Ask a general chatbot a question about your company and it will answer. It has to: it is built to produce a reply. When the real answer is not in front of it, the reply is a guess that sounds sure. For a founder's team, that is the worst outcome, because someone acts on it.
Why approved facts change the behavior
An AI clone built on approved facts works from a short list of statements you have confirmed, each with a source and a date. If a question is not covered by that list, the honest result is to say so and point the teammate back to you. The limit is the feature: the clone can only be as confident as what you have approved.
A five-minute test before you trust it
- Ask three questions you know are covered and check the answers match what you approved.
- Ask one question you deliberately never covered, such as next quarter's hiring plan.
- Ask a question that sounds like a covered one but has a different answer.
- Check that every answer is labeled as coming from an AI.
- Write down every miss and approve the missing fact, or leave it out on purpose.
What good looks like
A good result is not an answer to everything. It is a clear answer when the fact exists, and a plain I do not know, ask the founder when it does not. Teams learn quickly to trust a system that admits its limits.
Where this is going
AskMyStartup is an AI clone built around these rules. It is in private beta, and you can join the waitlist with your email below.