Three methodologies, one defensible range
The Valuation Engine runs your round through Scorecard, Berkus and Venture Capital. Three methods, three different sets of assumptions, and one output: a defensible valuation range. Never a single recommended figure, because a single figure claims a precision that an early-stage business does not have, and a range is the thing you actually negotiate against.
Same round, three ways of pricing it
Each method asks a different question. One looks sideways at comparable companies, one puts money against the parts of the business you have built, and one looks forward to what the business could be earning. Agreement between them is informative. So is disagreement.
Scorecard
Starts from a comparable median pre-money valuation and adjusts it using nine weighted factors. The reference point is what businesses like yours have been valued at, so the output is anchored to a market rather than to a forecast.
It is the method that answers the sceptical version of the question: compared with everyone else at this stage, why is this one worth more?
Berkus
Works in money rather than percentages. Five factors, each placed on a monetary tier, so the figure is built up from what those factors are worth instead of adjusted away from a market average.
Because it does not lean on the same inputs as Scorecard, it is a genuine second reading rather than the same calculation in different clothes.
Venture Capital
The forward-looking one. It extrapolates from Year-5 EBITDA, with a cap applied to the extrapolation so a single confident projection cannot run away with the answer.
This is the method most investors have in the back of their mind, because it is the one that asks what the business has to become for the round to have been worth doing.
Why the answer is a range
Ask three methods to value the same early-stage business and they will not return the same number. That is not a flaw in the methods. It is the honest shape of the question. A pre-revenue or early-revenue company has no observable price, so every valuation is a set of assumptions with a number attached, and different assumptions produce different numbers.
A single recommended figure would paper over that. Quoting £4,000,000 rather than a range implies you know the answer to the nearest pound, and the first investor who asks how you got there will find out that you do not. Precision you cannot defend is worse than a range you can, because it costs you the room you need in the conversation and it costs you credibility at the same time.
A range behaves the way a negotiation does. You know where you would like to land, you know where you stop, and you know which methodology supports each end of it. When an investor pushes on the top of your range you can say what assumption holds it up, and when they push below the bottom you have a reason to say no that is not simply how you feel about your own company.
Vanelo will not tell you what your business is worth. The range is a starting point for a negotiation, not a price we are telling you to accept.
What you get back
A valuation range produced from the three methodologies, and never a single recommended figure.
Alongside it, a How to Defend This Valuation output: the reasoning behind the range, so that when an investor asks where the number came from you are reading from your own working rather than improvising.
The engine runs on the numbers you have already recorded, so the range moves when your round does.
How to Defend This Valuation
A range you cannot explain is not much better than a number you guessed. The second half of the output is the explanation: what the three methodologies did with your inputs, and why the range sits where it sits.
For a first-time founder this is usually the part that matters most. The valuation question rarely arrives as one question. It arrives as a number, then a follow-up, then a follow-up to the follow-up, and the meeting turns on whether the third answer is still consistent with the first. Having the reasoning written down before the meeting is what makes that possible.
It is also why the range is worth revisiting rather than settling once. The Valuation Engine reads from your round record, so the pre-money you are raising on and the range you are defending stay in the same place, and the Investability Assessment tells you which parts of the round are carrying the weight.
Where the valuation goes next
Into your round. Your pre-money valuation and the equity offered for the ask are the terms of the round. The range is what you set them against.
Into the data room. Put the deck and the supporting documents behind a data room with per-recipient access grants, expiry and an access log, so the valuation conversation happens over material you know has been opened.
Into the pipeline. The eight stages run from Target to Funds Committed, and the range is what you carry through the middle of them, from Active Engagement to Term Sheet Received.
Into a second opinion, if you want one. Advisory sessions are bookable and priced per service, if you would rather talk a range through with someone before you take it out.
What the engine does not do
It does not give you a single recommended figure, and it does not tell you whether to accept a term sheet.
It does not value your business independently of what you put in. The methods are only as good as the inputs, which is the same thing an investor will assume.
It is not investment advice, and no output from it is a signal to anyone that they should invest.
Before you run it
Can I just get one number?
No. The Valuation Engine produces a range, by design. A single recommended figure would imply a precision that early-stage valuation does not have, and it would hand you a number you cannot defend when it is questioned.
Do all three methodologies have to agree?
No, and they usually will not. Scorecard reads across from a comparable median pre-money, Berkus builds up from five factors on monetary tiers, and the Venture Capital method extrapolates from Year-5 EBITDA with a cap. Three different assumptions produce three different answers, and the spread between them is part of what the range is telling you.
What does it cost?
It is part of the Founder Plan at £25.99 a month, or £19.99 a month paid for the year, and you can cancel any time. Investors pay nothing to use Vanelo. Both plans are set out on the pricing page.
Can I get a refund if I disagree with the range?
No. Subscriptions are not refundable, and neither are booked services or campaign submissions. If the range is not what you expected, the useful next step is the reasoning behind it rather than the result on its own.
Price your round properly
Run Scorecard, Berkus and Venture Capital over your numbers, get a defensible range and the reasoning to defend it, and walk into the first meeting with an answer that survives the follow-up question. Cancel any time.
Run your valuationFounder subscription is £25.99 per month. Questions first? Email hello@vanelo.io. PitchHub Ltd, Alpha Works, 21st Floor, Alpha Towers, Suffolk Street Queensway, Birmingham B1 1TT.