Welcome to the post-chocolate apocalypse, where you realise that the first quarter of the year has already disappeared and some of those targets you set yourself turned out to be about as realistic as your promises not to over-indulge around the family table over this holiday period.

Luckily, it’s only April. The true fools this month are the ones who don’t reflect on the first quarter and consider what the rest of the year might look like. The Northern Hemisphere has a big push now before the summer holidays, when the sun comes out and so do the strawberries and cream at Wimbledon. In the Southern Hemisphere, the grind into winter starts now and so does the real work for this year, with the fruits of that labour to be harvested as the weather warms up again.

We are seasonal creatures, us humans. The weather affects us. The prevailing mood affects us. With a constant onslaught of inputs that affect our emotions and thought processes, it can be incredibly helpful to get some objective insight into your business.

That’s why we exist.

Thanks for giving us some of your time today to read this letter.

Startup valuations have historically been on the “Here Be Dragons” part of the map. Shrouded in mystery, very few people seem to be able to explain an objective framework for valuing startups from pre-revenue all the way through to Series C raises (and beyond).

We are working hard to change that.

Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Absolutely. To see for yourself how we think about this concept and the approach we have developed, you can watch the recording of our most recent webinar.

Also, keep the 24^th of April open for our next webinar. We plan to have the help of a special international guest to bring you more startup valuation and fundraising insights from around the world.

Details to follow!

Our discussions with international founders and business advisors go far beyond the weather and the different holiday seasons, although those are important too. It’s been great to confirm what we thought we already knew: building and selling businesses really isn’t that different from one country to the next.

Sure, there are nuances. But most of all, there are similarities. Many similarities.

In this article, we touched on some of our recent podcast discussions to bring you useful insights into building and selling businesses around the world. We hope that you find the time to listen to the underlying podcasts as well, as there’s really no substitute for hearing the insights directly from our international podcast guests.

Americans are well-known for their no-nonsense approach to business. In case you aren’t sure what this sounds like, our latest podcast with Ted Leverette will quickly put that uncertainty to bed. He never holds back in delivering hard-hitting insights for sellers of businesses. Ted works with buyers every day and looks for holes in the business story that drive the purchase price lower, so his advice for sellers is beyond invaluable.

Make time to listen to this podcast. It could be the best 35 minutes you ever spend on your business.

We’ve recently had the great pleasure of meeting Lien De Pau, a serial entrepreneur based in Belgium. There’s a podcast episode with her coming soon that will be well worth your time. In addition to this, we are collaborating with Lien on her weekly columns in Forbes, which is a great way to contribute our insights and learn from her and the rest of her ecosystem.

You can read her piece on three must-ask questions to avoid regretting the sale of your business, or this article on how remote teams can impact business valuations.

This is the perfect time of year to inject some value-creating thinking into your business strategy. With the benefit of a quarter of trading behind you and three quarters of strategic initiatives ahead of you, why not find out what your business is worth and the extent of the positive impact of these initiatives?

When we value your business, we don’t just tell you what you’re worth today. We give you an idea of what you would be worth under various scenarios, giving you the planning tools you need to make the most of 2024.

That’s all from us for this update.

As always, we look forward to discussing your needs and how we can assist.

We recently launched bizval express and we couldn’t be happier with the results we are seeing. As a first stab at a valuation, express uses the core of our methodology and delivers a plausible valuation range. For those seeking a more accurate answer, our live and concierge offerings are perfect.