Glossary

The yearly document where a company lays out its finances, risks, and ownership. For publicly traded companies it's a legal filing called the 10-K, often the most honest thing a company publishes, because lying in it is a federal offense.

A certification from the nonprofit B Lab for companies that meet audited standards on workers, environment, and governance. It's a real assessment, not just a logo, but it's voluntary, paid for by the company, and doesn't make a company perfect.

A seat on the group that hires the CEO, approves budgets, and signs off on a sale. Investors often negotiate one as a condition of funding, which is how a minority stake can still translate into real say over where a company goes.

Short for "capitalization table": the list of who owns what percentage of a company. When we say a founder is "still on the cap table," it means they still own a real piece of the business, even if investors now own the rest.

Money used to build or grow a business: equipment, locations, hiring, inventory. Where a company's capital comes from (its own profits versus outside investors) tells you a lot about who it really answers to.

A disclosure through CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), a nonprofit system where companies report their emissions, water use, and climate risks. A CDP filing means a company is at least measuring its footprint; no filing usually means it isn't.

A lawsuit filed by one or a few people on behalf of a much larger group who allegedly suffered the same harm, like an entire hourly workforce denied overtime. Certification as a class action is a procedural step, not a ruling that the underlying claims are true.

The United Kingdom's public register of companies, where British businesses file their accounts, their owners, and their "people with significant control." It is far more open than the American equivalent, so for a brand with a UK arm it is often the clearest look at who actually owns the thing.

A single parent company that owns a wide portfolio of otherwise unrelated brands, sometimes dozens across totally different categories. A brand's day-to-day feel can be entirely local while its profits flow up to a distant, diversified corporate owner.

Raising money from many small backers at once, usually on a platform like Kickstarter, in exchange for early product rather than ownership. For a small business a single campaign can fund an entire buildout without giving up a share, which is why a finished campaign is sometimes the whole funding story.

New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which enforces local labor rules like Fair Workweek scheduling and paid sick leave, separate from the federal and state Departments of Labor. Its fines and findings apply only to NYC businesses, making it one of the sharpest tools for judging how a company treats its city workers specifically.

Money a company borrows and has to pay back with interest, unlike equity, where an investor buys an actual stake in the business. A lender usually has no ownership and no say in daily operations, but if the company can't pay, that debt can become exactly the leverage an investor uses to take control later: real risk, just conditional on things going wrong first.

Advertising that misleads: inflated claims, fake discounts, or "greenwashed" sustainability language with nothing behind it. The FTC can fine companies for it, and documented cases count as a serious mark against a brand in our research.

What happens when a well-funded chain moves into a neighborhood and the independents nearby can't survive what follows: rising rents, undercut prices, lost foot traffic. It's the Goliath in our "David or Goliath" rating.

The federal Department of Labor, whose Wage and Hour Division investigates unpaid wages, overtime violations, and misclassified workers. An open DOL investigation means an agency is looking, not that any wrongdoing has been proven.

A share structure where founders hold stock carrying extra votes, letting them keep control of decisions even after outside investors own most of the company. Its absence matters as much as its presence: without it, a founder holding a small stake can simply be outvoted.

The SEC's free public database of every filing companies submit to it. We search it constantly, but a blank result needs reading with care, because for a genuinely private company no filing is exactly what you would expect to find.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which handles workplace discrimination complaints. A charge filed with the EEOC is only an accusation, and even the routine "right-to-sue" letter it issues afterward isn't a finding that discrimination occurred.

A structure where the people who work at a company own a majority of it, usually through an ESOP (a trust that holds shares on their behalf) or a worker cooperative. It is worth knowing that this is often how a founder exits rather than a sign one never did, and that the trust sometimes borrows to buy them out, leaving the debt on the business itself.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, which enforces environmental law from factory emissions to water pollution. A search of its enforcement database turning up nothing means no documented violation, not a guarantee of a clean record.

Ownership: a share of a company and its future profits. When investors "take equity," they own part of the business; the more equity they hold, the less the founder controls.

Short for "environmental, social, and governance": a framework investors use to score companies on things beyond profit. In practice the ratings vary wildly between raters and are easy to game, which is why we do our own research instead of relying on them.

The moment investors cash out, usually by selling the company or taking it public. VC and PE firms invest with the exit in mind from day one, which shapes how the companies they own behave in the meantime.

A nonprofit that sets labor standards for supply chains and assesses member companies against them. Joining is a commitment, and accreditation is the part that carries weight: it arrives years later, only after the company's own compliance program has actually been examined.

A certification that the farmers or workers behind a product were paid a guaranteed floor price plus a premium set aside for community projects. It certifies a specific product line rather than a company, so a brand can sell one certified coffee and source everything else conventionally.

New York City's law requiring fast-food and retail employers to post schedules in advance, pay workers for last-minute changes, and offer open shifts to existing staff before hiring someone new. It exists because unpredictable scheduling makes it hard for hourly workers to hold a second job, arrange childcare, or budget reliably.

A private investment firm that manages one wealthy family's fortune rather than pooling money from outside investors like a typical fund. It can look and act like private equity or venture capital, but there's no fund with a fixed lifespan pushing for an exit, just one family's own timeline and priorities.

The Fair Labor Standards Act, the 1938 federal law that created the minimum wage, overtime pay, and limits on child labor. Most wage lawsuits against employers are brought under it, so an FLSA claim generally means someone alleges they were not paid what they were owed.

The person or people who started the company. We track whether founders are still running things day to day, because founder-led companies tend to make decisions based on mission, not just quarterly returns.

A business where the brand belongs to a corporation but individual locations are owned by local operators who pay for the name and the playbook. It muddies the "local" question: your neighborhood franchisee may be genuinely local, while the profits and rules flow from headquarters.

The Federal Trade Commission, the federal agency that polices deceptive advertising, unfair business practices, and anticompetitive mergers. It's the regulator that can act on "greenwashed" claims or misleading pricing, and its merger reviews are often the only public check on a private equity roll-up.

When a company raises a "round" of money from investors in exchange for equity. Every raise means new owners at the table, and more pressure to grow fast enough to pay them all back.

Investment firms that take a minority stake in an already-profitable, fast-growing company to fund its expansion, no loans or change of control involved. Founders stay in charge day to day, but the growth targets that come with the money still shape decisions like how fast to open new locations.

A fund that pools money from wealthy investors and institutions to make aggressive bets across public markets, private companies, and everything in between, with far less regulation than a mutual fund. On this site they show up less as classic company owners and more as late-stage investors chasing a fast markup before an IPO or sale.

A company that exists mainly to own other companies. Brands that feel small and independent are sometimes one shelf in a much larger holding company: the name on the door isn't always who's really in charge.

Growing on the business's own revenue, personal savings, or an ordinary bank loan (sometimes called "bootstrapped") with no investment firms on the ownership list. Independent companies answer to their customers, not to investors' timelines.

Big professional money (pension funds, endowments, asset managers, hedge funds) that owns shares in companies. When institutions dominate a company's ownership, decisions tend to get made for the stock price, not the neighborhood.

Anyone who puts money into a business expecting to get more back. The word covers everything from a founder's mom to a billion-dollar fund, which is why we always look at who the investors actually are.

An "initial public offering": the day a private company starts selling its shares to anyone on a stock exchange. It raises a lot of money, but it also means the company now answers to shareholders every quarter, indefinitely.

Private equity's signature move: buying a company mostly with borrowed money, then putting that debt on the company's own books. The business now has to earn enough to pay off the loan that was used to buy it, which is usually where the cost-cutting starts.

Renting out a brand name: a company sells the right to put its name on products or stores that someone else actually runs. That beloved logo may be made by a company you've never heard of, under standards the original brand doesn't control.

The investors behind the investors: the pension funds, universities, and wealthy families whose money PE and VC firms manage. Limited partners expect returns on a schedule, which is where the pressure on the companies ultimately comes from.

What it actually costs to cover housing, food, and basics where a worker lives, which in most American cities sits well above the legal minimum. Paying minimum wage means a company is following the law; whether it pays a living wage is a separate question, and usually an unanswered one.

A "limited liability company": the ordinary legal wrapper most American businesses operate inside, which shields the owners' personal assets if the business is sued. It reveals nothing about who owns the company or how it is funded, though the name on the filing is often the only public trace of who is in charge.

When an outside investor, often a growth-equity firm or family office, buys a stake in a company without taking control. The founders keep majority ownership and day-to-day decision-making, but the investor's money and expectations still shape strategy.

The National Labor Relations Board: the federal agency that protects workers' right to organize. NLRB complaints and rulings are public record, and we use them to see how a company actually behaves when its workers try to unionize.

When a company is bought not by an investment fund but by another business in the same industry, which we describe as being owned by a larger operator. No fund clock is ticking toward a resale, but the founders sold all the same, and the buyer's priorities now set the direction.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration: the federal agency that sets and enforces workplace safety rules. OSHA citations are public, and a pattern of violations shows how a company treats worker safety when it thinks no one is watching.

Investment firms that buy established companies outright (often using borrowed money) with a plan to boost profits and sell the company again within about five to seven years. That short clock is why PE ownership so often means cost-cutting, price hikes, and rapid expansion.

A company whose shares anyone can buy on a stock exchange like the NYSE or NASDAQ. Public companies have to report their finances every quarter, good for transparency, but the pressure to hit those quarterly numbers can crowd out longer-term thinking.

A "real estate investment trust": a company that exists to own income-producing property and pass the rent through to shareholders. Some chains sell their buildings to REITs and lease them back, which raises cash today but locks locations into rent forever.

A strategy of buying many small companies in one industry and combining them into a single larger one. Each purchase looks minor enough on its own to pass without regulatory attention, which is rather the point, while the assembled result can quietly dominate a local market.

An emissions-reduction goal verified by the Science Based Targets initiative to actually match what climate science requires. A verified target means real math behind the promise; a self-declared "net zero pledge" often doesn't.

Growing fast enough that revenue outpaces costs: the thing investors push for. "Scaling" is why a beloved two-location brand suddenly has forty locations and doesn't feel the same: what scales is rarely the thing you loved about it.

The three tiers of a company's carbon footprint: what it burns directly, the energy it buys, and everything else across its supply chain and its products in use. Scope 3 is usually the overwhelming majority and the easiest to leave out, so a target covering only Scopes 1 and 2 promises far less than it sounds like.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency governing how companies raise money and report on themselves. Filings made to it are sworn and public, which makes SEC records the most reliable ownership evidence available, and makes their absence a real signal too.

A short filing a company submits after raising money privately, naming roughly how much it sold and when. It is frequently the only public proof that a raise happened at all, which is why finding no Form D on file does genuine work in our research.

The named rounds of venture capital funding, each raising more money at a (hopefully) higher valuation. The further down the alphabet a company gets, the more investor money it has to eventually pay back, almost always through an exit.

When a company and an accuser resolve a legal dispute by agreement instead of a trial, almost always without the company admitting it did anything wrong. A settlement means the case is closed, not that the underlying claim was ever proven true.

The rules a brand publishes for the factories it buys from, covering wages, hours, and safety. Publishing one is the low bar. What matters is whether anyone checks against it, and what actually happens to a supplier that fails.

An inspection carried out by an outside organization rather than by the company itself. It is the difference between a claim and a verified one, though even a real audit is usually scheduled in advance and covers one site on one day.

The gap between a state's regular minimum wage and the lower base wage employers are allowed to pay tipped workers, on the assumption that tips make up the difference. When tips fall short, the employer is legally required to cover the gap, but that rule is rarely enforced without a worker filing a complaint.

When a founder sells the rights to the brand name itself and then keeps running the business under it. Licensing rents a name out; this hands it over for good, so the person behind the counter can be the original founder while the name above the door belongs to someone else.

A charge filed with the NLRB alleging an employer broke labor law, often by firing, threatening, or surveilling workers who were organizing. One filing is an accusation rather than a finding, but a stack of them landing during a single union campaign is a pattern worth reading.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office, where brand names are registered. Its records are public and dated, so they can show that a familiar name quietly changed hands years ago, or that the company trading under it never owned it at all.

What a company is theoretically worth, set each time investors buy in. A high valuation sounds like success, but it's really a promise: the company now has to grow into that number, or else.

Funds that buy ownership stakes in young companies, betting a few will grow enormous enough to pay for all the ones that fail. VC-backed brands face constant pressure to expand fast, which can end up mattering more than what customers or workers want.

A federal law requiring companies with 100 or more employees to give 60 days' notice before a mass layoff or plant closing. A WARN filing is a matter of public record, so it's often the first real evidence of a quiet post-acquisition headcount cut.