Crowdcube will ask for third-party supporting evidence to validate any material factual statements that are made in your pitch. User-generated sources, e.g. LinkedIn, CVs, personal calculations, are not accepted.
Here are some examples of claims and the type of evidence we require:
Example one:
Claim: The industry was worth €32 billion in 2017.
Evidence required: a copy (or URL) of a report from a reputable source, e.g. Euromonitor
Example two:
Claim: 8 years experience as a Director with PwC.
Evidence required:
Any of the following documents would be accepted as evidence for this claim:
- Employment reference to confirm your job title and length of employment directly from PwC,
- Employment/consultancy contract
- Biography on an independent site
- Company House records
Example three:
Claim: 3 years in experience in early-stage investment, with two trade sale exits.
In this statement, there are two claims that would need to be evidenced.
The first claim is '3 years experience in early-stage investment'.
Evidence required:
Any of the following documents would be accepted as evidence for this claim:
- Interview or mentions on a reputable media article
- Biography on an independent site
- Companies House records
The second claim is 'two trade sale exits'.
Evidence required:
Any of the following documents would be accepted as evidence for this claim:
- Interview or mentions on a reputable media article
- Biography on an independent site
- Sales contract
You can read more about how to ensure your pitch text can be verified, here.