We had a great week talking about everything from subscription business models to how a company is valued. Mark Williams, Director at Results International spoke extensively on deconstructing company valuations last night, whilst Edd the co-founder of Graze kicked the week off on Tuesday night sharing Graze’s story.

Dinner with Graze for subscription businesses
Dining at the fantastic Royal Exchange Grand Cafe, Edd and his fellow diners enjoyed a dinner covering the nuts and bolts of how a subscription business model works. Drawing on his experience from being the co-founder & CTO of Graze, Edd shared the story of how Graze has grown over the past 7 years.

With their vision to be the world’s number one health snack brand, their belief in the success of this is by building multiple channels. Starting as a subscription business, they branched out into retail 9 months ago. After two weeks they become the top snack seller at WHSmith!

Describing Graze as a tech company first, Edd explained how they move fast and react quickly. Learning from their experience from the get-go has pushed their business to where it is today, and they continue to prove the success of the multi-channel strategy.

Deconstructing company valuations dinner
TableCrowd members joined Mark Williams for dinner at The Happenstance to explain the art behind how company valuations are determined, what in particular can drive a valuation as well as how to value your own company.

With an average taking between 6-9 months, valuations are seen as more of an art than a science. Getting the best valuation for your business depends on a variety of things. But the real question is how much is a buyer willing to pay, as that’s the real cost of any company. It’s the ability to articulate the value of a business that will provide the most positive valuation.

When it comes to tech businesses, valuations are usually worked out as a multiple of the revenue. Typically valuations of this sort sit at between 3 to 6 times the revenue. And, generally speaking, those businesses that are the first movers and shakers, the disruptive ones have sold at a higher multiple of the revenue.

Ultimately, what it all boils down to are knowing your buyer, getting under their skin and being able to offer them something that’s of value to them. And of course, if there’s competitive tension – it stands to reason that that in itself can add a lot of value to a business.

Our speakers were joined by Running in Heels, Thinking Bob, The Dinner Set, Fly Marketing, Liberte Fitness, Biotech and Money, Alchemy PR, EarlyBird, Gartner, CafePod, Goldman Sachs, Doctor Care Anywhere, Showroomist.co, TrafficLightSolutions, RATP Dev UK, Dental Capital Partners, Bristows, Mattioli Woods, and Unocodrinks amongst others.

Special thanks goes to our speakers Edd and Mark, as well as our partner Wellers.

Take a look at what other dinners we have on the horizon for you to join.