⬤ Business Valuation Services
Business Valuation Services
in
San Diego, California
Raise a round, sell the company, hand equity to the next generation, or answer an examiner – each one turns on a value someone else will test. CountSure delivers independent, defensible valuations for San Diego businesses, CVA certified and prepared under Licensed US CPA supervision.
The moment you need a number you can defend
Almost no one commissions a valuation out of curiosity – there is usually a date on the calendar. These are the moments a number that holds up actually changes what happens next.
Raising capital
A backer wants your 409A before the term sheet is signed
San Diego rounds do not wait around. A clean 409A means you can price options and close the raise without a valuation question becoming the thing that holds everyone up.
Selling or merging
A price is on the table and you need footing
Buyer or seller, sitting across from a number you cannot back is a weak place to be. An independent valuation hands you ground the other side cannot simply wave away.
Transferring ownership
Shares are moving to family or into an estate plan
The IRS reads gift and estate filings closely, and a soft number is where it starts pulling. A supportable valuation shields both the transfer and the people counting on it.
Facing an audit
An auditor or examiner wants to see your work
Once the question lands, the report has to answer it on its own. We write ours for exactly the reader most inclined to push back on the conclusion.
None of these quite fit your situation?
Walk us through what is coming up. We will steer you to the valuation that fits – or tell you plainly if you do not need one at all.
Valuation Services We Offer
Eight focused services, each matched to a specific purpose, stage, and standard of value.
Startup Valuation
Defensible valuations for early-stage and venture - backed companies raising capital or issuing equity.
409A Valuation
IRS - compliant fair market value reports for common stock and employee equity grants.
Purchase Price Allocation
Allocation of acquisition consideration across tangible and intangible assets for reporting.
Portfolio Valuation
Audit - ready fair value marks for funds, GPs, and institutional investors.
Intangible Asset Valuation
Valuation of patents, trademarks, customer relationships, and other intangibles.
Merger & Acquisition Valuation
Transaction support and fairness analysis for buy - side and sell - side deals.
Gift & Estate Tax Valuation
IRS-compliant valuations for
wealth transfer, gifting, and estate planning.
Compliance Service Valuation
Ongoing valuation support to keep your business audit ready and compliant.
⬤ Inside the Report
A figure is only as good as what sits behind it
A number is easy. The proof under it is the hard part, and that is where most of our hours go.
For a San Diego business, we work past the headline financials to the drivers that actually set value, then pull them into one conclusion you can hold your ground on – whether the reader is a lender, a board, or an examiner.
What you own and owe
A full read of the balance sheet and cap structure - not just the numbers that sit at the top.
How you earn
A forward look at cash flow, margins, and whether the earnings are built to last.
Where you can go
A grounded take on growth, room to scale, and where you stand against the competition.
What the market says
Benchmarking against comparable San Diego and national transactions and the multiples they traded at.
⬤ How We Get to a Number
Three ways to value a business - and the judgment to weight them
There is no one formula that fits every San Diego company. We begin with a simpler question – what really drives value here – and then lean on the approach, or blend of approaches, the evidence actually supports.
Approach 01
Income Approach
Prices the business on the cash it is likely to throw off, discounting projected flows or capitalizing earnings back to present value. It carries most operating companies with steady, readable results – and sits behind the bulk of 409A and M&A work – because it pays attention to what a company earns, not just what shows up on its books.
Approach 02
Asset Approach
Works up from the balance sheet – assets marked to fair value, liabilities netted out, landing on net asset value. It takes the lead for holding companies, real-estate and asset-heavy entities, and businesses whose earnings will not carry a going-concern number. More often than not it establishes the floor: what the business is worth even when the cash flows run thin.
Approach 03
Market Approach
Ties value to what comparable companies and deals have genuinely sold for, pulling multiples from guideline public companies and private transaction data. It comes into its own where believable comparables exist – and San Diego, with real biotech, defense, and middle-market deal flow, tends to supply the evidence this approach needs to rest a number on observed behavior rather than theory.
● Why It Holds Up
Built to be defended, not just delivered
A valuation is really tested on the day someone decides to argue with it. Ours are built for that day, not the quiet ones before it.
Credentialed oversight
Led by Parth Shah, US CPA and Indian FCA. Our valuation practice is CVA certified through NACVA, and every engagement runs under Licensed US CPA supervision, with work credentialed under IBBI and ICAI on the India side.
Recognized methodology
We apply the established income, market, and asset-based approaches the same way every time, so the reasoning is transparent and anyone can follow it.
IRS-aware preparation
Every report is written with IRS expectations in view, giving you clean footing for 409A, gift, estate, and ownership-transfer matters.
Documented to the last assumption
Every conclusion traces back to the input it came from, so the report holds through audit, due diligence, and investor review.
Not the same thing as an asset appraisal
From first call to a report you can use
A defined path with nothing hidden in it, so at every step you know where things stand and what is coming.
We set the brief together
We fix the purpose, the standard of value, and the effective date up front, so the engagement is scoped right from the first day.
You send the data over
Financials, the cap table, and the operating and legal documents we need – all collected through secure channels.
We read the market
We work through Charlotte trends, comparable deals, and the benchmarks that actually apply to your sector.
We settle on the approach
Income, market, or asset-based - whichever the facts call for - applied with the reasoning written down.
We build it and write it up
The model plus a clear, standards-aligned report, assumptions and supporting evidence included.
We stand behind it
We take you through the findings and stay reachable for boards, investors, auditors, and the IRS.
● Sector Fluency
Industries We Serve in San Diego
Life Sciences & Biotech
One of the top three life science clusters in the world, anchored by UCSD, Salk, and Scripps. These pre-revenue, IP-heavy companies need defensible 409A and portfolio valuations to grant equity and mark positions round after round.
Defense, Military & Aerospace
Wireless & Semiconductor Tech
The birthplace of Qualcomm and a dense wireless, software, and AI ecosystem. Patents, licensing revenue, and equity grants all need valuations that survive audit and investor review.
Cross-Border & International Trade
Sitting on the busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, San Diego-Tijuana manufacturers and logistics firms need valuations built for operations that run across two countries.
Tourism & Hospitality
A top US visitor destination with hotels, resorts, and attractions employing more than 160,000 people. These businesses need clean valuations for sales, refinancing, and ownership transitions.
Craft Brewing & Advanced Manufacturing
What makes a San Diego valuation different
California does not follow the federal QSBS break
This is the trap that catches San Diego founders off guard. California does not conform to the federal QSBS exclusion under Section 1202, so a gain that is fully excluded on a federal return can still be taxed by the state as ordinary income at rates up to 13.3 percent. A valuation and exit plan built here has to price that state exposure in from the start, not discover it at closing.
An IP and research economy, not a balance-sheet one
San Diego value lives in patents, clinical pipelines, licensing revenue, and defense backlog far more than in hard assets. Pricing a life-science or wireless company here means reading the intangibles the way an examiner or acquirer will, which an asset-first template quietly skips.
A border metro that runs across two countries
The San Diego-Tijuana region is one integrated economy split by an international line, with manufacturing, supply chains, and ownership that cross it daily. A valuation built for the region has to account for where a business actually operates, not just where it is registered.
● The CountSure Difference
Why Choose CountSure?
Independent, CPA-supervised
CVA certified through NACVA and run under Licensed US CPA supervision - an impartial conclusion that stands up in front of investors, auditors, and the IRS.
One accountable lead
Parth Shah, US CPA, CVA, and Indian FCA, leads the work himself - it is not passed off down a chain. You always know exactly whose name is behind the number.
A full-service partner
The valuation ties into our broader tax, accounting, and advisory work, so the conclusion sits inside the bigger picture rather than off on its own.
Built for the San Diego market
We build in the local realities - from a research - driven life sciences base to a border-and-defense economy - that a generic, out-of-market template would skate right past.
● Who We Work With
The people who come to us in San Diego
- Owners planning an exit or transition
- Founders raising and issuing equity
- M&A advisors structuring deals
- Banks underwriting and assessing collateral
- Families planning estates and transfers
- Partners merging or being bought out
HOW FAST
1 to 2 weeks
● Where We Work
Across San Diego and the metro area
- Downtown
- La Jolla
- Sorrento Valley
- Torrey Pines
- Carlsbad
- Chula Vista
- Escondido
- Carmel Valley
- Mission Valley
● Questions
Valuation questions San Diego owners ask us
Nine times out of ten there is a deal or a date behind it – an acquisition, a raise that needs a 409A, or a gift or estate filing. Bank financing and succession planning bring owners in just as often.
It shapes the after-tax picture more than the enterprise value itself. California does not conform to the federal QSBS exclusion, so a gain that is fully excluded on your federal return can still be taxed by the state as ordinary income at rates up to 13.3 percent. We build valuations that hold up, and we flag the state-tax exposure so it is not a surprise at closing.
That is exactly the bar we write to. Reports are CVA certified, prepared under Licensed US CPA supervision using recognized methodology, with every assumption documented so the work holds up when it is reviewed.
The working rule is once every twelve months – or sooner if something material happens, like a new round or a real shift in the business or its market.
On many standard valuations, a draft lands within a few weeks of your data arriving – and we can compress that when a deadline is setting the pace.
Parth Shah, US CPA and Indian FCA, leads every engagement. Our valuation practice is CVA (Certified Valuation Analyst) certified through NACVA, with US valuations performed under US CPA supervision and work credentialed under IBBI and ICAI on the India side.
Get Started
Put a number you can defend on your San Diego business
Bring us the deadline, the deal, or the filing – and we will hand back an independent, audit-ready valuation, prepared under Licensed US CPA supervision, that holds when it actually matters.
- Free 30-minute consultation with a CPA
- Fixed-fee, fully transparent pricing
- 100% remote - no travel or visa required
