How to Value Your Startup When You Have No Idea What It’s Worth

When it comes to raising money for your startup, the two biggest questions on every entrepreneur’s mind is “how much is my company worth?” and “how much equity am I ready to give to investors?” If you are a real boss, you’ll know exactly how much your company is worth without VCs complaining it’s valued too high, but you’ll also know how much to give away without selling yourself and your company short.

First, let’s start with the three typical ways to calculate your company’s value.

This approach is where you put a dollar price on all assets on your company’s balance sheet and add them all up for a grand total. What counts as an asset you ask? There are two types of assets- tangible, or anything that can be turned into cash quickly, and intangible, anything non-physical but adds value and reputation to your company.

Income valuation covers the value of your company by how much money it can/will make by projecting your company’s profitability. One way to do this is to calculate your company’s EBITDA, which is your net income (earnings) before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (business expenses). Everything you need to calculate EBITDA can be found on your company’s income and cash flow statement. It’s a fairly simple process, but while you should definitely have those figures in your pitch portfolio, it’s not considered the most accurate measure of your company’s value.

Where your company stands in the market also adds to its value. It’s the same as someone being born with certain advantages or disadvantages- in business, these traits are generally known as goodwill, the value of intangible assets, and can bump up your company’s valuation by millions.

When in doubt, you can also see how other companies did it. A simple Google search can tell you what comparable companies are worth, how much they were bought for, and other details to the kinds of deals that you might be looking for.

On the other hand however, most experienced VCs and Angel investors will probably tell you that there really isn’t a “right” way  to get your answer. Tim Chang, the Managing Director at the VC firm Mayfield Fund, shared some valuable points every entrepreneur should know when it comes to raising funds.

Tim explained that, “[There’s] Definitely no precise mathematical or formulaic answer.  The real answer is whatever you can sell potential investors on!” According to Tim, there are four key factors that make up the value of your company:

Rookie founders can also make a number of mistakes when looking for investment funds.  Tim explained the four biggest mistakes founders make when making deals with VCs:

According to Tim, this is the best way to hit a downround or “crunch” in your next round. “Sure, you can convince some dumb angel to give you $500,000 in a $20 million capped note, but when you (quickly) run out of your seed note and go pitching for a Series A with anything less than explosive organic traction, I’m going to look at your cap, laugh, and walk away. You’ll get the same reaction all up and down Sand Hill Road, and then realize that you’ll be pitching a second seed at greatly reduced valuation.”

While more money is always good, Tim explained why  getting too much too early is bad for your startup. “Remember that your valuation you raise at is the hurdle you pick for yourself to jump over at least two to three times higher for your next round.  Choose wisely, and think two steps (and two rounds) ahead.”

“Most entrepreneurs only focus on minimal dilution, sacrificing caliber of investor and gas in the tank in exchange. That’s fine, but your execution and product market-fit better be flawless for raising the next round!” If you raise money with your focus on giving away the least possible equity, you better have a killer product to back it up or you might not raise enough to even get to the next round- don’t get greedy now.

Tim explains that “top tier VCs want 20-30% ownership for early stage deals.” If you are raising funds from super-angels, look at letting go of 10%. “Wannabe angels with fake micro-funds may invest whatever just to be part of the action.  Each type of investor also has a minimum and maximum check size they can write.”

Each case is ultimately different though, as Tim explained, “For really capital intensive plays needing a lot of money before a product can be built, expect to give up 40-50% dilution between one to two VCs, unless you have a killer track record of prior hits. Otherwise, for seed and early stage deals that are more capital efficient, expect to give up 15-35% dilution depending upon the amount raised, buzz and traction.”