THE SHORT VERSION
FIXED CLOCKS. HUMAN SETTLEMENT.
What is the Top 42?
The homepage Top 42 has 42 fixed curated company positions. Those curated cards are unpaid. During a healthy Flash window, captured sponsors temporarily take their frozen ranks and are labeled Sponsored. A curated card shown at a rank with no frozen winner remains unpaid and is not a winner or backfill.
When is Flash live?
Flash runs Monday through Friday from exactly 12:00 PM to 12:42 PM Central. It receives homepage Top 42 priority only during that fixed window. Bidding normally opens at 12:42 PM on the previous eligible weekday and closes at 11:30 AM on display day. Monday intentionally has a longer weekend bidding window.
When does Main begin?
Main bidding opens at 9:00 AM Central every other calendar day from the published production anchor. Bidding lasts exactly 42 hours. The winners then display from the next scheduled 9:00 AM anchor for exactly 42 hours.
What if Main and Flash overlap?
Flash receives homepage Top 42 priority from 12:00 PM to 12:42 PM Central. Main’s original interval and each verified Main sponsor’s company-page status continue until the fixed end. The overlap never pauses, moves, shortens, restarts, or extends Main.
What is the minimum bid?
Flash — Minimum bid: $0.50. Main — Minimum bid: $4.20. Both boards accept bids in $0.01 increments.
Why can the Settlement Window be five or seven hours?
Main anchors stay at 9:00 AM Central while bidding remains exactly 42 elapsed hours. The daylight-saving clock change can therefore make the time between bidding close and display start one hour shorter or longer.
What does Checkout do?
Stripe asks your payment method to authorize the exact bid amount. That is a temporary hold, not an immediate capture. Only a creatively approved, frozen winner that is successfully captured is charged.
Can I start Checkout just before close?
Flash stops creating new Checkout sessions at 11:29 AM Central, one minute before its 11:30 AM bidding cutoff. An existing session counts only if Stripe records authorization strictly before the cutoff. Webhook arrival time does not decide eligibility.
How is rank decided?
Higher eligible bids rank first. Earlier Stripe authorization breaks an exact amount tie, followed by bid creation time and bid ID. Only one bid per normalized company domain can rank.
What happens if a winner’s capture fails?
That original rank displays as Unfilled and is never backfilled. The next bidder does not move up after rankings freeze.
What if the owner misses settlement?
Nobody is charged. The round is marked Missed, all authorizations are released through release-only handling, and the published schedule does not move.
What do Curated, Unfilled, and Verifying mean?
Curated means the company card is independently selected and unpaid. Unfilled means a frozen winner’s capture failed; that rank is not backfilled or covered by a curated card. Verifying means payment state is not yet authoritative, so sponsor identity and bid amount stay hidden while the independent curated company may remain as presentation. That fallback does not mean the rank is available or that the sponsor lost.
Can I buy an Available position on the live board?
No. An Available position cannot be reserved in the running cycle. BID FOR NEXT BOARD competes in the currently open successor round identified at Checkout, including its round ID and scheduled display time.
What company page does a captured sponsor receive?
A captured sponsor receives a continuing company directory page based on the approved immutable name, destination, and pitch in its bid. The badge says Sponsored only while a fresh authoritative response confirms an active placement; otherwise it says Curated. The page does not publish bid amount, rank, payment details, settlement state, or sponsorship history. Losing, rejected, missed, and capture-failed submissions do not receive a public page from their bid.
Can I add a screenshot or more profile details?
You may submit fields and image assets you are authorized to publish. They replace placeholders only after separate review. Approval or rejection of those enhancements never changes auction rank, capture, release, or the fixed display, and the sponsored card can fall back to approved text.
Does a spot guarantee traffic or sales?
No. A successful capture buys the identified scheduled sponsored placement and the continuing company directory page described above. It does not guarantee impressions, clicks, leads, sales, publicity, search benefit, endorsement, or perpetual operation.