What Is Your Business Really Worth? (with Tomas Milar)

Most business owners have no idea what their company is actually worth, and neither does anyone else. Private companies don’t trade on a market. There’s no ticker, no graph, no daily price. So when it’s time to raise capital, reward early employees, or sell, you’re guessing. That guessing costs you real money. If you’ve been grinding for years, building something real, and you still can’t answer “what’s my company worth today?” this one is for you. In this episode of Built To Exit, Jason Sisneros sits down with Tomas Milar, founder of Eqvista, a company that issues stocks and provides equity valuations for private companies. Tomas has worked with over 20,000 clients and nearly half a billion dollars in client assets, all bootstrapped, no VC money. Together, we break down: How to price a private company when there’s no public market to reference Why rewarding early employees with equity is a competitive weapon, not just a nice gesture How a logistics company cut from 170 employees to 24 and went from $28M to $12M in revenue with better margins Why raising $35M on $5M in revenue can leave a founder with $8-10M after a $100M exit How AI should be used to make your business efficient without replacing the human judgment that keeps clients safe Why revenue before fundraising is the discipline that separates builders from burn-rate companies What “cap table hygiene” means and why ignoring it kills your exit This episode is for business owners who want to: Understand what their company is actually worth right now Stop diluting themselves into a corner with bad fundraising math Use AI and lean operations to increase enterprise value before they sell You don’t have to figure out valuation, equity, and exit math alone. Tomas and Jason lay out where business owners go wrong and what the smartest operators are doing differently. Chapters 00:00 – Why most business owners can’t answer “what’s my company worth?” 00:27 – Welcome to Built To Exit 01:07 – Tomas Milar’s story: from Hong Kong incorporations to private-company valuations 04:22 – The core question: how do you price something that doesn’t trade? 07:43 – What “always ready to sell” actually means 11:01 – Operator vs. executor: the shift that makes a business transferable 11:39 – Rewarding the believers: stock liquidity for early employees and investors 15:11 – WIIFM: how gamifying your business changes everything 19:29 – AI in business: why “automate but human-deliver” works 22:26 – The real cost of replacing your analyst with AI 25:51 – Two identical businesses, one with AI: what happens to valuation 30:02 – Future revenue multiples and the three things owners can do today 34:16 – The $35M raise on $5M revenue: a cautionary tale in dilution math 🔗 Connect with Tomas Milar & Eqvista Website: eqvista.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tomasmilar/ 🔗 Built To Exit Website: builttoexit.biz Dare To Exit live event: daretoexit.com #BuiltToExit #BusinessValuation #ExitStrategy