Methodology
How the numbers are produced
This page exists so nothing on Pitch Companies has to be taken on faith. If you're a journalist, a brand, or just skeptical of a vote count on the internet, this is where we say exactly what stage the data is in and how every number gets calculated.
Current status
Sign-in is real — accounts are created through Supabase Auth, and every profile is a real person. Nothing here is seed data, and nothing resets on refresh.
Data status: every company, idea, vote, and comment on Pitch Companies comes from a real signed-in account and a persistent database — one vote per account, enforced at the database level. See the methodology page for exactly how.
How voting works
Every idea shows three numbers, and we show all three rather than collapsing them into one:
- Backers — everyone who's backed the idea, with or without an account. Removing the account requirement is deliberate: it's the cheapest, most common action on the site, and gating it behind sign-up was costing real participation. An anonymous backer is tracked by an id stored in their own browser, not tied to any personal information.
- Verified — the subset of backers who did it through a real, signed-in Supabase account. One verified vote per account per idea, enforced at the database level with a hard uniqueness constraint, not just in the interface. This is the number quoted in the Signal Report and sent to companies, precisely because it's the harder one to fake.
- Customer-confirmed — signed-in backers who checked a box saying they're an actual customer of that company. This is self-reported, not checked against a receipt or purchase record — we show it as a signal, not as proof.
Rate limiting applies to both tracks, to make coordinated ballot-stuffing expensive — though an anonymous id is inherently easier to reset than an account, which is exactly why it isn't the number anyone official relies on. Posting ideas and adding companies is unlimited for signed-in accounts — we'd rather have too many pitches than throttle real ones. No pay-to-rank: nobody can pay to have an idea promoted, suppressed, or removed from a leaderboard, on either count.
How the Signal Report is calculated
Every idea posted within the current report week is ranked by vote count. The top ten make the report. “This week” is a rolling seven-day window; the report at a given URL is a permanent, unedited snapshot of that week once published.
How the Responsiveness Leaderboard is calculated
This measures status changes on Pitch Companies only — it is not a record of whether a company responded anywhere else. A company counts as having engaged with an idea once its status moves to “reviewed” or “implemented.” The leaderboard includes every company with at least one idea; companies with none yet aren't ranked, since there's nothing yet to have responded to.
Company directory
A company with no ideas posted yet doesn't appear in the directory or in search results — an empty page isn't a useful result for anyone. Its page still exists and is still linkable the moment someone submits the first idea for it; nothing is deleted.
What we will never do
Accept payment to suppress, de-rank, or remove an idea or a company's standing on the Responsiveness Leaderboard. Fabricate or round up a public count. Label a self-reported signal — like the customer badge — as independently verified when it isn't. Count more than one verified vote per account on the same idea.
Questions about a specific number? Contact us.