Looking for a founder background check?

If you landed here searching for a way to vet a founder before writing a check or making an offer, here's what Potentia is — and isn't.

What Potentia is not

Potentia is not a criminal record, credit, or employment-verification background check, and it's not a substitute for one where those are legally required (some hiring and lending decisions require FCRA-style checks by law — see our disclaimer). It doesn't search court records or verify identity documents.

What it actually is

A consent-based Growth Readiness Score — ten factors covering story, execution, traction, and network fit, built from accounts and data the founder explicitly agrees to connect (GitHub, X, LinkedIn, pitch deck, company site). Nothing is read before they consent. It answers a narrower, more useful question than a background check: not "is this person who they say they are", but "does this founder's real activity back up the pitch".

Why consent-based beats a silent lookup

• A founder who agrees to be checked and connects their own accounts can't later say they were blindsided by what you found.
• You see real activity (commit history, actual traction signals) instead of a public-search summary that might be a different person with the same name.
• It's fast — most founders connect within minutes of getting the link.

Want the honest, public-search-only version instead? Try the free Public Footprint Check — no consent required because it only looks at what's already public. For the real thing, see pricing or read how the score is built on the methodology page.