Terms of use

Last updated: 2 November 2026

In short: premortem is a free research tool. It shows what happened to other companies — it is not advice, and it can’t predict your future.

What premortem is

premortem collects public news about businesses that tried ideas like yours, and turns it into a report: who tried it, how they shut down, a risk score and a checklist. It is free to use.

Not advice, not a prediction

• premortem is for information only. It is not business, financial, legal or investment advice.
• The risk score describes what happened to similar companies. It is not a prediction of what will happen to you.
• Failures are often unreported, so treat every report as the best case.
• Make important decisions with your own judgement and, where needed, a qualified professional.

Where the information comes from

Everything comes from public news articles and founders’ own posts, read with the help of AI and checked by our code. Every company links to its sources. News can be wrong or out of date, and AI can make mistakes — so check the sources, and tell us when something’s wrong using “Report a mistake”.

Fair use

• To keep premortem free, new research is limited to a few searches per person per day.
• Please don’t try to overload, scrape or misuse the service.
• Don’t type confidential or personal information into the idea box.

Links to other websites

Reports link to news sites and other websites we don’t control. We’re not responsible for their content.

No guarantees

premortem is provided “as is”. We do our best to keep it accurate and available, but we can’t promise it will always be complete, correct or online, and we aren’t liable for decisions made using it.

Changes and contact

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the latest version. Questions: open an issue on our GitHub page. See also our privacy policy.