AI assistants for founders range from general chatbots to tools built around your own company facts. They behave very differently when your team relies on them. This checklist helps you choose without needing to understand the technology.
1. Where do the answers come from?
Ask whether the assistant answers from facts you approved, from documents you uploaded, or from everything it learned in training. The closer to your approved facts, the safer it is for questions about your own company.
2. What happens when it does not know?
This is the most important test. Ask it something you never wrote down. A trustworthy assistant says it does not know and points to a person. One that invents a confident answer will eventually cause harm.
3. Who can see your data?
- Is private information limited to you and the teammates you choose?
- Can you delete everything, including any voice recordings?
- Is the privacy policy specific about what is stored and for how long?
4. Does each answer have an owner and a date?
Answers go stale. Look for a tool that shows where each answer came from and when it was last confirmed, so you can correct it quickly.
5. Is it clearly labelled as AI?
Your team and your customers should always know when they are talking to an AI. Be wary of any tool that hides it.
6. How easy is it to fix a mistake?
Mistakes will happen. Check how you see them, correct the underlying fact, and stop the error repeating. If fixing means retraining something you cannot see, that is a warning sign.
Where AskMyStartup fits
AskMyStartup is an AI clone built around these six points: approved facts only, an honest I do not know, labelling as AI, and your control of the data. It is in private beta, so this is not a claim that it suits everyone. You can join the waitlist from the buttons on this page.