Startup Valuation Calculator
Three established frameworks, blended into a range you can defend before the conversation starts.
- Three methods blended
- Pre-revenue friendly
- Downloadable PDF
- Free, no sign-up
How to Value a Startup
Valuing an early-stage company feels like inventing a number, which is why so many founders walk into fundraising conversations without one. That is the worse position — whoever names a figure first anchors the negotiation, and if it is not you, it is the investor.
This calculator applies three established frameworks and blends them into a range you can defend.
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BLENDED INTO ONE RANGE
The Three Methods
Blending all three matters because each is wrong in a different direction. A pre-revenue company looks worthless on revenue multiple and reasonable on Berkus. The blended range sits where the methods overlap.
- Revenue MultipleApplies a multiple to your ARR. Straightforward, and the standard approach once you have meaningful revenue — but useless pre-revenue, since anything times zero is zero.
- Berkus ScorecardValues qualitative factors instead: the idea, the team, the prototype, relationships, and rollout. Built specifically for pre-revenue companies where the traditional maths does not apply.
- Risk Factor SummationStarts from a baseline and adjusts for risks — management, stage, legislation, manufacturing, competition, technology, and others. It rewards de-risking, which is what early-stage investment largely pays for.
The blended range sits where the methods overlap
What You Enter
- Stage — pre-revenue, pre-seed, seed, Series A, or growth
- ARR and a revenue multiple, plus growth rate and gross margin
- TAM in millions, team strength and traction on 1–5 scales
- Investor type — angel, VC, or strategic, since each values differently. A strategic acquirer may pay for fit rather than financials
- Risk factors — tick which are in good shape
- You get a blended range and a downloadable PDF
These Are Illustrative Estimates
Stated plainly because it matters more here than on any other calculator: actual valuations are negotiated. They depend on market conditions, deal terms, investor appetite, and how many other investors are interested that week.
Two identical companies raising six months apart can be valued very differently because the market moved. A company with three interested investors is worth more than the same company with one.
Use this to walk in informed rather than blind. Do not treat it as a number to defend to the decimal, and do not confuse it with a formal valuation — that requires a professional, and it is a different exercise with different standards.
Terms Matter as Much as the Number
The trap founders fall into is optimising for headline valuation alone.
A high valuation with aggressive liquidation preferences, participation rights, or a large option pool carved out pre-money can leave you worse off than a lower valuation on clean terms. The number everyone quotes at dinner is not the number that determines what you receive at exit.
Get a lawyer to read the term sheet. The valuation is one line in it.
The number everyone quotes is not the number that decides your exit
A Realistic Example: A Seed Round Conversation
An angel asks what valuation she is seeking
- Stage
- Seed
- ARR
- Her actual figure
- Multiple
- Appropriate for growth and margin
- Scores
- Honest on team and traction
A blended range, and the reasoning behind it
Her instinct is to say “we’re flexible,” which is the weakest available answer. The range gives her something specific to open with, and — more useful — the reasoning behind it. She can explain which factors support the number, which is what turns an assertion into a negotiation position.
Who Uses It
THE WEAKEST ANSWER
“We’re flexible”
let the investor respond to your number instead
Get Your Range Before the Meeting
Enter your figures above, get a defensible range and the reasoning behind it, and let the investor respond to your number instead of the reverse.
Valuation sets the price, but a new funding round changes who owns what. Our free Equity Dilution Calculator shows exactly how much of the company you are giving up before you sign anything.
Open the calculator