What it measures
LTDs are a long-tail relationship. The price is paid once, the product is supposed to keep working forever. The founder's behavior — not the marketing copy — predicts whether forever actually happens. The index tracks that behavior across four dimensions.
The four dimensions (each scored 0–25)
- Communication cadence (0–25) — frequency and quality of founder updates on the LemDeals vendor channel, public changelog, or community thread. Silence is scored 0, monthly substantive updates 25.
- Refund behavior (0–25) — refund-approval rate and median time-to-refund for buyer-initiated requests within the 90-day window. Above 95% approval and < 5 days median = 25. Disputed or stalled refunds = 0.
- Roadmap honesty (0–25) — how often a publicly committed roadmap item ships versus how often it silently disappears. Tracked via diff of the vendor's public roadmap over rolling 90-day windows.
- Post-LTD follow-through (0–25) — what happens after the deal closes. Are tier limits honored? Are codes redeemable? Is the original feature set still in place? Tier limit reductions or paywalled re-launches = 0.
How the score updates
Scores recompute weekly from underlying signals. A founder cannot dispute the score, but they can respond to the inputs: ship updates, approve refunds, honor commitments.
Score bands
- 85–100 — Trusted founder. Eligible for highlighted placements.
- 60–84 — Standard. The majority of vendors.
- 30–59 — Watch. Surfaced as a buyer warning.
- 0–29 — At-risk. New deals paused until score recovers above 30.
Where it appears
On the vendor scorecard, in editorial pieces that name a founder, and as a filter on the catalog. The methodology page (this page) is linked from every editorial use of the index, so the score stays attributable.
See also: vendor risk bands and editorial policy.