The evidence standard
Every firm in this business says it is rigorous. Rigour is a system or it is an adjective. This is ours, in full — so you can hold a brief against it.
A fact traced to an identifiable source, captured on the date we read it. You get the URL and the saved copy. You can check it yourself without asking us.
A judgment we have formed from the evidence — a gap, an exposure, a likely weakness. Reasoned, not observed. Labelled so you can weigh it differently.
The two are never blended. A brief that mixes what was seen with what was guessed is a brief you cannot act on safely.
Evidence tiers
Statutes, filings, court dockets, licensing databases, and a company's own published statements about itself.
Establishes a claim on its own.Trade press, analyst notes, industry reporting, third-party summaries.
Corroborates. Never establishes.Our own reasoning from the evidence, where no source states the conclusion directly.
Always labelled. Never presented as fact.The source register
This is the structure of the register we keep for your engagement. It is not a summary written after the fact — it is the working record, built as the research happens, and available to you for twelve months.
| Claim | Source | Captured | Tier | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [ the specific claim, as it appears in the brief ] |
https://full-url-not-just-the-domain — page saved on the capture date |
2026-00-00 | Primary | Verified | Applied |
| [ a claim resting on reporting, not the record ] |
https://trade-publication/article — page saved on the capture date |
2026-00-00 | Secondary | Verified | Corroborated |
| [ a conclusion we drew that no source states ] |
— derived from rows above | 2026-00-00 | Inference | Vulnerability | Open — stated as inference |
The columns are real; the rows are blank by design. We do not publish another client's intelligence to demonstrate our method — including anonymised, which is rarely as anonymous as it looks. Your register is yours. So is the reason you will never find it on this page.
After we deliver
Markets move, competitors pivot, and sources quietly rewrite themselves. What separates firms is what happens next.
The page is saved on the day it is read. When a competitor quietly rewrites their site six weeks later, the evidence behind our claim still exists — and you can see what changed.
One search that finds nothing is not proof that nothing exists. We search again before recommending a claim be cut. The difference is the gap between diligence and convenience.
When a fact changes after delivery, we report it to you and you decide. No document you have already acted on is edited behind you — not even to make us look better.
Every claim carries the date it was verified. When a source moves, we know which briefs cited it — and we tell you, whether or not it changes your answer.
Each deliverable names the date through which its research is current. Intelligence with no date on it is an assertion, and assertions age badly.