Notes
3 piecesThe method, in the open.
Most of this industry treats its method as the product and keeps it private. We would rather be judged on it. These are the arguments we would make in a first meeting, written down so the meeting can start further along.
01
A valuation you cannot defend is not a valuation. It is an ask.
How a number should be arrived at, what makes a comparable worth citing, and why the honest outcome is sometimes that there is no supportable number yet.
02
One percent of a big market is not a market.
Why top-down sizing fails, how to decompose an opportunity across the verticals a product can credibly reach, and why the honest number is usually smaller and worth more.
03
The deck is the last thing you build.
Almost everyone starts with the deck. It is the wrong end of the process, and it is why so many decks contain numbers the company cannot stand behind.