How we value your startup
Our whole case is transparency. An early-stage valuation is a negotiation, and the founder who can explain exactly how a number was built negotiates from strength. So we publish the method in full — nothing here is a black box, and no AI touches the calculation.
Why five methods, not one
No single method values an early-stage company well. Qualitative methods capture the team and market when there is little financial history; exit- and cash-flow-based methods take over as revenue and forecasts become meaningful. We run all five and blend them, so no one method's blind spot dominates. Every figure traces to a stated assumption or a cited benchmark, and the engine is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same result.
The five methods
Scorecard
We start from the median pre-money valuation of comparable companies at your stage and region (the anchor), then multiply it by a weighted blend of six factor scores — team, market size, product/technology, competitive environment, traction and other — each rated against an average comparable company. A strong team on a large market lifts the anchor; a weak competitive position pulls it down. The low/high band comes straight from the 25th and 75th percentiles of the comparable set.
Checklist (Berkus-style)
The Berkus-style checklist assigns value to five qualitative building blocks — a sound idea, a quality team, a working product, strategic relationships and early traction — each worth up to a fifth of a stage-dependent cap. It is designed for pre-revenue and early-stage companies, so it is not applied at growth stage.
VC method (exit-based)
The VC method works backwards from an exit. We estimate an exit value (exit-year revenue or EBITDA × the typical exit multiple for your sector), divide by the return an investor at your stage typically underwrites to, and subtract the money you are raising now to get a pre-money. Where your projections stop short of the exit year, we extend them at a single disclosed growth rate.
DCF with survival adjustment
This discounted-cash-flow method discounts your projected free cash flow (derived from revenue, COGS, opex, capex and the change in working capital — we never ask for free cash flow directly) plus a conservative growing-perpetuity terminal value, at a stage-appropriate discount rate. It then multiplies the result by the probability a company at your stage survives to realise it — the survival haircut that keeps a DCF honest at seed stage.
DCF with multiple-based terminal value
The same discounted cash flow, but the terminal value is a market exit multiple applied to end-of-forecast revenue or EBITDA rather than a perpetuity. Because a market multiple already reflects companies that reached an exit, this method does not apply a separate survival haircut — it is the more optimistic bookend, and its weight is set accordingly.
How the methods are weighted
Each stage has a default weight per method, disclosed below. The weights shift from qualitative methods early to the financial methods later; if a method doesn't apply to your company, its weight is dropped and the rest are renormalised.
| Method | idea-stage | prototype-stage | pre-revenue | early-revenue | growth-stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scorecard | 40% | 40% | 30% | 20% | 10% |
| Checklist (Berkus-style) | 40% | 40% | 30% | 15% | 0% |
| VC method (exit-based) | 20% | 20% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| DCF with survival adjustment | 0% | 0% | 8% | 20% | 33% |
| DCF with multiple-based terminal value | 0% | 0% | 8% | 20% | 33% |
The range and the sensitivity check
We report a low–mid–high range, not a single number, because that is honest about the uncertainty. The mid is the weighted average of the methods' mid-points; the low and high are the weighted averages of each method's own band. We then re-run the whole blend moving one lever at a time — the discount rate by ±3 points, projected revenue by ±20%, and the comparable-company anchor by ±20% — so you can see which assumptions your valuation is most exposed to.
The benchmark data
The market reference points — comparable valuations, exit multiples, discount and survival rates — come from a hand-curated, versioned dataset (currently 2026-07 (2026-07-05)), refreshed on a regular cadence. There are no paid data feeds and no scraping; every figure is an indicative central tendency drawn from public sources:
- •British Business Bank — Small Business Equity Tracker 2025 (UK deal sizes & pre-money)
- •Beauhurst — UK startup valuations & stage benchmarks
- •Equidam — Valuation Delta / quarterly startup valuation reports
- •PitchBook — quarterly VC valuations reports (press summaries)
- •Prof. A. Damodaran (NYU Stern) — sector EV/Revenue & EV/EBITDA multiples, cost of capital
- •CB Insights — startup failure / survival by stage
- •D. Berkus — the Berkus Method (checklist caps rationale)
Limitations
This report is an indicative valuation analysis to help a founder prepare for and negotiate a fundraising round. It is NOT investment advice, NOT a recommendation to invest or to accept an investment, NOT a formal or independent valuation, NOT an audit, and NOT an FCA-regulated activity. It does not account for every company-specific fact, and it relies entirely on the information you provided and on general market benchmarks that can go out of date. A valuation is ultimately negotiated between a founder and an investor — it is not awarded by a tool. Figures are indicative ranges, not a promise of any price or outcome. Before you rely on any number here, take professional advice appropriate to your situation.
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