This page covers the check before outreach, for a partner who spots a familiar company under an unfamiliar name. If the name changes after you have introduced the company, use the entity continuity log for a mid-review rename. If credit is questioned later, the rebrand evidence packet shows what to send.
Three kinds of name change, and the trace each leaves
A new logo can sit on top of three very different events. The public trace usually tells you which one you are looking at.
| What changed | Public trace | What usually carries across | What to confirm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trading name only (a DBA or trade name) | New website and signage; the registered legal name stays the same | Entity, owner, CEO and systems | That the legal name behind the brand is the one you knew |
| Registered legal name | A registry entry showing the former name | The entity and its contracts | That control and the CEO did not change at the same time |
| A sale or merger with a new brand on top | An announcement naming a buyer or a combination | Possibly nothing you relied on | Who controls the records now and who the CEO is |
The first two leave the company itself in place. The SBA notes that a DBA is also called a trade name, fictitious name or assumed name, that most states require you to register one if you use it, and that registering it gives no legal protection by itself. In the UK, section 81 of the Companies Act 2006 says a change of a company's name takes effect when the new certificate of incorporation is issued and does not affect the company's rights or obligations. A new name on the same entity is still the same company, which is why its earlier years remain its history. The third row is different: the brand may be new because the owner is.
The rename is a clue; your relationship is the path
A rebrand gives you a dated, public reason to get back in touch: the announcement, a new domain, a renamed company page. It tells you the leadership made a visible decision recently. It does not tell you who owns the company now, whether records survived any system changes that came with the new identity, or whether the CEO you knew still decides.
The path is whoever you actually know there. If you worked with the founder-CEO under the old name and she still runs the company, the rebrand is a conversation opener and nothing more. If you knew a manager who has since left, the new brand may sit on a company where nobody remembers you. That is a no-contact case, however familiar the old name feels.
The brand continuity verification sheet
Fill one sheet per company. Each thread gets a status: observed (public and dated), inferred (your reading of public material), confirmed (the CEO or sponsor said so) or unknown.
| Thread | The question | Where the answer can come from | Needed before you ask the CEO | Needed before you submit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Entity | Is the legal entity behind the new brand the one behind the old? | Registry entry; the legal name in the website footer or terms page | Observed | Confirmed |
| 2. Control | Does the same owner control it? | Ownership registers where public; the company's own announcement | Observed or inferred | Confirmed |
| 3. CEO | Is the person who decides the one you know? | The leadership page; your contact | Observed | Confirmed |
| 4. Operations and records | Do the same teams run the same work, with pre-rebrand records still in systems the company controls? | Only the company, at metadata level | Unknown is acceptable | Confirmed |
| 5. History with SourceX | Has the company applied, held an account, been a lead or corresponded with SourceX under either name? | Only the CEO and SourceX | Unknown is acceptable | Asked |
Thread 2 is easiest in the UK. Companies House guidance treats an individual holding more than one quarter of the voting rights as a person with significant control, and most PSC details are on the public register apart from home addresses and full dates of birth. Elsewhere, thread 2 often rests on the company's announcement until the CEO confirms it.
Thread 4 matters most for licensing, because operating history is what SourceX would review. A rebrand that came with a new website, domain or software can retire old systems; the operator's side of that is set out in rebranding after an acquisition without losing the archive. Ask only whether the older records are still held and where, never for a sample.
Read the finished sheet this way:
- All five threads hold. Ask the CEO, and give SourceX both names and the date of the change.
- Entity and records hold, but the CEO changed. The new CEO decides. Find someone who knows them, or park the company.
- Entity or control changed. Treat it as a company you have not verified yet: start with the legal name, domain and controller crosswalk and the questions to ask after an acquisition.
- Thread 5 comes back yes. Section 3 of the terms treats a company with any earlier application, relationship, lead, account or email correspondence with SourceX as a duplicate, and says a company SourceX already knew is not a new company and is not credited. The company can still talk to SourceX; your introduction will not earn credit.
Three rebrands run through the sheet (Illustrative)
A. Same company, new name. A 160-person HVAC services company replaced its founder's surname with a regional brand in 2025. The website footer still shows the same legal entity, the founder is still CEO, and you were its outsourced controller until 2023. Threads 1 to 3 are observed. On a call, the CEO confirms that field-service and dispatch records go back to 2011 in the same system and that the company has never contacted SourceX. Introduce it under both names.
B. A new brand after a sale (no contact). A 240-person regional freight broker now trades under a roll-up group's name after the group bought it. The announcement names the buyer, the founder you knew left at closing and the group's CEO now decides. Nobody you know reaches that CEO. Thread 3 fails and there is no path, so record "no contact" with the date and stop. Writing to the new brand's general address would reach whoever reads it, not the person who decides.
C. Warm, renamed and not a fit. A 40-person digital agency, a former client, merged its two trading names into one brand. Every thread holds and the owner is keen. It has never had 50 full-time employees, and most of its work product sits in client accounts under client ownership. Record "no fit"; revisit only if full-time headcount passes 50 and the agency holds records of its own.
What the new website shows and what only the CEO can confirm
For case A, the sheet's statements carry these statuses:
| Statement about the company | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Same company, new name since May 2025 | Observed | The company's dated announcement |
| Legal entity unchanged | Observed | Registry entry and the website's terms page |
| Founder still controls it | Inferred | Leadership page; no ownership change announced |
| Records from before the rename are intact | Confirmed on the call | The CEO's own description, at metadata level |
| About 160 full-time employees at peak | Estimated | Website says 150-plus team members; CEO to confirm |
| No earlier contact with SourceX | Asked; CEO says none | SourceX decides from its own records |
An inferred line never becomes confirmed by repetition. It moves only when the CEO or sponsor states it, and a public page that says "150-plus" is a range, not a headcount.
Ask the CEO, then submit both names
Once the sheet supports an ask, the CEO decides. Your contact may sponsor the work, but the CEO authorizes a licensing discussion and signs for the company. Before you submit, these facts need an owner and a status:
- Size. 50+ full-time employees at peak, contractors excluded.
- History. Several years of documented operations, which for a renamed company include its years under the old name.
- Rights. Records the company owns or can license without breaching client confidentiality, employee privacy or third-party contracts. Records owned by its clients usually fall outside the program, and SourceX's rights review decides.
- Location. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 70% of the data is in English.
Submit the legal name, both brand names, the date of the change and the contact the CEO approved. That is enough for SourceX to match the company across names; send no records, registry downloads or internal documents. SourceX settles credit from dated records: it belongs to the first valid introduction of a company that is new to SourceX, made inside the 90-day attribution window, and it is granted when that company submits a verified application. You need a signed SourceX Channel Partner Agreement on file before the submission goes in.
If the new brand belongs to a larger group, the parent and its subsidiaries count as one referred company: the USD 50,000 floor applies once across the group, on its first qualifying transaction, and further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months pay 15%, however many of them license. The published terms do not say whether a sister company's earlier dealings with SourceX, or another partner's introduction of a group company, change your credit; that call is made in SourceX's duplicate review, so promise the CEO neither outcome.
Next step
Refer a company. No cap on rewards. Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
If the sheet for a renamed company shows one continuous entity, a reachable CEO and no earlier contact with SourceX, open a partner account for your tracked link, test the company against the published qualification rules and read the referral terms before both names go in; more sourcing guides sit in the guides library.