What a private company is actually worth

A private company has no share price, so its value is an estimate built three ways: a multiple of earnings (EV/EBITDA or EV/revenue against comparable deals), a discounted cash flow (the present value of the money it will generate), and an asset or replacement view. Each answers a different question, so they rarely agree. The gap between them is not noise. It is information about how the business is priced.

Multiples are fast and market-anchored, but they hide the assumptions inside the comparable set: growth, margin, and risk of the companies you are comparing to. A DCF is explicit about those assumptions, which is its strength and its weakness. Change the discount rate by two points and the answer moves a lot. Sophisticated buyers triangulate: they use multiples to sanity-check a DCF, and a DCF to understand why the multiple is what it is.

Treat the output as a range with drivers, not a point. A defensible valuation says: here is the midpoint, here is the spread, and here are the two or three things that move it most. That framing is what survives a negotiation, because it tells you where to push (the drivers you can improve before a sale) and where to concede.

For a company with thin public data, the honest move is to be explicit about what you assumed. A number with stated assumptions is more useful than a precise-looking figure built on guesses.

Qapital’s agents run the valuation, the diagnosis, and the capital match on your real numbers.