The research
Every idea is stress-tested before it can go on sale.
What each check tries to prove
1,444 ideas in. 1,364 rejected.
94.5% rejected on cited evidence. We publish the ones that didn't pass too, with the reason each one failed.
- Ideas in
- 1,444
- Killed on cited evidence
- 1,364
- Died at a gate
- 94.5%
Why most ideas fail our checks.
Every check that killed something, in the order of how much it killed, with the number taken off the total each time.
- Ideas researched
- 1,444
- Did not score high enough to be viable
- −624
- 820
- Too much existing competition
- −203
- 617
- No proof the business could protect against copycats
- −191
- 426
- Failed our second round of deep research
- −142
- 284
- The value to the customer would not last
- −83
- 201
- The target buyer lacks the budget
- −48
- 153
- Its own claims could not be sourced
- −26
- 127
- There is a legal landmine
- −16
- 111
- There is no route to the buyer
- −14
- 97
- The evidence behind it is out of date
- −7
- 90
- The pain is not real enough to pay for
- −7
- 83
- No sign anyone is trying to buy it
- −3
- What is available now
still alive at this gate gone available now
One idea, taken through the research
The idea that went in
Gig Deactivation Reversal Dossier
A productized service that builds a proven appeal pack for gig workers unjustly deactivated by platforms like Uber, DoorDash, or Instacart, using a proprietary dataset of successful appeal arguments and outcome patterns.
6 checks · 29 sources · verified 2026-08-15
- 01survived
Will the value last, or evaporate?
UK tribunal cases (Iqbal v Uber London, Hussein v Uber, Manjang v Uber Eats) demonstrate ongoing, contested deactivations within the UK gig economy, confirming the problem persists. US evidence that drivers 'rarely get reinstated' through internal appeals indicates platform processes remain opaque and unfavourable, sustaining demand for third-party advocacy.
- 02survived
Do incumbents already own the space?
The platform's own internal review is described as barely functional and one-sided for drivers, while Acas is a broad free employment-advice service with no evidence it covers contractor-on-platform disputes, and IWGB legal help is gated behind union membership and not presented as a specialist appeal engine.
- 03pushed back
Can the payer actually pay?
The public earnings data we could reach did not show what UK gig workers aged 18 to 27 actually take home, so we cannot prove the £49.99 price is comfortably affordable from this evidence alone. That is why this check reads pushed back, not survived.
ons.gov.uklatitudefinancial.com.aureachlink.comconsumeraffairs.com
- 04survived
Is there a route to reach the market?
These demonstrate that a solo operator can reach a large, self-identified buyer pool through low-friction routes (social groups, union networks), and the existence of a live US deactivation-help phone service further confirms the channel is executable.
liveapp.inews.co.ukinews.co.ukindependent.co.ukconsumerescalationservices.com
- 05pushed back
Is there a legal landmine?
The sources cover tribunal representation in general, and lay representatives are allowed. None of them rules directly on a paid appeal-writing service for gig deactivations, so we treat that as an open question rather than a clean pass, and the pack says so.
ms-solicitors.co.ukself-representation.org.ukworkingfamilies.org.ukassets.publishing.service.gov.ukbailii.orgtribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk
- 06survived
Is the pain real, or imagined?
UK tribunal cases show gig workers keep being deactivated and contesting it, including drivers locked out after automated checks. The problem is current, documented, and painful enough that workers organise and protest over it.
4 survived2 pushed back29 sources cited
Read the whole evidence recordThe checks, in order. One hard fail and it stops.
AI agents run the checks below. Each may only rule on sources it fetched from the open web, and those sources are published with the verdict, so you can hold the reasoning against them yourself. A person reads that record before a pack goes on sale.
Value
CHC Appeal Builder · Beacon runs the NHS-funded national Free Information & Advice Service for Continuing Healthcare in England, giving families unlimited free front-line advice plus up to 90 minutes of free personalised advice from a specialist adviser, including how to challenge an eligibility decision, and it was reconfirmed as the national provider.
83 ideas stopped here · stopped by “The value would not last”
Room
The Brief Winnow · 7M+ jobs, 3300+ skills) that funnel freelancers into finding and bidding on work, leaving no clearly open lane for a curated-brief scoring newsletter.
203 ideas stopped here · stopped by “The space is already taken”
Payer
Sound Check Rounds, the monthly noise test that keeps a small music venue's licence safe · 5%, and the only other relevant note describes UK hospitality businesses as struggling, with an insolvency expert warning that a temporary spending lift offers just brief respite; on that evidence the buyer is financially squeezed rather than able to absorb a new recurring bill.
48 ideas stopped here · stopped by “The payer cannot actually pay”
Reach
RateProof, shows freelance creatives what to actually charge, built from quotes that won · None of the sources address freelancers, rate benchmarking, or proposals, they're about generic badge mechanics (Hacker News, uptime, translator profiles, carbon calculators) and unrelated marketing/SaaS launch topics, so they don't show a route to RateProof's specific buyer.
14 ideas stopped here · stopped by “There is no route to reach buyers”
Legal
SwapShift, the platform where NHS and care staff sell shifts they can't work to colleagues who want them · The sources state that UK law bars a business that finds people work from charging those workers a fee for it, with an exception only for entertainment and modelling, and the idea's stated income is a percentage taken from the health and care workers on each shift it matches.
16 ideas stopped here · stopped by “There is a legal landmine”
Then a second wave of research attacks the survivor.
They hunt for contradictions, weak citations, and gaps the first pass missed. The evidence record survives only if every objection is answered by evidence already on file. No new research, no hand-waving.
Silence in the record means unverifiable, never false. The agents only rule on pages they actually fetched.
A check that is pushed back means the check found nothing decisive either way. The idea continued, and the doubt stays on the record where you can read it. It is drawn in amber, never red. Red means killed.
Then a person reviews it.
Automating the finding, the checking and the sourcing is what lets every idea get the same treatment, instead of the handful a person could read. But nothing goes on sale on its own: a person reads the verdict, opens the sources, and checks the argument holds before a pack is published.
The reviewer can send a pack back or kill it outright. What they cannot do is add evidence the record does not have. The verdict you read is the one the published sources support.
Rejected ideas
Every published kill names the check it failed and the argument that killed it, with the sources behind that argument where there were any.
Read the rejected ideasThe honest limits
A pack is evidence-backed research, not a promise of business success. The finding, vetting and sourcing is done. The execution is yours. No analysis can promise a business outcome.