[SaaS Series] From Rejected Intern To Acquiring the Company With Tomas Milar

Tomas Milar is the Founder and CEO of Eqvista, an equity management and valuation platform that helps private companies manage ownership and understand their value. He is focused on bringing transparency to private markets by building infrastructure that enables dynamic, real-time pricing for private company equity — capabilities traditionally limited to public markets. Under his leadership, Eqvista has experienced rapid growth, serving over 23,000 companies and managing assets exceeding $270 billion. Beyond Eqvista, Tomas also founded Cheqly, a neobank for startups, as part of his broader vision to create an integrated financial ecosystem.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:26] The rejection that led Tomas Milar to eventually acquire the same company 
• [9:53] Why Eqvista chose a fully self-service model in a traditionally manual industry 
• [13:09] Importance of trust signals like phone numbers on websites
• [16:38] The trade-offs and advantages of offering a freemium product
• [20:10] How real-time valuations are changing how private companies are priced
• [25:05] The mechanics behind tracking share value across private investment portfolios
• [31:37] Who uses valuations, including founders and investors?
• [36:13] Tomas on public display of company valuation via API integration

In this episode…

What if private companies could understand their true value in real time without relying on outdated or complex processes? Many businesses struggle to manage equity, maintain transparency, and deliver accurate valuations to stakeholders. Is there a better way to bring clarity to private market valuations?

Tomas Milar, an expert in equity management and valuation, approached this challenge by rethinking how valuation tools should work. Drawing on his entrepreneurial journey, which included being rejected from an internship and later acquiring the same company, Tomas recognized the need for simple, affordable, self-service solutions. By combining real-time data with intuitive systems, he created a platform that helps businesses, from startups to complex industries, manage ownership and valuations with clarity.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Tomas Milar, Founder and CEO of Eqvista, to discuss real-time valuation and equity management for private companies. They explore transparent pricing, freemium SaaS models, and how dynamic valuation tools empower founders and investors. Tomas also shares insights on building trust and scaling a global platform.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Tomas Milar on LinkedIn
• Eqvista
• Eqvista Partners
• 409A Valuation Service
• Cheqly
• Startupr
• MBanq
• IncParadise
• Zapier
• Pipedrive
• Mailshake
• Jotform
• SiteTuners

Special mention(s):

• Brayton Johnson on LinkedIn

Related episodes:

• “Automation Solutions with Wade Foster Founder of Zapier” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Pipedrive: Brain Surgery, Married, & Moved Company from Estonia to U.S. All at Once – with Urmas Purde [Inspiration]” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[SaaS Series] Tips To Thrive in the SaaS Space With Sujan Patel” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[SaaS Series] Revolutionizing Online Forms and Productivity With Aytekin Tank of Jotform” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Giver & PE Series] Mastering M&A Networking and Deal-Making With Lou Sokolovskiy” on Inspired Insider Podcast
• “How to Make Your Website Visitors Do What You Want with Martin Greif, President of SiteTuners” on Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “I got inspired by a company called IncParadise, which I later acquired. It was kind of an interesting moment for me.”
• “We haven’t raised any money. I put in a substantial amount of my own funds into this project… and that was the key.”
• “The mission was very simple: just make stock issuance simple and fast, with no barriers — true self-service, unlike competitors.”
• “Entrepreneurship is a very lonely world. You need to do things differently than anybody else, and that’s why you are usually successful.”
• “You can also be very sad and do stuff without really being happy. You can choose, and you can trick your brain into it. Neuroplasticity is real.”

Action steps:

1. Embrace self-service technology for efficiency: Adopt self-service tools to enable independent, scalable operations while reducing manual workload and resource strain.
2. Prioritize exceptional customer support and accessibility: Provide fast, direct, and personal customer support to build trust and strengthen long-term loyalty.
3. Leverage real-time data for informed decision-making: Use real-time financial and valuation data to make faster, more confident strategic decisions.
4. Utilize a freemium model to attract and nurture new users: Offer a valuable free tier to drive adoption and convert users as their needs grow.
5. Seek mentorship and cultivate a positive mindset: Engage with mentors and maintain a resilient, positive mindset to navigate challenges and sustain growth.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of InspiredInsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Tom Milar of Eqvista and Cheqly.com. 

And Tom before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out more episodes of the podcast people should check out since this is part of the top software series, okay? I always, Tom, have some cool software founders on. In the past, I had one of the founders of Zapier on. That was a really good episode. One of the founders of Pipedrive at the time, I think there were 10,000 customers since they’ve grown to over 100,000. So it was an interesting journey.

I had Mailshake on, I think they had 70,000 customers and then he was doing acquisitions. So he kind of talked through how they were doing acquisitions to grow that and many more on InspiredInsider.com. 

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. And at Rise25, we help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in a few ways. One, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. So we do the strategy, accountability, and the full execution production behind the scenes. And number two, we’re an easy button for our company’s gifting. So we make gifting and staying top of mind. It could be your clients, partners, prospects. It could be even staff from a culture perspective. You just give us the addresses and we do everything else. Alright. We are the easy button. We’re the magic elves that run in the background and make it stress free for a company to build amazing relationships. You know, Tom, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I found no better way than to profile the people I admire on the podcast and sending them sweet treats in the mail. So check out Rise25.com or email [email protected]. 

I am really excited to introduce Tom Milar. He’s the Founder and CEO of Eqvista. It’s a global equity management and a real time valuation platform serving tens of thousands of companies worldwide. I’m going to we’ll pull up the website because visually it’s nice to see. But his company basically helps create real time company valuation and building the pricing infrastructure layer for private markets. They power over 23,000 companies, over $270 billion in equity. And they drive innovation in how private companies are actually managed price and understand their equity, right? He also previously started the company Startupr, which has become one of the largest incorporation providers in Hong Kong, which was later acquired. And we’ll also talk about the other company, Cheqly. So, Tom, thanks for joining me.

Tomas Milar: 03:11 

Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:13

So let’s start off with Eqvista and what you do. And as you do that, I’m just going to pull up the website so we can poke around there. Right.

Tomas Milar: 03:23

Yes. Thank you. It’s great. Yeah. So we started Eqvista with, you know, a simple, simple mission. If I go back, you mentioned Startupr, that’s actually incorporation service provider. I started the company back in 2000 back to 2011. No, no, no outside funding. Just pure. That was literally because Hong Kong is very, very hot and, you know, we dominated back then very, very quickly because nobody was doing that. We were incorporating companies online. I got inspired by a company called IncParadise, which I later acquired. It was kind of an interesting moment for me. Yes. Thank you. That’s, that’s that, that’s.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:23

Inspired by this company and later acquired that company.

Tomas Milar: 04:26

And I acquired that company. Isn’t that crazy? And it was fantastic. Even though I applied for the internship at IncParadise. So I ran the whole sort of and I close the circle. 

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:44

So did they actually hire you for the internship or are they rejected?

Tomas Milar: 04:46

They did not.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:47

They rejected you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:49

Like I’m going to show you. I’m going to buy your company.

Tomas Milar: 04:51

I’m going to buy. That’s actually a good style too, right?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:56

It’s a great title. Rejected. Internship later acquires company.

Tomas Milar: 05:00

Yes. And, you know, it’s I think it was very strategic to understand what IncParadise was doing. So the company started back in 1999 as a software company. The original name is Eastbiz.com, Inc. So DBA is IncParadise. Before the .com bubble everything you would usually have a .com in the company name like amazon.com, right? That’s what the fashion about. Today we have we see like AI or IO, right? Like AI anything AI right? Like abc.ai, similar thing back then going back to IncParadise. So we started, the company started as incorporation agent, registered agent, became very popular, massive, one of the largest in Nevada. And paradoxically, the company was managing equities in members registrar.

It’s a very simple, very simple PDF document with the date, member’s name, how many units or stocks you have? Very, very, very easy, very easy service. Yeah. 

So I, I would say I launched a similar service in Hong Kong, it was called startupregistry.hk and Startupr. And that company gave me amazing, amazing cash flow. So we were making a lot of money within few people. The margins were through the roof. Incredible, incredible margins. So I was saving money back then quite a lot. You know, it was a point where I would spend the one 1% of the company profit. I’m serious now. I have a family. So it’s a different person.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:03

You know the expenses, right?

Tomas Milar: 07:05

But back then. But back then, it was incredible. It was really incredible. So I saved a lot of money. I saved a lot of money, built other multiple companies, sold a few, got a few.

Another important milestone for us was when we launched when we launched CPA firm. So we started a CPA firm because in Hong Kong, you need to have an audit. You need to have an audit regardless of the revenue or number of employees. So for instance, in Europe, it depends on the revenue and employees similar here in the States. And so I took a few people with me, we acquired IncParadise and the acquisition was very successful. For one very simple reason the owner, believe it or not, hasn’t been in the office for eight years. So the company was self-sustained, still maintained. He built. I would say one of the most sophisticated platforms. Platform which manages thousands and thousands of companies, you know. So that was the key. So you just literally need a few people to manage thousands and thousands of clients. And I bought a company in half cash, half ownership owners financing.

And the acquisition was very successful. And back then it was 2017 and 2018. I was like, hey, you know, we actually are managing all these PDF documents and, and the shareholders for practically all over 17 years, 17 years. And we should do better than that. So, you know, we had an experience with managing equities. So I took six people, key people from my previous companies. And so that’s yeah, that’s that’s about us. The mission was very simple. Just make stock issuance simple, fast. And the first task as a company, a lot of our competitors back then and even until now, they require salespeople. But this is truly the only SaaS company on the market, which You.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 09:51

Like self-service?

Tomas Milar: 09:53

Yes. It’s self-service. Yes, yes, that’s exactly what it is. And I think that’s very, very, very important not to put any barriers if you go to pricing.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:05

Oh yeah. I was looking at this earlier today and I was like, this is totally this is extremely reasonable. Like it is $2 a month per, you know, per shareholder. It’s like a no brainer. Yes.

Tomas Milar: 10:22

Yes. And you know, you know what the thing is, we haven’t raised any money. You know, I put in a substantial amount of my money funds into this project project. Right. And it was the key because, you know, the problem is that you need to meet investors expectations. You need to drive the evolution up and the only way you do it is in early stages, usually technology, right? So you, you, you are building massive technology, and the technology is practically a promise, a promise that one day you will monetize, you will monetize the platform.

So they, the competitors, they, they raise a lot of money, a lot of money, and they practically have to get the money back. And the only way you do that, it’s you charge your clients. So, you know, we suffered a lot over the years, but I would say past one and a half, two years. We are getting it. We are growing substantially. And it’s still 80, 80% less expensive than our competitors. So I can give you an example. You know, around company you pay with one of our one of our other providers, $25-$30,000.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:56

A lot different from $2 a month. Yes. For shareholders.

Tomas Milar: 11:59

Yes. Or $2 per shareholder if you want to go low on the on the on the on the table. But you know, with the pricing, you can, you can do as much. Right? The other thing, I believe you are excellent at what we do. It’s the customer care. You know, again, this is something I have learned over the years. We had the same approach in Hong Kong in office hours you need to answer the email and phone calls immediately. You know, sometimes clients are like, hey, I just, I just hit the button. I just hit the sand. You know, in the email. And we sometimes call in 20s, you know, and that’s that’s.

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