Editorial Independence and Disclosures

Last updated: June 8, 2026

The one fact everything else depends on

How Zorzee makes money

Zorzee is funded by its readers and by fully disclosed relationships, never by the brands it covers. Revenue comes from paid Zorzee Pro subscriptions, one-time Zorzee Files digital products, future service-provider sponsorships, referral compensation if Zorzee ever routes a reader to an approved consultant, and disclosed-ownership relationships with companies Dan runs. The free Zorzee Report is supported by those reader-funded products. None of it is a franchisor, and every arrangement is disclosed.

If Zorzee ever accepts sponsorship, sponsors will be limited to service providers a buyer might use, such as SBA lenders, franchise attorneys, and insurers. Franchisors will never sponsor Zorzee, never advertise on it, and never pay for coverage or placement. That is permanent.

How brands are chosen for coverage

A brand appears on Zorzee because it has a publicly filed Franchise Disclosure Document, and because it sits on a prominent industry ranking list that makes it relevant to buyers. Coverage is not bought and is not for sale. A franchisor cannot pay to be added, and cannot pay to be removed or softened.

Reporting on a brand before we publish

Before publishing critical analysis that names a brand, Zorzee gives that franchisor advance notice and the opportunity to respond, and notes their response or non-response. We do not give brands edit rights over our analysis and we do not soften it for them.

Guerrilla Franchising: the disclosure that matters most

Dan Lorenz also runs a franchise consulting practice called Guerrilla Franchising. It operates on a commission model: when a candidate Dan works with finds and invests in the right franchise, the franchisor pays Guerrilla Franchising. The candidate pays nothing, and pays the same franchise fee whether they work with Guerrilla Franchising or not.

We are going to be precise about this, because the relationship is closer than a footnote can carry. Zorzee and Guerrilla Franchising are commonly owned. Both operate under the same umbrella, Synyrgx, and Dan owns both. They are not separate companies, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

So the independence is editorial, not corporate. Here is how that holds:

• Zorzee earns nothing from Guerrilla Franchising, and the analysis Zorzee publishes earns nothing regardless of what any reader does with it.
• The Zorzee analysis a reader arrives with was produced with no stake in the outcome. That is the firewall, and it sits inside common ownership on purpose.
• This is the model Wirecutter runs inside The New York Times: the reviews are produced independently of the business that monetizes the audience, even though the two are commonly owned, because the independence is the asset.

The disclosure is permanent. If common ownership creates a conflict in your mind, the analysis on this site earned us nothing regardless.

Books Brothers

Books Brothers is a franchise financial intelligence firm co-founded by Dan Lorenz with Brian Harrison. Unlike Guerrilla Franchising, it is a separate, independent company and is not part of the Synyrgx umbrella. It does not pay Zorzee, and Zorzee earns nothing from it. It is disclosed here only because Dan uses it with his own consulting clients.

The Zorzee Approved Consultant program

Zorzee vets the consultants it is willing to point readers to. Every consultant in the program is qualified against one standard before anything else: would this person advise a buyer the way they would advise their own family. The consultants are independent of Zorzee. They set their own terms and their own payment structures, which each consultant discloses directly, and their accountability runs to the reader. Zorzee does not charge readers for a referral. If Zorzee is ever compensated for routing a reader to a consultant, that arrangement will be disclosed here before it goes live.

Corrections

We correct factual errors promptly. Email dan@zorzee.com.