Lou's Circle

    Privacy Notice

    Effective: November 14, 2026. Updated: November 14, 2026.

    Lou's Circle is an introduction service, free for candidates, run by Best Practice Institute, Inc. ("BPI", "we"), the company behind Most Loved Workplace®. Lou Carter is BPI's founder. Gary, an AI agent working for Lou, runs the sign-up and sends our emails through HubSpot from a BPI address. Lou approves every introduction.

    Companies in Lou's Circle are Most Loved Workplace® clients of Best Practice Institute.

    What we collect

    • What you tell us at sign-up:
      • candidates: your first name, last name, current role or title, LinkedIn URL, industry, what you want next, and email; and, if you choose to answer them, the values and work style you care about and your answer to what would make your next job the best one yet;
      • Please don't include sensitive personal details in free-text answers.
      • companies: your first name, last name, company name, your role there, who you are hiring for, and email.
    • Your consent record: the date and time you agreed, which version of this notice and the Terms you agreed to, the IP address and browser used, and when you confirmed your email.
    • Campaign tags in the link you used (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) and the page you signed up on.
    • Your replies to our emails (YES, NO, STOP, MET, BOOKED, NOT YET) and whether an introduction led to a meeting.
    • We do not log into, read or fetch your LinkedIn account or page. We check that the URL is well-formed, and a person may look at it when unsure.
    • We do not collect photos, dates of birth, graduation years or other sensitive data.

    How we use it

    • To check whether you're a fit (we call this qualifying).
      • For companies, it means checking the company against our internal criteria.
      • For candidates, we look at your role, industry, whether that matches open roles at companies in Lou's Circle and the values, work style and other answers you chose to give us, and whether the LinkedIn URL you gave looks real.
      • We also give priority to people whose work connects to our community, such as HR, people, talent and culture leaders and executives.
      • If you are not a fit yet, you go on our waitlist, and we check again each month as new roles open.
      • Lou Carter reviews waitlist decisions every week, and you can ask for a person to look at yours.
      • Candidates are not added to BPI sales outreach unless they ask for it.
    • To look for a fit between candidates and the companies in Lou's Circle, which are Most Loved Workplace® clients of BPI.
    • To ask you, one introduction at a time, whether you want that introduction. We always ask the candidate first.
    • To make the introduction only after both sides say yes, then send one follow-up.
    • To count meetings, so we know whether the service works.
    • To route company questions about certification or employer branding to a BPI team member, who may contact you about them.

    Chatting with Gary

    Gary is an AI assistant, not a person, and can make mistakes. When you chat with Gary, what you type is sent to xAI, our AI model provider, only so it can generate Gary's replies. Gary's replies draw on public Most Loved Workplace® company profile information and what you type. We do not store your chat messages on our servers. Where our provider offers it, we ask it not to keep or train on your messages; otherwise it may keep them for a limited time under its own terms. To keep the service running fairly, we store a one-way hashed version of your email address and counts of how much you use the chat. Please don't share health, financial, family, religious or other sensitive personal details, or anything confidential about your current employer, in the chat.

    Who sees it

    • The other person in an introduction, but only after you both say yes. A company never sees a candidate's details before the candidate says yes. Even then, they see only your name, email and the short summary we wrote for that introduction.
    • Lou Carter and the BPI team members who run the service.
    • Where your data is kept depends on whether you qualify:
      • If you qualify, your details go into our CRM, HubSpot. Our emails to you are sent through HubSpot, and your replies come back there.
      • If you don't qualify yet, you go on our waitlist instead. That is a private Google Sheet shared only with Lou and the BPI team, with no public link. It holds:
        • the date, your name, email, LinkedIn URL, role and industry;
        • which side you signed up for and your fit score;
        • the factual reason you aren't a fit yet;
        • whether you asked for our newsletter, and any deletion request.
    • Our service providers, under contract and only to run the service:
      • HubSpot (CRM and email);
      • Google Workspace (waitlist sheet);
      • Lovable and Supabase (sign-up page and database);
      • xAI (the AI model provider that generates Gary's chat replies);
      • Beehiiv (The Work Ahead newsletter, only if you opt in).
    • No member list. Candidates never see the member list or other members' names.
    • We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.

    Your choices

    • Newsletter. The Work Ahead newsletter is a separate opt-in. The box is unticked unless you tick it, and you can unsubscribe from any issue.
    • Opt out at any time. Reply STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE to any email, or use its opt-out link. All commercial email from BPI to that address stops right away.
    • Delete your data. Use the "Delete my data" link in any email, or write to support@bestpracticeinstitute.org. We delete your data within 30 days from every place it sits: HubSpot, the waitlist sheet, our sign-up database and Beehiiv.
    • See or correct your data. Write to the address above.
    • California and other US states with privacy laws:
      • You can ask to know, see, correct or delete your personal information, and we will not treat you differently for asking.
      • We do not sell it or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we honor Global Privacy Control signals.
      • An authorized agent can ask for you.
    • EU, UK and Switzerland:
      • BPI is the controller. Our legal basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time without affecting earlier use.
      • You also have the rights to portability, to restrict or object, and to complain to your data protection authority.
      • Our DPO: dpo@bestpracticeinstitute.org.
    • Canada: you can withdraw consent at any time by replying STOP or using the opt-out link.
    • Where your data is stored: in the United States. Transfers from the EU, UK and Switzerland rely on the safeguards in BPI's Privacy Policy, section 6.
    • Response time: we answer requests within 30 days. You can also write to privacy@bestpracticeinstitute.org.

    How long we keep it

    • Active members: while you are an active member, and then 24 months after our last contact with you, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
    • Waitlist: if you never qualify, we delete your waitlist entry 12 months after you sign up.
    • Unconfirmed sign-ups: if you never confirm your email, we delete the sign-up after 30 days.
    • If we close Lou's Circle, we delete member data within 90 days unless you ask to stay in touch.
    • After an opt-out, we keep only your email address, so that we never contact you again.

    Security

    • Your data sits in access-controlled systems.
    • No passwords are stored: sign-in uses an email link.

    Children

    Lou's Circle is for adults (18+) looking for work or hiring. Don't sign up if you are under 18.

    Changes

    If this notice changes in a way that matters, we will email you before the change applies to you.

    Contact

    • Best Practice Institute, Inc., 5600 PGA Blvd, Suite 204, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418, United States.
    • Email: support@bestpracticeinstitute.org
    • Privacy: privacy@bestpracticeinstitute.org

    Back to Gary

    Companies in Lou's Circle are Most Loved Workplace® clients of Best Practice Institute.

    Lou's Circle makes introductions only. It never charges candidates a fee, and it does not promise an introduction, an interview or a job.

    Lou's Circle does not consider race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic.

    Best Practice Institute, Inc., 5600 PGA Blvd, Suite 204, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418, United States.

    © Best Practice Institute, Inc. Most Loved Workplace® is a registered trademark of BPI.

    Best Practice Institute

    Best Practice Institute is the research organization behind Most Loved Workplace® certification, the SPARK Model, the Love of Workplace Index®, and The Workplace Report.

    The Workplace Report

    The Workplace Report is BPI's original workplace culture research and editorial briefing series for CEOs, CHROs, people leaders, talent leaders, and employer-brand teams. It turns BPI's 25 years of research, Most Loved Workplace® certification data, SPARK findings, and current workforce signals into practical analysis leaders can use.

    The report format includes executive summaries, research-backed articles, company examples, methodology notes, and practical implications for retention, hiring, culture, leadership, and employee experience. New research and analysis is published on an ongoing editorial cadence at /workplace-report.