How we score, where the data comes from, what we don't know.

• Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs)

  Brand-specific filings franchisors must give prospective franchisees under FTC rule 16 CFR 436. Items 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 17, 19, and 20 are the financial and contract sections we extract. Source PDFs come from state regulator portals (CA, MN, NY, ND, RI, VA, WA, WI, plus NASAA/state-administrator records).

  Coverage · 3,049 brands · FDD years 2017–2026

• SBA 7(a) loan disclosures

  Public records released under FOIA, covering Small Business Administration loans guaranteed under the 7(a) program. We join these to FDD brand names so you can see real default rates per brand. 1,716 brands have SBA loan history (49.6% of the dataset).

  Coverage · 169,743 loans · $145B volume · 1,716 brands

• Brand logos

  Logos are sourced from Google's favicon service using each brand's website domain. Where no favicon exists, a monogram tile renders the brand initials.

What the risk score reflects

The score blends FDD text analysis with quantitative financial signals. Lower scores mean lower risk. We weight the following:

FDD disclosure signals

• Bankruptcy disclosure in Item 3 (significant penalty)
• Litigation count and recency in Item 3 (moderate penalty per case)
• Going-concern note in Item 21 financial statements (significant penalty)
• Unit terminations and non-renewals as a share of total units

Financial outcome signals

• SBA 7(a) loan default rate: the only outcome-validated signal in the model. Brands with <2% default rates (and ≥10 loans) receive a significant reward; brands above 20% receive a significant penalty. SBA adjustments require ≥10 loans for standard tiers and ≥5 loans for extreme default rates (≥50%)
• Revenue-to-investment ratio: brands where avg revenue exceeds 3x the investment midpoint score better than brands where revenue is below 0.5x investment
• Unit growth trajectory: strong YoY growth (>10%) improves the score; shrinking systems are penalized

Structural adjustments

• Mega-system floor: brands with >2,000 units, >$1M revenue, and low SBA default are capped at 40 regardless of FDD language (proven systems)
• SBA hard floor: brands with ≥40% default rate on ≥10 loans are floored at CAUTION minimum; ≥25% default on ≥5 loans cannot be rated STRONG. This prevents clean FDD language from masking poor real-world outcomes
• FDD staleness: filings older than 2023 receive a penalty (2-8 points depending on age). A 2017 FDD carries more uncertainty than a 2025 one

All financial data is free to browse. There is no subscription. The $49 unlock applies only to the franchisee phone numbers (and AI- generated validation questions) for a single brand. One-time purchase.

• Free: investment ranges, royalty rates, Item 19 revenues, unit growth, SBA default rates, ratings, contract terms, litigation summaries, comparison and matrix views.
• $49 / brand: ~100 franchisee phone numbers from that brand's FDD Item 20, plus AI-generated questions to ask owners during validation calls.

FDDs are filed annually with state regulators. We re-extract a brand when its filing year changes. SBA 7(a) data is refreshed quarterly when SBA publishes new FOIA datasets. The data ticker on the home page reflects the current totals; each brand page stamps the FDD year it was extracted from.