The nine chapters
The studio asks about your business in nine chapters, in the order a buyer’s analyst would. Three numbers give you a first value; every answer after that makes it more yours.
Nine chapters, in a buyer’s order
The studio walks through the business the way a buyer’s analyst would: first what it earns, then how the money arrives, who it depends on, where the costs go, what the owner takes out, what it owns and owes, what could stop it, where it’s heading, and finally how a deal would be paid for.
The chapters follow the inputs the valuation is built from: the revenue path (chapters 1–3), the margin (chapter 4), the adjustments a buyer makes to earnings (chapter 5), the steps from the whole business to the owner’s share (chapter 6), the risks priced as scenarios (chapter 7), growth (chapter 8) and the deal basis (chapter 9).
Chapter 1 · Your business
Three numbers place you on the map and produce your first read.
Questions it asks, for example:
- What was your total revenue over the last twelve months?
- What was your EBITDA over the same period, before any owner add-backs?
- If you stopped selling today, how many months of revenue are already under signed contract?
Chapter 2 · Revenue engine
How the money arrives: seats, passes, contracts, equipment.
Questions it asks, for example:
- How many seats or lines are you billing this month?
- Over the last twelve months, what percentage of your customers left?
- What share of your monthly recurring revenue is on contracts of twelve months or longer?
Chapter 3 · Customers & suppliers
Who you depend on, on both sides of the business.
Questions it asks, for example:
- Where does your softswitch or UCaaS platform come from?
- What does it cost you in sales and marketing to win one new seat?
- If you stepped away for six months, what would happen?
Chapter 4 · Margins & costs
Where each dollar goes before it becomes profit.
Questions it asks, for example:
- On your recurring service revenue alone, what is your gross margin?
- What does one seat cost you per month in minutes, numbers, E911, platform fees and hosting?
- What share of revenue goes to sales, marketing and administration?
Chapter 5 · Owner adjustments
The buyer will normalize these. Better you do it first.
Questions it asks, for example:
- How much did you (and family members on payroll) take out of the business last year?
- What would it cost to hire someone to do your job?
- Were there one-time costs or windfalls in last year’s results?
Chapter 6 · Cash, capex & balance sheet
What you own, what you owe, what the business needs to keep running.
Questions it asks, for example:
- How much cash is in the business today, beyond what you need for day-to-day operations?
- What do you owe on term loans, lines of credit, equipment notes and finance leases?
- On average, how many days after billing do you get paid?
Chapter 7 · Compliance & licenses
The gates a buyer’s diligence will open first.
Questions it asks, for example:
- What is your status in the FCC Robocall Mitigation Database today?
- Do your multi-line systems support direct 911 dialing, notification and dispatchable location?
- Are you registered and current in every state where you have customers?
Chapter 8 · Growth & outlook
Where the next five years come from.
Questions it asks, for example:
- How much did revenue grow over the last twelve months?
- Where do you expect your price per seat to go over the next few years?
- What share of your accounts buy contact-center, call-recording, SMS or AI features on top?
Chapter 9 · Deal terms & financing
How a buyer would actually pay for it.
Questions it asks, for example:
- Are you valuing a sale of the whole business, or a minority stake?
- Who is the most likely buyer?
- What share of the price would you be willing to take as a seller note or earn-out?
How to read it. Longer bars are chapters with more to ask. Revenue and the balance sheet ask the most; the dark bar, chapter 1, is where the first value comes from.
Three numbers, then a first read
You pick the kind of business first. Two very different economies share this industry code: voice and internet access sold over the customer’s own connection, and satellite ground stations and specialized sites. The questions and the benchmarks change with your pick.
Then come three numbers: revenue, profit and your kind of business. That is enough for a first value, a range and a football field. Every answer after that tightens the range.
If your capital spending, months of signed backlog and largest-customer share read like the other economy, a “Check the fit” note says so and offers to switch. Those three lines are what separate the two economies in this code.
What each chapter unlocks
Some parts of the valuation can’t be computed until the right chapter is done. When it is, the studio says so and the chart gains a bar.
- Revenue engineThe per-seat comparison bar: what similar books sold for per seat.
- Cash, capex & balance sheetThe asset floor and the steps from the whole business to the owner’s share.
- Compliance & licensesThe regulatory risks are priced: the value now carries your compliance record.
- Deal terms & financingThe financing ceiling: what a lender would let a buyer pay.
On a phone
A chapter
The live value
Under the hood
- Inputs. The model holds 88 inputs across the nine business types. Each applies to some types and not others: 58 apply to an own-platform hosted-voice provider. A teleport gets antenna and contract questions instead of seat questions.
- Ports. Every input feeds one input of the valuation core: the revenue path, the margin, reinvestment, working capital, the horizon, the discount rate, the regulatory scenarios, the bridge from enterprise value to equity, or the deal basis. The question card prints the port it feeds.
- Hard facts. Revenue, seats and a handful of documented amounts are treated as facts: they are not swept across a range when the studio tests what moves the value.
- Defaults. A skipped question takes the industry median for your business type, or a value derived from your other answers (staff from revenue, for example), and is labelled as an assumption in the report.
- Saving. The studio saves to the device you’re using and can export your answers. A run can stop and resume.
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