Valuation narrative worksheet

Founders asking how to value a company are usually asking three questions at once: what price might investors accept, how much dilution the round creates, and whether to raise at all right now. Keeping them separate is most of the work. A valuation is part of a financing decision, not a verdict on the founder and not a substitute for operating evidence.

There is no formula that turns an early-stage company into an objective number. What a defensible valuation does instead is explain what is known, what is still uncertain, and why the proposed price gives the company a credible path to its next proof point.

This worksheet is the one-page memo behind that argument — written before the conversation, so the number has a reason attached to it rather than a mood.