The rules of the room.

CPR Deck runs events where builders pitch products and a room of other builders criticises them constructively. It's operated by Mahendra Vijay as an individual in India. The community itself is free and sells nothing: it is not a company, an accelerator, or an investor, and there is no membership to buy.

Separately, Mahendra offers paid one-to-one sessions called Private Roasts. Those are his own work rather than the community's, they change nothing about how the free events run, and they're covered in their own section below.

By using this site or attending an event, you agree to these terms.

You need to be 18 or older. See the privacy noticefor why that line exists and what to do if you're younger and still want in.

You keep everything. Your idea, your intellectual property, your product, your brand. Submitting a pitch transfers none of it. We claim no ownership or stake in anything you show us, now or later.

A pitch is not confidential. This is the part worth reading twice. We do not sign NDAs for pitches, and we cannot make a room full of builders keep your idea secret. Treat anything you submit or present as public. If a detail is genuinely a trade secret, leave it out — you can get a useful roast without it.

What you grant us. Permission to read your submission, discuss it internally to decide whether to give you a slot, and put it in front of the room and its roasters at the event. That's all. It's a licence to run the roast, not to exploit your product.

Similar ideas happen. Other people pitch to us, roasters build their own things, and we may develop our own products. Someone may independently arrive at something resembling your idea before or after you pitch it. By submitting, you accept that we're not liable for that, provided we haven't misused something you gave us.

Only submit what's yours to submit. Don't send us your employer's confidential information, anything under someone else's NDA, or material you don't have the rights to.

We can say no. We can decline any pitch, or withdraw a slot, for any reason. Usually it just means the fit or the timing is wrong.

We roast assumptions, not people. Criticism goes at the product, the market read, the pricing, the plan — never at someone's character, identity, or worth. This applies to roasters, pitchers, and the audience equally. We'll stop a session, or ask someone to leave, if it stops being about the work.

Events may be recorded. We may photograph or film roast nights for the site and social channels. If you'd rather not appear, tell us before the session starts and we'll keep you out of frame or blur you. You can also ask us afterwards to remove a specific image or clip.

Criticism is opinion. What roasters say is their view, offered quickly and in public, not professional advice. They may be wrong. Weigh it, argue with it, and make your own call.

Some roasts become written case studies on this site: what was pitched, what got challenged, what changed afterwards.

We ask before we publish. Agreeing to be roasted is not agreeing to be written about. We'll show you the draft, and it only goes up once you say yes in writing. You choose whether your name and your product's name appear or whether it runs anonymised.

Once published, you can ask us to take it down or correct it and we will, within a reasonable time. We may keep a copy for our own records.

The Roast Lab is a thinking tool, not an oracle. An AI model reads what you type and scores it across five dimensions, which means your pitch is sent to that model to be read. We keep no copy of it — see the privacy noticefor who handles it on the way — but don't put anything confidential in there.

Its scores are prompts for thought, not evaluations of your business. Don't make decisions on them alone. That's what the humans are for.

A Private Roast is a paid one-to-one session with Mahendra Vijay, offered by him personally rather than by CPR Deck. It isn't part of the community, it isn't a membership benefit, and booking one buys you no priority at a roast night and no say in what gets roasted there.

The intro call is free and carries no obligation on either side. Anything beyond it is scoped and priced per engagement and agreed before work starts. Nothing is recurring and there is no subscription.

Paying doesn't change what the criticism is. A Private Roast is still one person's opinion, offered honestly and fast, and it is still not professional advice — legal, financial, or otherwise. It carries no guarantee of an outcome. What you decide afterwards is yours to decide, and yours to own.

What you show in a Private Roast stays private. It isn't published, used as a case study, or repeated to the community unless you say yes first.

The site's design, code, words, and branding belong to CPR Deck. Read it, share it, quote it with credit. Don't clone it wholesale or pass it off as yours.

Don't use our forms to send spam, malware, or abuse, and don't try to break or overload the site.

Events can move or be cancelled. Slots aren't guaranteed. The site is provided as it is, without warranties.

Most importantly: a roast is criticism, not a plan. We don't promise it will make your product better, and we aren't responsible for what happens when you act on it. If you pivot, reprice, or shut something down after a roast night, that decision is yours.

To the extent the law allows, we're not liable for indirect or consequential losses — lost revenue, lost data, lost opportunities — arising from taking part. Nothing here limits liability that can't legally be limited.

These terms are governed by the laws of India, and disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Indian courts.

We'll update the date at the top when these change. If a change materially affects a pitch you've already submitted, the version you agreed to at the time is the one that governs it.