Morning Hunters ☕
(can’t remember last time I was up at 5am PST but couldn’t sleep!)
Only continue reading if you’re building a SaaS project….
You “hustle and hack” and before you know it you’re doing $20k/mo in revenue. It happened to me back in 2013 with Lujure (now Heyo).
This was my first "million dollar year" (well almost... $939k)
2013 tax return from my first SaaS, Lujure.com (Heyo now)
As we grew we were getting $6,500,000 acquisition offers including this one… I had no idea if I should take it or not:
2011 acquisition offer I got for $6.5m@Mubs has sold tons of side projects too (Several started here on PH!)
We built the SaaS Valuation Tool to:
· Help you get a real idea of what your SaaS project is worth today
· Give you 463 raw valuation data points from other founders
· Show you quick ways to double your valuation based off current market trends
Hint: Its not a mathematical formula…
You can get a premium valuation with a great story. People will believe your story and “pay up” for your vision if you can point to historical metrics that prove you can execute.
The blend of metrics + story is how you get a 40x multiple on your current annual revenue.
To build this tool we used 463 real SaaS valuations from the last 12 months to train the calculator:
We collected most of these valuations by interviewing founders directly:
Copado CEO Ted Elliott: “That round was $8m on a $35m valuation” (source minute 23:45 here)
Valuations are very different depending on what you’re doing:
Seed
Series A
Selling the whole business
Private equity deal
etc...
To account for this, we tagged each deal with “event type”:
You see raw data on your Founderpath account labeled by event type so you can sort/filter
You can download the raw excel file if you want an easier way to sort/filter.
Steps to get your valuation:
Visit the landing page and signup for free
Connect your stripe account (we have 14 other integrations too)
Get your valuation in under 37 seconds
We give you 3 valuations based on what your plans are:
Raising from a VC: The highest multiple – they’re paying for future growth.
Selling a portion: Called a secondary, will get you a middle valuation.
Selling 100% of your company: To a private equity firm will get you the lowest multiple – they’re generally paying for historical revenues, not future projections
In addition to your valuation, we’ll tell you what metrics to focus on to increase your valuation.
For example, the highest valued software projects today are really good at selling more to current customers (Net Dollar Retention, NDR). 135%+ NDR will get you a 30x + valuation multiple on your current annual recurring revenue (ARR).
We’ll also share 3 tactics we think you should do to drive more revenue including:
What email copy to use on your best customer to get them to leave a review to help your ranking on review sites like G2, Capterra, and GetAccept
Pricing changes you could easily make (but are nervous about) to 2x revenue fast
Fast ways to decrease churn even if your convinced you’re in a “high churn” product category
The full SaaS Valuation Calculator took 292 coding hours to build, 37 design hours, and over 10 hours of user testing (live with alpha-users).
Founderpath team alpha-testing valuation calculator with SaaS founders in NYC
We plan to charge for this starting on January 5th but wanted you guys to be able to get an early look with a free trial today: founderpath.com/products/valuations
Mubs and I are hanging out in this PH thread all day today.
Excited to hear your feedback and answer questions! (be back in 30 seconds - grabbing more coffee)
🎉🐱🐱🎉🐱🐱🎉🐱🐱
@mubs@nathanlatka Excited to see this here today and intrigued to see what the usage will be as we get into the new year! 🤔😃 I think that a simple tool like this is a great way for builders to balance offloading their projects with the desire to potentially keep building them for future dividends.
Mubs, we should run some of your older projects through this and see where there might be some hidden value! 😆
Great build and launch! 😎🚀
@mubs@nathanlatka This is a much needed tool, esp early in the cycle. It's not just about raising money or selling but also to understand the value you have built/are building. The distinction between valuation when raising and selling is important. I have seen a l lot of Indie founders trying to sell their SaaS at VC valuations and getting no offers.
@mubs@nathanlatka Congrats on launching this awesome tool, no doubt to become the go-to for SaaS founders for years to come. Excited to see its evolution with more data flowing in. FounderPath FTW 🚀
Hello Makers,
It's been a long time since my last launch, but we've been very busy at Founderpath building tools for SaaS founders.
You may not be looking to sell your company, but there are plenty of reasons to know the valuation of your company is, and how you can increase the valuation!
Using data from over 400 recent priced raises, and sales we've developed a system for calculating a valuation for SaaS.
Checkout and let me know what you think! 👇
Another great tool in SaaS that uses a critical mass of benchmarking data as the basis for actionable insights and recommendations. A valuable pickaxe for the gold miners out there :) With a calculator, the ability to derive and personalize those insights via self-service is built right into the platform. Congrats @nathanlatka and team; eager to see what's next!
I’ve dug into pitchbook, crunchbase and capital IQ but still struggle to find quality valuation comps. Glad to see you guys liberating powerful datapoints that can only help founders become smarter!
Our pitchbook license is $24K+, how does that compare to this tool?
FounderPath Analytics in general (and the SaaS Valuation tool, specifically) is one of my "always open" tabs - I reference the thing daily and find there is always something new and valuable to review, analyze and action. It's been remarkable how a few small, INFORMED tweaks to our strategies and tactics has lead to 6 figure valuation jumps in a few short months. Definitely worth checking out.
Congrats @nathanlatka! Really powerful tool for valuation and some great insights on what matters most (NDR, Growth, etc.) depending on what your investment plan is. Extremely helpful tool that incorporates what investors care about - love it!
After over 2,500 SaaS founder interviews on his podcast, Nathan must be one of the foremost authorities on SaaS valuations in the world. I'm really looking forward to using this tool the next time we're fundraising to ensure that we're getting a fair valuation. Can't thank you enough for putting this out there 🙏 🙌🏻
Solid product @nathanlatka but also just a Masterclass in launching on Product Hunt. Love how you lead with an easily understandable but informative video. Definitely taking notes on this launch! Congrats man.
I can't say enough about this group of makers. If your payments are set up as subscriptions, this product will help you arrive at a target valuation based on a set of benchmarks that are widely used. Does this guarantee that you'll be able to raise or sell based on this? No, but you'll at least have a target and a basis for coming to that figure. This is becoming more important for founders, as I strongly believe that convertible notes are poison for founding groups. It's time to go back to priced rounds. Having a rational basis for valuation helps you use latter-day tools like crowdfunding.
Of course, this group wants to position FounderPath funding, which I have done twice now. I just got my 2nd 6-figure funding from them (the first one was a year ago). It took a couple of days, a few emails, and no phone calls or Zooms! In 2015, when I raised my first funding, it took 6 months on bended knee in the Bay Area, 200 pitches to get 12 yesses, and uncountable versions of Slide Decks and Financial Forecasts. After the dilutive equity funding, I had what seemed like 9 marriage partners, some of whom became thorns in my side. With FounderPath, it's a payment schedule and well documented covenants. I get to keep the equity.
Happy to be a resource for anybody who is evaluating it.
@nathanlatka has interviewed more saas founders than i've had hot dinners (very English phrase:) so he is coming from a place of deep knowledge. Check out the new valuation caluculator - it's free
You can tell a good product by a good founder. This guy is the real deal. love that the product really helps you find how much it is work bc it can be so hard to actually know and comps can be so misleading.
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