⬤ Startup Valuation Services
Independent, audit-ready valuations for US founders, VCs, and investors. Prepared by Certified Valuation Analysts and built to hold up in front of investors, auditors, and the IRS.
Startup Valuation Services for US Founders, VCs & Investors
Putting a number on a startup is a different craft from valuing an established company. There’s usually no long earnings history to lean on, the figures are built on projections rather than track record, and the answer keeps moving with every round, milestone, and shift in the market. So when you’re raising capital, handing out stock options, or sizing up a target, the valuation that matters isn’t the optimistic one on your pitch deck. It’s the one that holds up when an investor, an auditor, or the IRS starts asking how you got there.
The short answer: startup valuation is the work of estimating the fair market value of an early- or growth-stage private company using methods suited to its stage, because the earnings-based approaches built for mature businesses simply don’t fit a company that isn’t profitable yet. Founders and investors reach for it at predictable moments: fundraising, 409A compliance, M&A, ESOPs, and due diligence. Countsure’s
Startup Valuation Services deliver independent, audit-ready valuations grounded in methods that survive scrutiny.
When does a startup actually need a valuation?
Most founders need a formal valuation sooner than they’d guess. A few situations make it non-negotiable:
Raising a round.
A priced round sets your pre- and post-money valuation, and even SAFEs or convertible notes need a defensible basis for how they convert and reshape the cap table.
Issuing stock options.
Before granting equity to employees, contractors, or advisors, US companies need an independent appraisal of common-stock fair market value to set a compliant strike price and secure IRS safe harbor.
M&A and secondaries.
Acquisitions, founder or early-employee secondary sales, and buyouts all need a value someone will stand behind.
ESOPs and equity comp.
Any equity plan needs a credible number to price grants fairly and report them cleanly.
Diligence and disputes.
Investors, acquirers, and courts all expect an independent valuation they can actually rely on.
⬤ Who We Serve
Who can hire Countsure for startup valuation?
If you need a defensible number on an early-stage company, you’re in the right place. We work with:
- Founders and startup teams raising a round, setting up an option pool, or getting their first 409A in order before issuing equity.
- VCs and PE investorswho need an independent valuation to price a deal, support an investment, or pressure-test a portfolio company's number.
- Business consultants and advisorsbringing in a credentialed valuation partner for clients without keeping it in-house.
- CFOs and finance leads preparing for a funding round, an audit, or an M&A conversation and need the valuation to hold up under each.
- Founders facing a material eventa closed SAFE or note, a new priced round, an acquisition discussion, or a major milestone that makes the old valuation stale.
- Whether you're pre-seed or heading into a Series C, if the valuation has to stand up to investors, auditors, or the IRS, our Certified Valuation Analysts (CVA) can deliver it.
How valuation changes from pre-seed to Series C+ ?
There’s no single right method, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The drivers that matter, and the techniques that capture them, shift as the company grows up.
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Stage
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Typical methods
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What actually drives the number
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Pre-seed / Seed
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Scorecard, Berkus, VC method
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The founding team, market size, and the earliest signs of traction
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Series A–B
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VC method, market comparables, early DCF
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Sales comparison, cost, and property-specific income approaches.
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Series C+
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DCF, comparable companies, precedent deals
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A credible path to profitability and forecasts people believe
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⬤ Our Methodology
The methods we actually use at Countsure
A valuation that holds up rarely rests on one technique. We blend approaches, weighting each by how trustworthy the underlying data is.
Scorecard and Berkus
Built for pre-revenue companies. Rather than forcing financials that don't exist yet, these methods benchmark you against comparable funded startups and assign value to the things that do exist at this stage: the team, the idea, the market, and early progress.
The Venture Capital method
Before granting equity to employees, contractors, or advisors, US companies need an independent appraisal of common-stock fair market value to set a compliant strike price and secure IRS safe harbor.
Discounted Cash Flow
DCF projects future cash flows and discounts them to present value. For an early-stage company it's a supporting voice, since the forecasts are shaky. By Series B and beyond, with forecasts you can defend, it moves to center stage.
Comparable companies and multiples
Here you apply revenue or earnings multiples drawn from similar businesses and recent deals. It lives or dies on one thing: whether the companies you're comparing against are genuinely comparable.
Startup valuation vs. traditional business valuation
Conventional business valuation leans on a history of profits and predictable cash flow. Startups usually offer neither, which is exactly why the playbook has to change.
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Startup valuation
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Traditional business valuation
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Built on
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Projections, market potential, comparables
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Historical earnings and steady cash flow
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Go-to methods
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Scorecard, Berkus, VC method, early DCF
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Earnings multiples, asset-based, mature DCF
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Certainty
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Wide range, plenty of judgment
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Narrower range, firmer ground
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Hard part
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There's little or no profit history to anchor to
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Capturing how the business will change
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What our Startup Valuation Services cover ?
We handle the full range of moments a growing company runs into, including:
- Fundraising and pre- / post-money valuations for priced rounds, SAFEs, and convertible notes
- 409A valuations for compliant option pricing and IRS safe harbor support
- Cap-table and dilution modeling, including scenario and waterfall analysis
- Valuations for M&A, secondaries, ESOPs, and shareholder transactions
- Independent, investor-ready reports built to survive diligence and audit
What's inside a Countsure valuation report ?
A report worth relying on is much more than a single figure at the bottom of a page. Every Countsure valuation includes Key sec:
- Executive summary - the conclusion and key findings up front
- Company and industry overview - the business and market context the valuation sits in
- Financial analysis - the numbers behind the value
- Methodology explained - which methods we used and, just as important, why
- Stated assumptions - the inputs the conclusion rests on, laid out plainly
- Fair market value conclusion - the defensible number itself
- Supporting exhibits - the workings and back-up data
We document and justify the discount rates, growth assumptions, comparable selections, and any discounts applied, so when an investor, auditor, or the IRS asks how you arrived at the number, the answer is already on the page.
Raising a round or issuing options? Our valuation team builds investor- and IRS-ready reports designed to hold up under pressure. Schedule a Free Consultation and get a number you can stand behind.
⬤ Avoid These
The mistakes that cost founders the most
A valuation that holds up rarely rests on one technique. We blend approaches, weighting each by how trustworthy the underlying data is.
Starting with the answer.
Deciding the valuation you want and reverse-engineering toward it, instead of deriving it from a method you can defend.
Treating the 409A as an afterthought.
Mispricing the strike price can saddle employees with immediate income recognition plus a 20% federal penalty tax, turning a reward into a tax bill.
Valuing common like preferred.
Preferred shares carry liquidation preferences and other rights, so common stock is usually worth less. Set them equal and the IRS has an easy target.
Forgetting that a SAFE can be a trigger.
A material SAFE or convertible note closing, not only a priced round, can require a fresh valuation.
Letting it go stale.
Safe harbor generally lapses after 12 months or a material event, whichever lands first.
Optimistic forecasts, mismatched peers.
Aggressive projections and the wrong comparables are the quickest way to lose a room during diligence.
Industries and startup types we value
We work across the sectors where US startups raise and scale:
SaaS and software, fintech, healthtech and life sciences, marketplaces and e-commerce, consumer and D2C brands, AI and deep tech, and hardware. Each of these has its own value drivers and its own comparable set, and our valuations reflect those differences instead of stretching one generic template over every business.
Our credentials
Group of CPA, CA, CVA, IBBI registered Valuer, DISA
Countsure’s valuations are prepared by Certified Valuation Analysts (CVA), so the people running the analysis hold a recognized professional valuation credential rather than relying on a spreadsheet and good intentions. For 409A work, IRS safe harbor requires a qualified, independent appraiser, and our reports are built to meet generally accepted appraisal standards and to withstand both investor and audit scrutiny. That combination credentialed analysts and independence from your raise is what makes a Countsure number hard to argue with.
Why founders and investors choose us ?
People come to Countsure because independence and defensibility are built in rather than bolted on. We’re not negotiating your round, which is precisely why our valuation carries weight with the people reading it. We work directly with startups, VCs, and PE investors across the US, we explain our methodology in language a board can follow, and we hand over reports that move diligence forward instead of opening new questions. The outcome is a valuation you can put in front of a lead investor or an auditor without bracing for the follow-up.
Independent by design
We're not negotiating your round, so the number carries weight.
Built for US deals
We work directly with startups, VCs, and PE investors across the US.
Board-ready clarity
We explain our methodology in language a board can follow.
Diligence that moves forward
Reports that advance diligence instead of opening new questions.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on your stage, how complex your cap table is, and the type of valuation. As a benchmark, 409A valuations for startups commonly run from about $2,000 to $15,000, with simpler early-stage companies at the lower end and complex later-stage structures higher.
A pre-revenue startup is valued with comparison-based methods like Scorecard, Berkus, and the VC method, which weigh the team, market size, product progress, and traction against comparable funded startups, since there are no earnings to discount.
A 409A values your common stock to set a compliant option strike price for IRS purposes, while a fundraising valuation prices the company (usually the preferred shares) to negotiate a round. They serve different audiences and almost always produce different numbers, with common stock typically valued below preferred.
A typical 409A runs about two to four weeks from the moment you hand over financials and cap-table documents, and it can move faster for a clean, well-organized early-stage company.
At least every 12 months, or sooner after a material event such as a funding round, a sizable SAFE or note closing, an M&A conversation, or a major business milestone, whichever comes first.
Get Started
Get a certified startup valuation
Whether you’re pricing your first option pool or gearing up for a Series C, Countsure delivers independent, defensible startup valuations that founders, investors, and auditors trust.
- Free 30-minute consultation with a CPA
- Fixed-fee, fully transparent pricing
- 100% remote - no travel or visa required
