The 5 to 9 publishes origin stories of businesses that started as side projects. This page explains how those stories are researched and written, and what we do when we get something wrong.
Sources
Every story is built from sources a reader can check. In order of preference, they are:
- What the founders said or wrote themselves: blog posts, interviews, talks, podcasts and public revenue updates.
- Reporting by publications that covered the company at the time.
- Later profiles and summaries, used only when the earlier sources do not cover a point.
The sources for each story are listed at the end of it, with links.
Numbers
Figures for revenue, prices, valuations and user counts always come from a named source. When the sources disagree, the story gives both figures and says where each one comes from. When a figure is an estimate by a third party rather than something the company or its founders confirmed, the story says so.
We do not round numbers up to make a story more impressive, and we do not present a valuation as revenue.
What qualifies a story
A business qualifies when its first version was built alongside a job, a degree or another business. Later funding, an acquisition or a failure does not change that. Before a story is written, we check that the side-project start is documented. If it is not, the story is dropped.
Corrections
If you find a mistake, write to [email protected] with the story and, if you can, a source. Factual corrections are made in the story itself. When a correction changes something important, such as a figure or a date, we add a note at the end of the story saying what changed.
How we use AI
AI tools help us find and organise sources, check facts against them and polish the writing. The research questions, the structure of each story and the conclusions are ours, and every figure is checked directly in its source before it is published.
All the images on The 5 to 9 are generated with AI, following the style, composition and idea set by the author. They are illustrations, not photographs, and they do not show real people.
Independence
No company featured on The 5 to 9 pays to appear or reviews its story before publication. See our disclosure for how the site is funded.