Astra Global and Startup Station Webinar and case study
Valuation:
A Negotiation Tool, a Financial Fact or a Wild Guess?
Valuation can be a nebulous concept for founders (and investors). Startup valuations are driven by assumptions and because assumptions come from estimates, it's hard to know how accurately they represent the company's true value.
Therefore, it's important to remember that early-stage investments are true partnerships. These relationships can last 10+ years, and no party stands to gain from leaving another 'hard done by'. Fund economics and minimum return requirements aside, when negotiating price, VCs (and founders) should always focus the discussion on value, and not on valuation.
Agenda:
11:00 am - 11:30 am: Startup valuation approaches - how to credibly determine your company's valuation?
Robustiano shares his real fundraising experience and elaborate on the following topics:
Speaker
Victoria Yampolsky, CFA is the Founder and President of The Startup Station, an education and advisory platform focused on modeling and valuing early-stage ventures. The Startup Station helps you articulate your business case to investors from the financial point of view. More than 1,000 founders have taken The Startup Station's courses to learn the basics of accounting, valuation, financial modeling, and startup financing and more than 100 founders worked with The Startup Station one-on-one across more than 15 industries. Victoria holds a Bachelor's Degree, Cum Laude, in Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics from Cornell University, and an MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School. Victoria is also on the Advisory Board of the Computing and Information Science (CIS) Department of Cornell University.
Guest
Robustiano Tubio
Robustiano is currently CFO at Tymit, a FinTech company, which raised £7mn in equity + £12mn in debt. Before that, he worked in investment banking in Santander in Argentina, Brazil and the UK. He has spent most of his career providing solutions to institutional customers funding, yield enhancement, and hedging arrangements. Most recently, he was head of fixed income structuring for Santander in London, where he led structured finance and secured lending deals involving mortgage, auto and consumer loans asset-backed securities. Robustiano is a CFA® charter holder and holds an MBA from London Business School.
Therefore, it's important to remember that early-stage investments are true partnerships. These relationships can last 10+ years, and no party stands to gain from leaving another 'hard done by'. Fund economics and minimum return requirements aside, when negotiating price, VCs (and founders) should always focus the discussion on value, and not on valuation.
Agenda:
11:00 am - 11:30 am: Startup valuation approaches - how to credibly determine your company's valuation?
- What does a startup valuation for an early-stage venture represent?
- Pros and cons of the main startup valuation' approaches: scorecard and quantitative.
- What drives startup valuations? Valuation's rule of thumb.
- Key strategies to increase your company valuation
- Latest valuation trends and what investors are paying attention to due diligence
- Founders dilemma: how do I not give up too much equity - being "rich" vs being "king".
Robustiano shares his real fundraising experience and elaborate on the following topics:
- How did you negotiate the valuation for the first round? Later rounds?
- Did you worry about giving up too much equity?
- What are the top three things investors care about in negotiating a deal/you cared about in negotiating a deal?
- What did you wish you knew when you began fundraising?
- How did you determine the lowest valuation you will accept?
- Why else would you walk away from a deal?
Speaker
Victoria Yampolsky, CFA is the Founder and President of The Startup Station, an education and advisory platform focused on modeling and valuing early-stage ventures. The Startup Station helps you articulate your business case to investors from the financial point of view. More than 1,000 founders have taken The Startup Station's courses to learn the basics of accounting, valuation, financial modeling, and startup financing and more than 100 founders worked with The Startup Station one-on-one across more than 15 industries. Victoria holds a Bachelor's Degree, Cum Laude, in Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics from Cornell University, and an MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School. Victoria is also on the Advisory Board of the Computing and Information Science (CIS) Department of Cornell University.
Guest
Robustiano Tubio
Robustiano is currently CFO at Tymit, a FinTech company, which raised £7mn in equity + £12mn in debt. Before that, he worked in investment banking in Santander in Argentina, Brazil and the UK. He has spent most of his career providing solutions to institutional customers funding, yield enhancement, and hedging arrangements. Most recently, he was head of fixed income structuring for Santander in London, where he led structured finance and secured lending deals involving mortgage, auto and consumer loans asset-backed securities. Robustiano is a CFA® charter holder and holds an MBA from London Business School.