Fifteen more questions, by stage of the deal.

What a committee asks before commissioning an analysis.

• What is the analysis based on?

  What customers say publicly about their experience at each unit, read against nearby competitors. No company access, no interviews, no contact.

• Is it legal?

  Yes. We work only with public information and what you give us directly. We don’t use company data or material nonpublic information, and we don’t contact anyone. Nor do we provide data on individuals: the document contains only results aggregated by unit. Details are in our privacy policy.

• Will the chain know you’re looking at it?

  No. We never contact the company, so it never learns we’re looking — or for whom.

• Do you analyze the whole chain?

  Yes, every unit. What varies by sector is how many have enough evidence for a unit-level conclusion: in our analyses, from one in four for coffee shops in a large city to nine in ten for movie theaters. The rest are counted and disclosed in the document. We’ll give you that figure before we start, not at delivery.

• What if there isn’t enough evidence?

  We’ll tell you before we start, not after. If, for the first analysis, a city or a unit doesn’t have enough recent evidence, we’ll choose another; if the chain as a whole doesn’t, we’ll decline. And within the document, every unit that can’t be measured is disclosed as such, so no one mistakes “no data” for “no problem.”

• Why do you choose the cities for the first analysis?

  So the comparison is fair and the result is meaningful: we pick two cities where the evidence is sufficient and each unit has comparable competitors nearby, and we name them before we start. If your thesis hinges on a particular city, we cover it in the full analysis.

• Why not have my own team — or a data provider — do it?

  A data provider gives you numbers: how many people visit, how much they spend. This analysis tells you which units carry the value and which competitors they are losing customers to. Start with the questions we answer and ask which of them your team could answer from the outside. Then run the fastest test: request a first analysis, at no charge, of a chain your team has already analyzed, and put the two side by side. You’ll have it within five business days of confirmation.

• Can you answer something that isn’t on the list?

  If your thesis raises a different question and public information can answer it rigorously, we’ll send you a written proposal; if it can’t, we’ll say so.

• How does this tie to revenue?

  We don’t forecast sales. We analyze how customers perceive each unit against its nearby competitors and — in sectors where it can already be measured — estimate, as a percentage range, the revenue it fails to capture as a result. If you own the chain or it’s in your portfolio, you can test us blind: you don’t share your sales, we analyze two of your units, and you check our estimate against your own numbers.

• What if the public record on a chain isn’t genuine?

  A public number that doesn’t reflect what customers actually experience is useless for evaluating a chain. Before we start, we check whether what’s published about that chain behaves — over time and against its nearby competitors — the way real customers’ feedback does. If it can’t support an honest analysis, we say so and don’t take it on. Knowing that early is itself a finding, for buyer and seller alike.

• Isn’t it only the very happy or the very angry who speak up?

  The people who speak up aren’t a random sample, which is why we never read a unit’s rating in isolation. We compare each unit with its nearby competitors, measured the same way over the same period: that bias affects both sides, and what matters is the difference between them.

• What if I want to go further?

  One city, several, or the whole chain. Pricing is based on the scope of the engagement — never on who commissions it or on the size of the deal — and the written proposal reaches you within three business days. The whole chain, whatever its size, is delivered within 20 business days: if we run late, we discount the fee. And if the first analysis shows that going further won’t add value, we’ll say so, and we won’t propose more.

• Do you work for buyers or sellers?

  Either — never both sides of the same transaction, and never for a success fee. The full rules are under How we work.

• Who can I share the document with?

  With your team and your advisers, under the same confidentiality terms. We don’t publish it, and we don’t share it with the chain analyzed. The first analysis carries your company’s name on every page and is governed by the terms you accept before receiving it; the full analysis, by contract. Only anonymized, publicly gathered data feeds our sector-wide figures — never your document and never your name. The examples on this site come from analyses we ran on our own account, without a client.

• Who are you?

  An independent firm that analyzes multi-unit chains from the outside, for the investors, lenders, and advisers who buy, finance, or sell chains — not for the people managing them day to day. We publish no names — no clients, no chains, not even the person who signs. One person reviews and signs every analysis, and that same person replies to you. Who signs, and what your compliance team receives in writing before any analysis, is set out on the home page. The full rules are under How we work. The proof is the analysis we do on the chain you choose.

• Which sectors and countries?

  We have analyzed chains in restaurants (quick-service and full-service), coffee shops, movie theaters, pharmacies, gyms, bakeries, and specialty retail, in eight countries: Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Spain, and the United States. If your sector or country isn’t on the list, let us know: in our first reply, we’ll confirm whether there’s enough evidence to analyze your chain.