GLOSSARY
Validation
Validation is the diligence step of calling existing (and former) franchisees to test what the franchisor's disclosures and salespeople have told you.
Franchisors provide the list of current owners in Item 20's exhibit — which means the process is partly curated by definition. The two most common validation mistakes: asking opinion questions ("do you like it?") instead of record questions ("Item 20 shows 11 units left last year — do you know why?"), and never reaching a former franchisee, whose contact information also appears in the FDD exhibits.
Every brand page here generates validation questions from that brand's own filings, so each answer can be checked against the public record.
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