How we score.

Five scores, one overall

Every review scores five criteria from 0 to 10. Four of them change with the category: a smart bed is judged on sleep quality and setup, a restaurant on food, service and how easy it is to talk. The fifth never changes:

Founder ROI. Does it pay off in the work? Better focus, sharper decisions, a deal closed over a good dinner, hours saved. This is the score that makes us different from a general review site.

The overall score is the average of the five, rounded to one decimal place.

What the numbers mean

• 9.0–10: Exceptional. We’d buy it again without thinking.
• 8.0–8.9: Highly recommended for most founders.
• 7.0–7.9: Recommended, with caveats you should read.
• 5.0–6.9: Mixed. Right for some people, not most.
• Below 5: Skip it.

How we test

• Real use, real time. We use products in our actual lives for weeks, not an afternoon. Restaurants get a real dinner, not a tasting menu laid on for press.
• More than one opinion. Where we can, two or more founders test the same thing, and we say how many people tested it.
• “Testing now” means testing now. While we’re still testing, a review page shows what we’re testing and has no scores. Scores appear only when we’re done.
• We update reviews. If a product changes, the price changes a lot or we change our minds, we update the review and its date.

Guest reviewers

Founders who write for us follow the same method. They must have actually used what they review, give their honest opinion and tell us about any connection to the brand, such as owning shares, being an investor or getting the product free. We publish that connection with their review.

Independence

• Brands never pay for a review, a score or a better position on the site.
• Brands don’t see reviews before they’re published.
• If a brand ever gives us a product for free, we say so at the top of the review.
• We earn affiliate commissions on many links. That’s how the site makes money, and it never changes a score. Read how we make money.