Startup Valuation Blog

OCTOBER 5, 2021

Startup valuation is impacted not only by the company's development stage but also by several other factors. In this blog post, we will survey several factors that can determine the value of the startup. During the different stages of a startup, from seed to IPO, the ability to raise money is a question of survival. One of the main issues the investors and stockholders face during that process is the valuation issue - 'What is your company's pre-money value?

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 14, 2021

SSA Press Release: Social Security Announces 5.9 Percent Benefit Increase for 2022 (Oct. 13, 2021). Available at [link]. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced the annual cost-of-living adjustment to the maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax (i.e., the taxable wage base). For 2022, that amount will be $147,000 (up from $142,800 for 2021).

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Musings on Markets

OCTOBER 4, 2021

A few weeks ago, I valued Zomato, the Indian online food delivery company, just prior to its IPO, and argued that the excitement about its potential was tied to the potential for growth in India and the shifting habits of Indian consumers. Since its public offering, Zomato's stock price has reflected that excitement, more than doubling from its offering price of 74 rupees per share.

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Meade & Moore

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Back in March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) created the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (“SLFRF”) program, which provided up to $350 billion to state and local governments to utilize for a variety of expenditure categories and is administered by the Treasury Department. While there are some questions on what the funds can be spent on ( here is a link to the U.S.

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Speaker: Susan Spencer, Principal of Spencer Communications

Intent signal data can go a long way toward shortening sales cycles and closing more deals. The challenge is deciding which is the best type of intent data to help your company meet its sales and marketing goals. In this webinar, Susan Spencer, fractional CMO and principal of Spencer Communications, will unpack the differences between contact-level and company-level intent signals.

Marketability

Quantive

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Value Creation is a strategy that business owners use to maximize the value of their company. Often, business owners create value to sell their company at a high price. A sound transition plan helps business owners realize their exit goals and the tentative time-in-hand for getting their company ready for a sale. They can utilize […].

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LaPorte

OCTOBER 27, 2021

At LaPorte, we take seriously our commitment to educating clients about new accounting standards or legislative updates. In an effort to provide timely topics of… The post LaPorte Cafe: Our Commitment to Our Public Sector Clients first appeared on LaPorte.

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Alkon v. Cigna Health and Life Ins. Co., 2021 WL 3362562 (D. N.J. 2021). An out-of-network health care provider performed surgery on a participant in an ERISA health plan. After receiving payment for less than 1% of the billed charges and unsuccessfully seeking additional reimbursement using the plan’s internal claims process, the provider sued the plan and its claims administrator.

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Musings on Markets

OCTOBER 19, 2021

In a post a few weeks ago , I argued that the disclosure process had lost its moorings, as corporate disclosures (annual filings, prospectuses for IPOs) have become more bulky, while also become less informative. I argued that some of this disclosure complexity could be attributed to the law of unintended consequences, with good intentions driving bad disclosure rules, and that some of it is deliberate, as companies use disclosures to confuse and confound, rather than to inform.

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Appraisal Rights

OCTOBER 21, 2021

[RKS Partner Steve Hecht is currently at MJBizCon , the largest Cannabis business conference in the US.]. The diversity of businesses and business lines here at MJBizCon is one of the first things that hits you. While cannabis itself is sometimes thought of as either an agricultural business or a retail business, the reality is it’s both and much more.

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Quantive

OCTOBER 20, 2021

You’ve built a rock-solid business. All the pieces are there—a great product, decent revenue, an extraordinary team—along with plenty of apparent demand in the market. A sale seems all but inevitable. So why isn’t anyone buying? Because every step of an M&A transaction is designed for buyers to eliminate sellers or reprice the deal, to […].

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Speaker: Wayne Spivak - President and Chief Financial Officer of SBA * Consulting LTD, Industry Writer, and Public Speaker

The old adages that "cash is king" and "you can’t spend profits" still hold true today. But however well-known these sayings might be, it requires a change in mindset to properly implement a cash flow management system that predicts your business's runaway as accurately as possible. Key to this new mindset is understanding the difference between the Statement of Cash Flows, a historical look at the source and uses of cash, and the Cash Flow Statement, which uses transaction history and forward-l

Corporate Finance

Lighter Capital

OCTOBER 19, 2021

By: Our partners at Clockwork. Recurring revenue seems pretty simple on the surface, but just because recurring revenue is “predictable,” that doesn’t mean forecasting recurring revenue is easy. Month-over-month growth assumptions can paint a general picture of MRR for investors, but if you really want accurate projections – the type that’ll help you navigate strategic decisions and optimize your finances – you’ll ultimately need a more detailed forecast.

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Internal Audit 360

OCTOBER 14, 2021

A re most internal audit reports the right length? For many consumers of audit reports in the executive suite and boardroom, the answer is probably that they’re “too long!”. Audit reports may run to extraordinary lengths these days. For example, I recently talked to one organization where they could easily extend over a hundred pages. One hundred pages is clearly too long for anybody to rationally expect our stakeholders in top management and on the board to want to read them.

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 28, 2021

QUESTION: We inadvertently allowed an employee to make health FSA salary reductions that exceed the Code’s limit. Will this cause our cafeteria plan to lose its tax-advantaged status? ANSWER: The general rule is that a cafeteria plan will lose its tax-advantaged status if it fails to comply with the annual limit on health FSA salary reductions ($2,750 for plan years beginning in 2020 or 2021).

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Scott Mashuda

OCTOBER 13, 2021

The printed circuit board (PCB) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industries have been the focus of many M&A transactions this year. Activity is being driven by various factors including uncertainty over the proposed capital gains tax, volatility brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and an aging workforce that have their sights set on retirement.

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Speaker: Joe Apfelbaum, CEO of Ajax Union

In this webinar, Joe Apfelbaum, CEO of Ajax Union and business strategist, will take you through the ABCs of intent data. You'll learn how to effectively use it to drive business results, with practical tips on how to leverage both company and contact intent data to maximize your marketing efforts. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or just getting started, this webinar is a must-attend for anyone looking to stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of digital marketing.

Marketability

Appraisal Rights

OCTOBER 18, 2021

Sports teams often prize the benefits of home-field advantage, but when it comes to valuing a cannabis multi-state operator, playing in your home court does not necessarily result in the highest valuation. As we have posted about before , different states take vastly different approaches to valuation litigation, resulting in the same MSO potentially having a significantly different valuation depending on where that litigation is brought.

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Quantive

OCTOBER 18, 2021

How do you know the right time to sell your business?

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Lighter Capital

OCTOBER 19, 2021

Recurring revenue seems pretty simple on the surface, but just because recurring revenue is “predictable,” that doesn’t mean forecasting recurring revenue is easy. The post [Partner Blog] How to Forecast Recurring Revenue appeared first on Lighter Capital.

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IBG Business

OCTOBER 21, 2021

Attracting interest from more than one candidate not only generates multiple offers and shifts the leverage to you; it can also reveal your “best fit” buyer. By Jim Afinowich. How you arrive at a market value for a company is an interesting topic. Most sellers believe they know what their company is worth, and usually they’re wrong. The market is what actually determines the market value.

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Many companies provide to their customers some version of software or access to cloud-hosted software. Even companies that do not offer any software services or dashboard access may be involved in the purchase of software or software services. Software, and particularly cloud-based hosted solutions, does not fit comfortably into the customary sales and use tax tangible personal property versus service dichotomy.

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The Mentor Group

OCTOBER 1, 2021

The latest IRS regulations were promulgated on July 30, 2018.These included detailed definitions of a qualified appraisal and a qualified appraiser. The appraisal must support the value of a stock or asset donation to a charity.Donated property value above $5,000 is subject to the appraisal, and must be accompanied by a signed Charitable Contribution Form 8283.

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Appraisal Rights

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Players in the cannabis space already understand that federal tax law as currently structured extracts a far greater tax bite from marijuana businesses than corresponding companies, as cannabis companies are prohibited from deducting their business expenses from gross income. Of course, with U.S. cannabis sales expected to grow by nearly 2.5x from 2018 to 2025, the excessive tax liability still leaves lots of room for cannabis companies to experience outsized profits.

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Quantive

OCTOBER 13, 2021

Our clients use business valuations for many reasons. Litigation? Check. Underwriting? Yep. Shareholder Agreements? Absolutely. Although, one of the ways we love to see our clients engage our services (and quite frankly, we don’t see this reason enough) is for gap analysis. What Is Gap Analysis It sounds fancy, right? As a concept, gap analysis […].

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Lighter Capital

OCTOBER 15, 2021

With over 10 years of providing revenue-based financing to our clients, we’ve built an impressive portfolio network of SaaS businesses. We take pride in helping our clients succeed. In an effort to give more than money (and partner perks), we are prioritizing community. The launch of our Inaugural Founder and CEO Summit was the first of many in-person events to educate and foster connections between entrepreneurs. , Lighter Capital Founder and CEO Summit 2021.

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Musings on Markets

OCTOBER 25, 2021

If you have been tracking the torturous workings of the infrastructure bills working their way through Congress, consideration is now being given to a "billionaire" tax, focused on a extraordinarily small subset of Americans, and intended to raise tens, perhaps even hundreds, of billions of dollars in revenues, to cover the costs of the bill. I am constantly amazed by the capacity of legislatures to write bad tax law, but this one takes the cake as perhaps the worst thought-through and most inef

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 14, 2021

QUESTION: Many of our company’s employees have student loans. Could we help them repay those loans on a tax-advantaged basis using a qualified educational assistance program? ANSWER: Educational assistance programs under Code § 127 currently can be used to help employees repay certain student loans, but this benefit is only available for a limited time and there are other restrictions.

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Cooley M&A

OCTOBER 12, 2021

Special committees, by design, are created to address conflicts and to insulate the board of directors from liability for the very conflicts that may invite judicial scrutiny of the fairness of the board’s decision. A well-functioning special committee will also mitigate the risk of personal liability for a company’s fiduciaries, reducing the likelihood of protracted post-closing litigation.

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Appraisal Rights

OCTOBER 11, 2021

The Association for Corporate Growth of Los Angeles hosted a panel on Trends & Transactions in Cannabis Middle Market M&A. The panel addressed appropriate valuation methods for cannabis companies, with one speaker suggesting that a valuation based on a multiple of EBITDA alone would likely not be sufficient if that were the only method, given the outsized effect that the current tax laws have on cannabis companies.

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Quantive

OCTOBER 11, 2021

A business is not a static entity.

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Lighter Capital

OCTOBER 15, 2021

The launch of our Inaugural Founder and CEO Summit was the first of many in-person events to educate and foster connections between entrepreneurs. The post Inaugural Founder and CEO Summit 2021: More Than Money appeared first on Lighter Capital.

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 28, 2021

News Release: IRS updates process for frequently asked questions on new tax legislation and addresses reliance concerns (Oct. 15, 2021); General Overview of Taxpayer Reliance on Guidance Published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin and FAQs (Oct. 15, 2021). News Release. Overview. The IRS has updated its process for issuing guidance in the form of frequently asked questions (FAQs) on newly enacted tax legislation and posted a general overview document clarifying taxpayers’ ability to rely on FAQ g

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 28, 2021

Coronavirus-Related Relief for Retirement Plans and IRAs Questions and Answers (updated Oct. 22, 2021). Available at [link]. The IRS has added two new FAQs to its questions and answers regarding COVID-19 pandemic relief for retirement plans (see our Checkpoint article ). The first considers whether rehiring retired plan participants to fulfill needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic jeopardizes the tax qualification of a pension plan that does not permit in-service distributions.

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 28, 2021

Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2021-02: Temporary Enforcement Policy on Prohibited Transaction Rules Applicable to Investment Advice Fiduciaries (Oct. 25, 2021). Available at [link]. The DOL has announced a short extension of its temporary nonenforcement policy for investment advice fiduciaries. That policy, set out in Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2018-02 (see our Checkpoint article ) was adopted in 2018 after a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the DOL’s 2016 regulations r

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 21, 2021

Proposed Rule: Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights, 29 CFR Part 2550, 86 Fed. Reg. 57272 (Oct. 14, 2021); Fact Sheet: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights (Oct. 13, 2021). Proposed Rule. Fact Sheet. The DOL has proposed amendments to its ERISA investment duties regulation to address concerns that the current regulation inappropriately discourages plan fiduciaries from

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ThomsonReuters

OCTOBER 21, 2021

What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws (updated 10/13/21). Available at [link]. The EEOC has updated its previously issued guidance on COVID-19-related compliance issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), and other federal employment nondiscrimination laws (see our Checkpoint article ).

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