Startup Funding

Startup Business Valuation Calculator

Traditional valuation metrics don’t capture the real value of an early-stage company because the cash flows are not yet in place. You must look at other aspects of the business.

TEN Capital’s Rule of 4 for valuation states that it is the sum of four parts: sales, team, product, and intellectual property. These are the foundational elements for building a business.

So what is your company’s valuation?

Startup Business Valuation Calculator (KTTEST)

Step 1 of 2

How is the Valuation calculated?

Sales: how far along is the company in making sales to paying customers?
Team: how much domain and startup experience does the team have?
Product: at what stage is the product?
Intellectual property: what IP has the company filed so far?

For each one, you decide how much is in the business today (not tomorrow) and assign a valuation from $0 to $3M. If the company has none of it, then it’s a 0. If the company has made some progress, you give it a valuation of up to $3M.

You then add up each of the four values to create a pre-money valuation for the company.

The most the company can achieve is $12M. Anything above this is pure speculation.

As the company achieves consistent cash flows, you can move to other valuation methods.

Below are the specific ranges for each one:

Sales

50 Enterprise customers with signed annual contracts for recurring revenue

$3M

25 Enterprise customers with signed annual contracts for recurring revenue

$2M

10 Enterprise customers with signed annual contracts for recurring revenue

$1M

5 Enterprise customers with signed annual contracts for recurring revenue

$750K

3 Enterprise customers with signed annual contracts for recurring revenue

$500K

1 Enterprise customers with signed annual contracts for recurring revenue

$250K

1 paying customer with no recurring revenue

$100K

No customers or users

0

Team

3 C-level team members with industry and startup experience and Distribution channels & Partners

$3M

3 C-level team members with industry and startup experience and Distribution channels

$2M

3 C-level team members with industry and startup experience

$1M

2 C-level team members with industry and startup experience

$750K

1 C-level team members with industry and startup experience

$500K

1 C-level team members with startup experience

$250K

One founder with startup experience

$150K

One founder with no startup experience

$50K

No leadership team

0

Product

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd product is complete and ready for paying customer usage

$3M

The 1st and 2nd product is finished and ready for paying customers

$2M

The product is finished and ready for paying customer usage

$1M

The product is a minimum viable product that is ready for paying customer usage

$750K

The product is in beta stage

$500K

The product is in alpha stage

$250K

No product

0

Intellectual Property and other Moats

Patents are filed and awarded & Proprietary data sets and algorithms

$3M

Patents are filed and awarded & Proprietary data sets

$2M

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