The Deckmetric valuation engine produces conservative, target, and optimistic pre-money ranges from a small set of structured inputs about your stage, sector, traction, market, geography, and team. This page walks through each layer of the model so you can interpret the output, defend the range in front of investors, and identify which inputs would most improve your valuation.
Every valuation begins with a base range derived from publicly observed deal data for companies at the same funding stage. Pre-seed, seed, Series A, Series B, and growth each have their own multiple bands. The base range is intentionally wide because stage alone does not pin down a price; it sets the universe of plausible outcomes that subsequent inputs narrow.
The base range is then adjusted for the sector you operate in and the geography of your headquarters. AI infrastructure, fintech, and climate tech currently command different premiums than consumer social or marketplaces, and US-headquartered companies typically price differently than European or Latin American peers at the same stage. These adjustments are multiplicative, not additive, so they compound with the stage base.
The engine then applies a competitive-position multiplier based on how crowded your market is. Blue-ocean categories (no direct competitors) earn a meaningful premium because investors price scarcity of the opportunity. Emerging categories with two to four funded competitors are still rewarded for category leadership. Competitive categories (five to ten funded competitors) are valued near par, and crowded markets (ten or more funded competitors) take a discount because investors expect higher CAC and a longer fight for share. This is a multiplicative factor that compounds with the stage, sector, and region adjustments above.
The model takes your reported revenue or active users, growth rate, gross margin, and burn multiple as quantitative inputs. Strong traction at a given stage pushes the range toward the optimistic end of the band; weak or absent traction pulls toward the conservative end. The model treats absent metrics as neutral, not negative, so pre-revenue companies are not unfairly penalized — they simply have less signal to lift the range.
Founder background, prior exits, and team completeness add a smaller modifier on top of the traction-adjusted range. Market size also modifies the optimistic upper bound — a credible $50B+ TAM raises the ceiling more than a $1B niche, but neither changes the conservative floor. This separation reflects how investors actually price: downside is anchored to current traction, while upside is anchored to story and market.
Once the conservative, target, and optimistic ranges are computed, the engine generates eight investor perspectives — one for each of the institutional investor types that evaluate startups. Each perspective restates the range in the language and priorities of that investor type, so founders preparing for a specific conversation can rehearse against the criteria that matter to that audience.
Each valuation is restated through the lens of all 8 institutional investor types so you can rehearse against the priorities of the audience you are actually meeting.
The valuation engine does not replace a banker, lawyer, or experienced fundraising advisor, and it does not produce a binding offer. It is a defensible starting point built from observed market data, not a final price. The range will move based on competitive dynamics in your specific round, the lead investor's portfolio construction, and how skillfully you negotiate.
Treat the conservative number as your default-alive walk-away price, the target as the realistic mid-case for a competitive process, and the optimistic as the achievable ceiling if you run a tight process with multiple committed term sheets. If your deck does not articulate the inputs the model rewards, you will struggle to defend even the conservative end of the range in a partner meeting.