StartUs Presents: Equidam

Describe Equidam in 50 or less words.

Equidam is the current leader in automated business valuation online. Equidam provides all the tools to entrepreneurs, and professionals to measure, and track the value of companies, no matter what stage of their business life-cycle they are in.

Why did you decide to pursue your own dreams rather than someone else’s?

Through our M.Sc. in Finance and Investments, Gianluca and I started consulting smaller scale companies on capital raising. It turned out that valuation, and its calculation, were a sticky problem with no viable or easy answer. I guess we’ve always thought that solving others’ problems appealed to us, so when we saw the valuation issue and the lack of a tangible solution for it, we jumped right in.

In 7 years from now: How did your startup change the world?

If you look at developments in private company financing, a few trends are emerging. Smaller and smaller companies are allowed to raise funds from the general public, and more and more liquidity is coming to the first and second market for equity of private companies. In all these transactions, price, and thus valuation, are key. As these trends develop, Equidam will aid and speed up price information, helping as many companies as possible to reach the required funding, helping as many investors as possible to achieve the required return and invest in the best opportunities, and in general improve capital flows and innovation.

In what ways do you measure your success and how do you make sure you don’t lose track?

I see my role as empowering other members of the team to be as effective as possible. So a lot of my personal success, I guess, is measured by how effectively others are working. On top of that, I have, of course, to make sure that efforts go in the right direction. There are different ways to do that, but mine is always listen to everybody and make choices based on that. So I always try to see the different possibilities and set the track on the ones that have the most solid assumptions, and not change the track unless those assumptions change.

Describe your typical working day from coming to the office to leaving it.

Usually I get in before 9, have a first coffee while checking e-mails and numbers for results, and then set my priorities for the day. They could range from discussing decisions with the product or research team, follow large accounts, work on the financial algorithms of Equidam, interview new candidates or others. Everyday, at 12:15pm we have our ‘Equidam 1-minute meeting’, a moment in which every team member tells the others what they have been up to and what they have on their to-do list. It’s always a good moment to be aware of what’s going on, and sync goals. After lunch I do more emails and routine tasks before getting into meetings usually scheduled after 3pm. After the meetings, it is usually time for more relaxed activities like coding, research or preparing presentations.

Already pivoted? Did customers use the automated online valuation like you imagined it in the beginning?

The version of Equidam that you see now is our 3.0 release. We have gone a long way from 1.0, but I would say that we still stayed on the same track. In an early stage we did some pivoting towards a better, professional and more appealing design, and with version 2.0, we opened to accountants, advisers and financial professionals. We never pivoted 180 degrees, but we are constantly adjusting direction and expanding the array of services we can deliver.

Bootstrapped or financed: What fuels your startup now and what will in the future?

We spent most part of our first year of operations doing product and market research. Back then, we were extremely bootstrapped, working out of the office of a friendly (founded) startup and surviving on savings. But it was clear, since the beginning, that scale would be a big factor for Equidam’s revenue and cash flow; the more the companies using it, the more the value provided to each company, thanks to network effects. To reach that scale as soon as possible we needed, and we still need, external funding. So far we have raised two seed rounds for a total of almost € 300k, which allowed us to get to a dominant position in the equity crowdfunding market and to reach a larger user-base in The Netherlands. Now we are rolling out internationally, and, if necessary, we will probably raise more funding to penetrate these markets.

With ferocious competition and a booming trend to build new companies: How do you make sure you don’t get lost in the shuffle?

During the few years we have been active, we have seen a surge of automated valuation services, at least in the Netherlands. Competition is indeed ferocious, and, thanks to the internet, it could come from any place on earth. I personally think there are two ways of dealing with competition. The first is a defensive strategy; making sure you either have or create barriers to protect your work. In our case, these mostly rely on our patent pending technology and on our ever growing database, key in benchmarking and providing a better service. The second type of strategy is more offensive — and that’s what we mostly use with our competition. We aim to always be the fastest in what we do and we keep on learning how to be faster every time. For this reason, we do our development, as well as marketing and sales, internally. This, along with our company culture, pushes our circle of research/development/feedback to the limit, which is the key to learn and outgrow competitors.

What do you look for in team members?

We usually look for people who are pro-active, energetic, – and especially – who are willing to learn and always develop themselves. They also have to fit our existing team to feel part of it. We want people who are 100% involved in Equidam’s life, and who are willing to make a shared effort to bring our company to the next level, all together.

Why would a talent join your team?

I believe the first reason would be joining our existing team. We have a young, engaged, smart and extremely international team. If somebody is willing to be challenged, learn, and grow as fast as possible, they would fit right in. A loads of people also want to join us because we are a startup – and we’re about startups! By working on value drivers for other companies, everybody can learn what the key components to companies success are. This leads to our door a lot of individuals that have an entrepreneurial spark in them.

What was your most memorable moment so far?

There have been many memorable moments over the years, but I guess the one that is most stuck in my head leads back to the very beginning. We had just opened our 1.0 to the world, or at least to the small portion of it that stumbled upon it. After a couple of weeks, it seemed that one of our registered users was really interested in purchasing a report — the very first report we would have ever sold! After a week or two of trying hard to convince him, he finally gave in and paid for a report! Straight away, we decided to go out with the whole team to party. But just one hour later, I received an email: ‘I would like my money back!’, we all just dropped our drinks and went straight back to the office to fix the report – and that’s how eventually we got us our first, (now) happy customer!

What advice would you give fellow founders for their startup?

In my personal experience, the biggest challenge as a founder was to go from an active role in building products, and solutions to a managerial and inspirational role; when you are in the building phase you are completely focused on what your tasks and goals are, but when you are the backbone of the team, then you have to be there for everyone and make sure that they are operating in the right environment and conditions to succeed. It is challenging to always bring more motivation, focus, enthusiasm and energy than everybody else, but it is a great learning process, too. So I would advice my fellow founders to be ready for this step, maybe to read a few books about management and leadership and to talk with people who have already been there and who can give you tips about how to handle this new, more complete role.