➡️ 1. Your cap table is not just a ledger, it’s latent math. Most teams treat it as a record of past transactions. In reality, it’s the foundation for modeling how value will flow in the future. ➡️ 2. Breakpoints are the cap table in future tense. A breakpoint is the moment when the next dollar of value switches lanes to a different share class. Ownership today. Distribution tomorrow. ➡️ 3. Value allocation is not linear. Preferences, participation rights, ESOP, SAFEs, warran

Most founders and investors treat the cap table as a static artefact, a tidy ledger of who owns what, how much they paid, and how those numbers stack up today. Useful, yes, but also deeply incomplete. Over the past months I’ve written a lot about fair value and how it offers a window into what might be , not just what is. Recently people have asked me: “If you’re doing this for VCs, what about the other side of the equation - the company?” The Traditional View: A Backward-Loo

Continuing from last week’s post on how to think about Enterprise Value in VC‑type, early‑stage companies, I want to push the conversation a step further and talk about calibration — a concept that sits at the heart of valuation in an ASC 820 / IPEV‑compliant framework. Calibration is one of those ideas that sounds abstract until you actually apply it. But in practice, it’s the discipline that keeps early‑stage valuation from drifting into storytelling. It forces you to anch

1. Early‑stage valuation celebrates what’s possible This is one of the rare places in finance where vision and artistry is a legitimate input. You’re valuing ingenuity, ambition, and the potential to reshape a market, not just the assets that exist today. 2. The absence of traditional metrics is a feature, not a flaw When revenue and profits aren’t yet the story, founders and investors can focus on insight, velocity, and vision. It relies on creativity and strategic clarity w

Over the past few posts, I’ve been unpacking fair value methodologies under IPEV and ASC 820 and how they apply to venture investments. Now feels like the right moment to zoom out and ask the bigger question: what is a company actually worth? More specifically, how should we think about enterprise value across different parts of the investment universe? In public markets and traditional private equity, the answer is almost comfortingly straightforward. These companies typical

1. A solid cap table strengthens every valuation approach 🔍 Whether using OPM, PWERM, or CVM, every method becomes more reliable when it’s built on accurate ownership data. 2. High‑quality inputs unlock high‑quality valuations 📊 Even the most advanced models are only as strong as the data behind them. Reliable valuations depend on clean, complete, and well‑structured information, starting with an accurate, up‑to‑date cap table. Without that, the integrity of the valuation f