Customer evidence and reference calls
What records show a customer relationship, what a reference call is, and what the FTC endorsement guides and review rule say when a customer's words go public.
General information as of October 10, 2026. It is education written by World Enterprise Editorial, not legal or financial advice, and not an offer or solicitation of any kind. It describes United States federal sources only. A lawyer can say what applies to your customers, your agreements and your pages.
A founder says “customers like it.” A reader of the company’s materials has a reasonable follow-up: which customers, and how would anyone know? This article separates three things that get called customer evidence, describes the records the site’s own materials point to, and reads the Federal Trade Commission’s text on what changes when a customer’s words are used in public. It does not describe any World Enterprise customer, and it makes no claim about what any reader will ask for.
Three different things
The three terms below are an editorial way of sorting, not terms from a statute.
| Kind | What it is | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Records | Notes, logs, agreements and pilot scopes that show what a customer did or committed to | The company, and readers it chooses to share them with |
| A reference call | A conversation in which someone outside the company asks a customer about their experience | The person asking, with the customer’s agreement |
| A public quote or review | A customer’s words or rating placed on a page, a deck or a platform | Anyone who sees the page |
The first is the founder’s own record. The second puts a customer in direct contact with a third party. The third is advertising or promotion, which brings in the rules read below. The same sentence about a customer can sit in a private note, in a reference call or on a page, and the sources below treat the last of these differently.
The records the site’s materials point to
The investor readiness checklist includes the statement “I know how my first customers found the product, and what each one committed to or paid for,” and names the artifact: a customer conversation log. Another statement concerns interviews, with the customer interview guide as the template. The guide’s note sheet records the person’s name or a code, role, date and length, the facts they stated, exact phrases worth quoting later, surprises, and follow-ups promised.
The guide to the seed data room describes a customers folder holding a list of customers and pilots, the signed pilot scopes, and a summary of the conversation log. It adds that personal data about customers does not belong in a data room, and that a document with personal data is a matter to ask counsel about before it is shared.
The article on evidence over narrative gives the underlying reasoning: a claim is a statement, and evidence is something a reviewer can open and check. “Customers love the product” is a claim. A dated log of what each customer did, with the agreement behind it, is a record. The article on customer discovery interviews describes how the notes are taken.
What a reference call is
A reference call is not defined in any source read for this article, and none of them says whether or when a reader will ask for one. As a description, it is a conversation arranged between a customer and a third party in which the customer speaks from their own experience. Several matters can be settled with counsel before one is arranged:
- Agreement to be contacted. Whether the customer has said yes, to whom, and in what form. The interview guide closes by asking whether the founder may contact the person with follow-up questions, which is a different thing from agreeing to speak to someone else.
- Confidentiality terms. Whether a customer agreement limits what the customer may say about the product or the relationship, and whether it limits what the company may say about the customer.
- Personal data. Which details about the customer, or the customer’s own users, can be shared in the conversation and which cannot.
- Whose words they are. A reference is the customer’s account. If the founder scripts it, or offers the customer something for it, the conversation shows something different, and counsel can say whether the legal position changes too.
When a customer’s words go public
A quote on a website, a rating on a platform or a line on a slide is different, because it is promotional. Three FTC texts address it.
The endorsement guides. The guides at 16 CFR part 255 define an endorsement as any advertising, marketing or promotional message for a product that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings or experiences. The same section says the guides are administrative interpretations of the law and that practices inconsistent with them may result in corrective action by the Commission under section 5 of the FTC Act.
Section 255.1 sets out what such a message may and may not do:
- Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs or experience of the endorser.
- The section addresses an advertisement that represents that it is presenting the endorser’s exact words, and says the endorsement may not be presented out of context or reworded so as to distort in any way the endorser’s opinion.
- When the advertisement represents that the endorser uses the product, the endorser must have been a bona fide user at the time the endorsement was given.
- Advertisers are subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements, and an advertiser may be liable even when the endorser is not.
Connections. Section 255.5 says a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement, and that the audience does not reasonably expect, must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. It lists as material connections a business, family or personal relationship, monetary payment, free or discounted products, and benefits such as early access to a product or the possibility of being paid. Whether a founder’s relationship with a customer, or a free pilot, counts as a connection of that kind is a question for counsel.
The review rule. The FTC’s rule at 16 CFR part 465 addresses fake and false reviews. Section 465.1 defines a consumer review as a consumer’s, or purported consumer’s, evaluation of a product, service or business that is published to a website or platform dedicated in whole or in part to receiving and displaying such evaluations, and says it includes ratings whether or not they have text. Section 465.2 says it is an unfair or deceptive act or practice and a violation of the part for a business to write, create or sell a consumer review in the circumstances the section sets out. One of them is a review that misrepresents that the reviewer exists, or that the reviewer used or otherwise had experience with the product. It reaches a business that buys a consumer review, and one that procures a consumer review from its officers, managers, employees or agents, or any of their immediate relatives, for posting on a third-party platform or website, when the business knew or should have known the review materially misrepresented. The rule also defines an advertising or promotional message, including verbal statements, demonstrations or depictions, and counsel can say which of them reach a particular page.
Paragraph (d) of section 465.2 says the provisions on bought and procured reviews do not apply to reviews that resulted from generalized solicitations to purchasers to post reviews, or to a business merely hosting reviews. Whether a particular quote, rating or request is inside or outside either text is a legal question.
Where this connects to the rest of the company
The same sentence on a pricing page, in a deck or in an email is a statement the company is making, and a reader can compare it against the log, as the article on ordering a pre-seed evidence pack describes. The article on terms of service and privacy policy covers a related rule on contract clauses that restrict customers’ reviews.
Questions to bring to counsel
The questions to ask your counsel before you sign is a general list. For customer evidence:
- Which customers have agreed to be contacted, by whom, and where is that recorded?
- Do any customer agreements limit what either side may say about the other?
- Which customer details in our log or summary are personal data, and what must be removed before sharing?
- Are any of our customers connected to us, as family, investors, employees or free pilots, and does that need disclosing anywhere?
- Does any public page quote or paraphrase a customer, and can we show the person said it and used the product?
- Have we ever offered anything in exchange for a review or a quote, and how do the rules above treat it?
- Who updates the log, and who checks that the numbers on our pages match it?
What this article cannot tell you
It does not say who to ask for a reference, how many customers are enough, or whether a reader will care. It makes no claim about any real customer of World Enterprise, and it names none.
It reads five FTC sections. State law, other countries’ rules, platform rules, and sector rules for finance or health are outside its scope, and it does not describe penalties, enforcement outcomes or how any rule has been applied.
The sources were read on October 10, 2026. Rules are amended, so a decision should rest on the current text and on counsel who has seen the pages and agreements concerned.
In the data
These figures describe U.S. businesses in general, not WE’s results. Each one names its source.
Show the data as a table
| Firm age | Share of jobs and of firms, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Age 0 to 5 | 10.7% of jobs, 36.2% of firms |
| Age 6 to 10 | 7.8% of jobs, 16.4% of firms |
| Age 11 to 15 | 6.8% of jobs, 10.9% of firms |
| Age 16 to 25 | 12.4% of jobs, 15.9% of firms |
| Age 26 and older | 24.2% of jobs, 15.4% of firms |
| Founded before 1977 (exact age not measured) | 38.1% of jobs, 5.4% of firms |
The Census Bureau cannot date firms born before 1977, so they are shown on their own; every one of them was at least 45 years old in 2023.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics, firm age , 1978 to 2023
Retrieved 2026-10-16. Each share is the sum of the published employment (or firm) counts of the age classes in the group, divided by the sum over all classes, which equals the economy-wide total in bds2023.csv.
Sources
- 16 CFR section 255.0: Purpose and definitions, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- 16 CFR section 255.1: General considerations, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- 16 CFR section 255.5: Disclosure of material connections, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- 16 CFR section 465.1: Definitions, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
- 16 CFR part 465, section 465.2, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School . Accessed October 10, 2026.
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