Questions founders ask
Plain answers on how the Brutally Honest Startup Assessment works, what it costs and what happens to your answers.
- What is the Brutally Honest Startup Assessment, and how is it different from other startup assessment tools?It is a startup assessment for founding teams. Every co-founder answers the same questions on their own, then the team report shows your score, the questions you split on and the figures you do not agree on. What makes it different is that it puts co-founders side by side.
- Who is the assessment for, and who is it not for?It is for founding teams: every co-founder answers alone, and the team report compares your answers. A founder on their own still gets their own report, but the team report opens only once two of you have submitted. Angels, accelerators and corporate innovation teams have their own pages.
- Do co-founders answer together or separately, and how do we invite them?Separately. Each co-founder answers on their own account, and the team report then compares your answers question by question. One of you creates the account, buys the assessment and invites the co-founders by email; they join at no extra cost.
- How long does the assessment take, and can we save and come back?About 90 minutes per co-founder. You can save at any point and come back, and a line under the progress bar shows roughly how long the rest of the section takes.
- Can we change our answers after we submit?Your answers lock when you submit, but they can be reopened once in each assessment. Open your submitted answers, choose Ask to reopen and say what you want to change; the TBH team reopens your answers or tells you why not.
- What do the four dimensions measure?The questions sit in four dimensions: Current State, Scalability & Fund Raising, Road to Revenue and Competitive Landscape, 414 points in all. They do not weigh the same: fundraising readiness carries a third of the points.
- How is the startup assessment scored?By rule, from your answers. Each scored choice earns the points of the option you picked; written answers, figures and dates are not scored. The team score is the average of everyone who finished, and each level covers a fixed range of the 414 points.
- What does the team report show, and can we share it with investors?The team score and level, the four dimension scores, how aligned you are on each dimension, the scored questions where your answers are furthest apart and the figures you entered differently. You can download it as a PDF and take it to your next board, mentor or investor meeting; ask your co-founders before a team PDF leaves the company.
- Does a good score mean we will raise money?No. The assessment shows where you stand and where the team disagrees. It does not predict funding.
- Can we retake the assessment later and compare results?Yes, as a new assessment. Your report then shows what changed since the last one. We recommend retaking it every 3 to 6 months as your startup changes.
- How much does it cost, what is included, and how do we pay?950 EUR per team, VAT included. One of you pays; the co-founders you invite join at no cost. The one who pays also gets a 30-minute call with our AI voice mentor, which has read their report. You pay by card on the platform, and Stripe takes the payment.
- What is the free AI mentor, and what does extra time cost?It is a voice call in the browser with an AI voice mentor trained on Ozan Sonmez's method, not Ozan in person. The first 20 minutes are free. After that you can add time: €20 for 20 minutes, €27 for 30, €35 for 40, VAT included.
- Can we get a refund?Fees are non-refundable unless the terms state otherwise. The 14-day EU right of withdrawal ends once access starts, because you ask for access straight away at checkout. To ask for a refund, write from the address you sign in with to team@thebrutallyhonest.co.
- Who can see our answers?Your answers are not public, and nothing is shown to other startups. Your co-founders see your answers in the team report once you and they have each submitted, not before. The TBH team, who run the platform, can read your answers, scores and reports, to check results and to help you when you ask.
- How do you use AI, and is our data used to train AI models?Anthropic's Claude models write the reading of your report from your submitted answers and figures, and every AI text is labelled Written by AI. We do not train AI models on your answers. The AI never scores you, never gives a verdict and names people only by role.
- How long do you keep our data, and can we delete it?Accounts and assessment data are kept as long as needed to provide our services, subject to legal and contractual obligations. You can download your data under Settings > Privacy. To delete your account and personal data, write to team@thebrutallyhonest.co from the address you sign in with.