Terms & Definitions
What we mean when we use these terms.
Signum uses a small number of terms with specific meanings.
This page is the canonical public reference for how those terms are used across the website, Intelligence Brief Previews and licensed Intelligence Briefs.
Clear definitions help keep facts, analysis, uncertainty and commercial claims distinct.
Product & Marketplace
Customer
The account holder to which an Intelligence Brief is licensed.
Distribution Limit
The maximum number of customers to which a specific Intelligence Brief may be licensed.
At launch, each Intelligence Brief is licensed to no more than five customers.
Intelligence Brief
A company-specific opportunity assessment that explains why a company warrants closer review, the evidence and analysis supporting that assessment, and the information available to act on it.
An Intelligence Brief is not a financing application, credit decision or guarantee of a commercial outcome.
Intelligence Brief Preview
A purpose-built pre-purchase summary that allows an authenticated user to assess commercial fit without revealing enough information to reconstruct the company’s identity.
A Preview is not simply a complete Intelligence Brief with identifying information hidden or blacked out.
Brief License
The right granted to one customer to use a purchased Intelligence Brief under the applicable Purchase License.
Method
Correlation
A statistical relationship between two or more variables or observations.
Signum uses correlation to examine whether changes or events tend to occur together, move together, or appear in meaningful sequences.
Correlation can reveal a relationship, but does not by itself establish causation.
Intelligence
Information that has been organized, contextualized and analyzed so that it can support a commercial decision.
Multi-Signal Evaluation
The evaluation of multiple independent observations and signals together to determine whether the overall pattern warrants closer investigation.
Statistical methods, including correlation and Regression Analysis, may be used to evaluate relationships among those observations and historical outcomes.
No single observation qualifies a company for an Intelligence Brief.
Observation
A business fact or event identified from available information before Signum determines whether it is commercially meaningful.
Opportunity
A company-specific situation that, based on the available evidence and analysis, warrants closer commercial review.
An opportunity does not establish financing need, borrowing intent, creditworthiness or a guaranteed transaction.
Regression Analysis
A statistical method used to examine relationships between an outcome and one or more explanatory variables.
Signum uses Regression Analysis to study how observations, combinations of observations and their timing have historically related to later commercial outcomes.
Regression Analysis can help identify and evaluate meaningful patterns. It does not by itself prove that one event caused another.
Signal
An observation that becomes commercially relevant when evaluated in the context of the company, the commercial application and other evidence.
An observation is not automatically a signal, and a signal is not by itself proof of intent, need or future action.
Data describes what was found. Intelligence helps explain why it may matter.
Evidence
Derived
A reproducible calculation or comparison based on observed facts.
Evidence
Retained source material supporting a material factual statement.
Inferred
A reasoned interpretation supported by observed or derived information.
An inference is not presented as though it were directly stated in the underlying evidence.
Observed
Information stated directly in retained evidence.
Unknown
Information the available evidence does not establish.
Unknown does not mean false, absent, negative or disproven. Signum does not fill an unknown with an assumption.
Timing & Validation
Financing Freshness Checked Through
The latest coverage date used for the applicable financing-freshness review.
Research As-Of Date
The date through which the material facts and analysis in an Intelligence Brief were researched and reassessed.
Retrospective Validation
Retrospective validation examines whether conditions identified by the Signum methodology were followed by relevant observed outcomes. It provides evidence about the methodology’s historical behavior and timing, not proof of causation or a guarantee that any individual opportunity will produce a transaction.
Industry Validation Partner
Industry Validation Partner
An experienced industry practitioner who helps Signum evaluate whether a commercial application and its reasoning reflect real-world industry decision-making.
Participation does not constitute certification of Signum’s data, methodology or commercial outcomes.
Go deeper.
These definitions describe the terms Signum uses publicly. The related pages explain how the method, evidence standards and integrity boundaries work in practice.