Editorial policy

What we cover

The Rising Story reports on early-stage Indian founders — pre-seed, bootstrapped, and building outside the metros. We write about companies the larger publications do not reach, which means most of our subjects have never been covered before.

How we choose stories

Coverage is decided by us and no one else. Founders can pitch us, and we read every pitch, but a pitch is not a promise. We do not run coverage in exchange for access, advertising, equity, or the possibility of any of them later.

What we ask of a story

Every story we publish is expected to contain:

• A specific moment that was genuinely difficult, described concretely
• Real numbers, attributed and dated
• A real decision — something the founder chose not to do, and why
• What is still not working
• The founder’s own words, quoted rather than paraphrased

The fourth item is the one that matters most. A story with no unresolved problem in it is publicity, not journalism, and we will not run it.

Fact-checking

Figures come from filings, company statements, or our own reporting, and every funding record we publish carries its source. We check names, titles, dates and amounts before publication. Where a company declines to confirm a number, we say so rather than printing it unattributed.

Corrections

We correct errors openly. A material change to a published story gets a dated note at the bottom of that story explaining what changed. We do not silently edit published work. Our full approach is on the corrections page.

Paid content

Coverage is currently free, and nobody has paid for a story on this site.

If that changes, any story involving payment — or any other consideration, including free product, equity or barter — will carry a clear label at the top of the page and on every social post promoting it, in line with the ASCI code. Paid stories will live on a separate URL path, will be excluded from our news feeds, and outbound links in them will be marked so they pass no search ranking value.

Paid placement will never buy favourable framing, and it will never buy the removal of a critical story.

Conflicts of interest

Anyone writing for The Rising Story must disclose any financial interest, advisory role or close personal relationship with a company they cover. Where a conflict cannot be avoided, it is disclosed in the story itself.

Right of reply

Anyone criticised in a story is given a fair opportunity to respond before publication, and their response is carried in the piece. If we could not reach them, we say that too.

Sources

We prefer on-the-record sourcing. Where we grant anonymity — usually because a source risks their job or an investor relationship — we explain in the story why it was granted. We do not publish anonymous criticism of a named individual without corroboration.

Getting in touch

Corrections, complaints and right-of-reply requests go to desk@therisingstory.com. We aim to respond within three working days.