on Fern Capital's instructions. The form itself is handled by a small program run by the site's hosting provider, which passes the submission straight to that email service and stores nothing of its own.
The newsletter
The newsletter goes to people who signed up on this site, and to business contacts Ernest Rolfson has corresponded with and chosen to add. Every issue carries an unsubscribe link, one click leaves the list for good, and you can also ask to be removed by writing to er@ferncap.com. Fern Capital can see whether an issue was delivered and opened; that measurement is used to judge whether the writing is worth continuing, nothing else.
What this site does not do
Fern Capital does not sell visitor information, does not run advertising on this site, and does not use analytics data for any purpose other than understanding how the site is used.
Correspondence
If you write to er@ferncap.com or call, your correspondence is kept as an ordinary business record. It is used to respond to you, to conduct the matter it concerns, and to keep track of Fern Capital's business relationships, as described in the next section.
Business contacts and outreach
Who is responsible. Fern Capital LLC, 536 Bertonley Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28211, United States. Contact: er@ferncap.com.
Whose information. Business contacts Ernest Rolfson has dealt with, and professionals at firms that Fern Capital believes may want its advisory services, such as private-equity and venture investors active in payments and fintech.
What is held. Your name, job title, employer, work email address, work phone number if known, correspondence with Fern Capital, and your marketing preferences.
Where it comes from. From you, through past correspondence; from your firm's public website and public deal news; and from an email-finding and verification service, which finds or checks a work email address.
Why it is used. To tell you about Fern Capital's work and offer its advisory services, to handle your replies, and to keep an accurate record of business relationships. Fern Capital does not make automated decisions about you.
Legal basis. Where UK or EU data-protection law applies, the basis is legitimate interests: Fern Capital's interest in telling relevant professionals about services they may find useful. A summary of that assessment is available on request.
Who else handles it. Only service providers acting on Fern Capital's instructions: providers of email, business email sending, contact records, address finding and checking, the newsletter and website hosting, and AI tools that summarise correspondence for Fern Capital's internal notes. Your information is never sold.
Where it is stored. Fern Capital is based in the United States, and your information is stored there. Where a provider is certified under the Data Privacy Framework, including its UK extension, that certification is the safeguard for the transfer; otherwise the provider's standard data-protection terms apply.
How long it is kept. Outreach lists, meaning the names and addresses used for outreach and whether you replied, are deleted two years after the last contact in either direction. Correspondence and the notes kept about it are business records: they are kept while they are useful to the business relationship, and no more than seven years after the last contact. The newsletter keeps your address until you unsubscribe. If you ask not to be contacted, Fern Capital keeps only your email address on a do-not-contact list, so that you are never emailed again.
Your right to object. You can stop Fern Capital's business emails at any time: reply "stop" to any email, or write to er@ferncap.com. This right is absolute, and Fern Capital acts on it promptly.
Your other rights. You can ask to see, correct or delete the information held about you, to restrict how it is used, or to receive a copy of it. Write to er@ferncap.com.
Complaints. You can complain to Fern Capital at er@ferncap.com; complaints are acknowledged within 30 days. In the UK you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (the Information Commission from 30 September 2026) at ico.org.uk. In the European Union you can complain to the data-protection authority in your country; the European Data Protection Board lists them.
Your choices
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Questions
Questions about this page can be sent to er@ferncap.com. If these practices change, this page will be updated and the effective date revised.