Trust center
How FirstBearing handles AI guidance, approved sources, safety checks, and escalation.AI-generated guidance is for educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Model limitations
Our assistant is built for first-time founders. It is not a lawyer, CPA, lender, or government agency.
- Educational guidance only. Recommendations help you understand options and next steps. They are not legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice.
- No guarantees. The assistant cannot promise funding approval, grant awards, loan terms, regulatory clearance, or business outcomes.
- Jurisdiction matters. Formation, tax, and compliance answers require your state on file. Without it, state-specific filing steps are blocked.
- You stay in control. We do not file government forms, submit grant applications, or sign contracts on your behalf unless you complete official steps yourself.
- Human review for high risk. Topics with legal or financial consequences are queued for human review before you should rely on them beyond education.
- May be incomplete or outdated. Programs, deadlines, and rules change. Always confirm on the official source linked in each answer before acting.
Update cadence
We publish when key data and policies were last refreshed so you know what may be stale.
- Funding catalog: Daily incremental sync from Grants.gov, SBA, and configured state portals.
- AI citation sources: Curated source list reviewed at least quarterly; individual source last-verified dates shown below.
- Legal documents: Terms, Privacy, and AI disclosure versions are dated (2026-09-02) and logged on consent.
- Policy & guardrails: Updated with product releases; high-risk outputs always require human review.
Source policy
Operational AI guidance may only cite approved sources: official government pages (.gov), official regulator or vendor help centers, and first-party FirstBearing disclosures we control. Answers with actionable compliance steps require at least one citation; most guidance includes two or more.
Blocked by default
- Random blogs or SEO articles cited as legal authority
- Unlicensed proprietary PDFs or paywalled content we do not own
- Forum posts, social threads, or anonymous Q&A as primary compliance sources
- Unverified third-party “guaranteed approval” marketing pages
Approved sources (14)
| Source | Type | Last verified |
|---|---|---|
| SBA — Launch your business Official SBA guide covering planning, structure, and launch steps. | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| SBA — Fund your business SBA overview of loans, grants, and funding paths. Approval is never guaranteed. | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| SBA loan programs Federal small-business loan programs and eligibility basics. | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| Grants.gov Federal grant opportunities. Deadlines and eligibility vary by program. | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| IRS — Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) Official IRS EIN application. Free on IRS.gov. | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| IRS — Small business and self-employed tax center IRS hub for small-business tax topics. | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| Colorado Secretary of State — Business filing Official Colorado business entity filing portal. Jurisdictions: CO | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| California Secretary of State — Business Programs Official California business filing programs. Jurisdictions: CA | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| Texas Secretary of State — Business & Nonprofit Forms Official Texas formation forms and filing information. Jurisdictions: TX | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| New York Department of State — Corporations Official New York corporation and LLC filing information. Jurisdictions: NY | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) Official Florida business filing system. Jurisdictions: FL | Government | 2026-09-02 |
| Google Business Profile help Official Google help for listing and managing a Business Profile. | Official | 2026-09-02 |
| FirstBearing Trust Center FirstBearing AI limitations, source policy, and escalation contacts. | FirstBearing | 2026-09-02 |
| FirstBearing Disclosures Product disclaimers — not legal, tax, or investment advice. | FirstBearing | 2026-09-02 |
Machine-readable list: /api/sources/allowed
Safety & human review
Every recommendation runs pre- and post-generation policy checks, schema validation, and guardrails that block banned claims and auto-insert disclaimers by risk level. Questions asking for guarantees or state-specific filing steps without jurisdiction on file are blocked and replaced with safe next steps.
High-risk topics (formation, tax, funding predictions) are flagged and queued for human review. Treat queued answers as education only until you confirm with a licensed professional.
Document versions
- Terms of Service — 2026-09-02
- Privacy Policy — 2026-09-02
- AI disclosure — 2026-09-02
Contact & escalation
You're viewing guidance that may have legal or financial consequences. Consult a licensed professional before taking action.
- Product & billing support — Account access, subscriptions, refunds, and technical issues.
- AI safety concern — Report a harmful, misleading, or policy-violating AI response.
- Licensed professional — For filings, taxes, contracts, or investment decisions — consult an attorney, CPA, or advisor in your jurisdiction.
- support@firstbearing.org — General support; include your account email and relevant screenshots.