Document 02 · The independence charter
No one pays to be recommended.
Independence isn’t a legal footer here — it’s the product. The moment a vendor fee can move a score, the research is worthless. These six clauses are how we keep that from ever being a question.
The six clauses
binding · public · auditable
I
The scoring methodology is public enough to audit.
Anyone can check how a number was made before trusting it.
II
Vendor AR fees never change rank.
Seats buy access and education — placement is not for sale at any price.
III
Clinic engagements disclose any vendor relationship that exists.
You always know who else is in the room.
IV
Analysts may demo any product; conclusions are theirs.
No vendor pre-reads, no approval loops, no softened verdicts.
V
No exclusive representation of a single system.
The day we become one vendor’s channel, the map is dead.
VI
Primary sources include clinics that are not customers of featured vendors.
Scores can’t be farmed from a vendor’s happiest references.
The sequence is the enforcement
Vendor money comes last, or not at all.
If vendor money arrived before clinic credibility, we’d be PR with a research letterhead. So the order is fixed: paid clinic work and a public method first, research that’s embarrassing to fake second, vendor analyst-relations seats last — gated on both.
Vendor seats buy structured briefings, fair access to the research cycle, and anonymized demand themes. They never buy placement, rank, or early edits.
1
Now
Paid clinic work + public method
2
Fall ’26 target
Research that’s embarrassing to fake
3
Gated
Vendor analyst-relations seats