Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:00
That’s the best customer service, right? I mean, how quickly someone gets back. You know.
Tomas Milar: 13:06
It is. And how and you know, and.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:09
It’s even sometimes, honestly, Tom, rare that someone even has a phone number on their website to call.
Tomas Milar: 13:15
And go go. I think Jeremy, please go to Contact us. And there is a, there is a, there’s a, there’s a phone number, you know.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:23
Exactly.
Tomas Milar: 13:24
It’s, it’s, it’s very important to be, you know, it’s
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:30
It’s funny. You know, Tom, I had a, a, someone who is an expert in website optimization, come on my podcast. Right. And so I go, hey, why don’t we for this episode, you, you just rip our site to shreds, just like, go at it, give us any feedback. I’m like, yeah, ours is pretty good.
Like I was confident and he did on the episode, Tom, just rip our site to shreds. And I’m like, oh, he’s not going to find much. You know, he did. But one thing he did point out was, you know, putting a phone number at the top, just increases trust, like people may not call it, but it increases trust, right? And so we immediately after that episode, and Jeremy put his phone number right there at the top.
Tomas Milar: 14:20
You know what I’m doing now? Yeah. Can you go back to your website? I’m taking a screenshot. I’m taking a screenshot of all of this. We will do the same.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:29
You know, and he said, you know, people may not call, but I’m gonna find who the guy’s name is in the episode. So if people want to check it out because, Martin Greif of SiteTuners and he you’ll see it right here, like basically I pulled up the site and he just he’s like, this is bad. This is bad. This is like, it was hilarious. And I was like.
Tomas Milar: 14:55
So what’s the name of that? What was the name of this guy?
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:58
Yeah. People are looking at is Martin Greif. He’s the President of SiteTuners. And so you’ll see what the site looked like then versus now right after the interview. But there was definitely no, you know, phone number on there at the top. So but to your point, that’s people can text, they can call, you know, and it’s good customer support even, I mean, it makes them at least it just increases trust. Even people don’t call it.
Tomas Milar: 15:28
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it’s part of the sales, right? There’s, you know, the phone number. It’s, it’s all one thing. And there’s other little, little things, thousands of little things you need to do to be successful, especially if you don’t, if you do not, if you don’t raise money And there’s actually two to actually really think, you know, to really think. And I can see us having more resources. I can also see that we are doing things differently than we used to.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:00
Yeah.
Tomas Milar: 16:01
Right.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:03
But I want to talk about the pricing part for a second because I’m curious why you have okay, why is this the free version? Like, how did you decide, okay, this is going to be a free version because you could, you could have included different features on the free version. So why the Freemium Cap Table? Even if you log here, it’s like get Cap Table, it’s free. Right?
And then yes. And then how, what, why you included some of these other things in the Premium Cap Table and then so on. Why the mindset and mentality around some of these free the free version because that still costs you money, you know?
Tomas Milar: 16:38
Yes, I know, I know, I agree. And we have a, we have a lot of discussions about the premium premium model And I have a lot of push backs that we should probably, you know, charge charging.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:52
You get pushback from your team, you mean or.
Tomas Milar: 16:54
From my team? From my team, yes. Right. Yes. I’m the last standing. And and even though a few investors were complaining, not the one who invested, but they were like, hey, you should also like and you should start charging your clients on the freemium. And you know what? I believe that freemium, it’s mostly to B2C, you know, B2C segment. And then you try to convert 3 to 5% of the, of the, of the consumers. But the business I would say it’s, it’s similar. And, you know, we target early stage companies and they go with us as they get older and.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 17:47
Well, let’s try it right. Experience it. I mean, I had this conversation with the founder of Jotform. Jotform grew to over 25 million users, and he talked about how freemium was so important. And I’m looking here because I had the same conversation with them.
I was like, this costs you money. Like this free version, which, you know, five forms, 100 submissions. People could just use that forever if they want, you know? But when they grow, they pay, right? So there is that, I guess, pull between free and paid.
Tomas Milar: 18:24
Yeah, yeah, I agree. It’s, you know, you limit you, you limit the features and the limitation. It’s in the way that you don’t really limit companies at that particular stage. Not to do things which they should do, like stock option plan. So they can do practically anything they want.
And you know, so we save company money.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:52
Yeah. I mean, if you look at some of the things included in the premium, like once people start paying, it looks like obviously there’s other features in there. What have you found? I don’t know, when you look back in the very beginning, when it looked, when it was in the very beginning, what were some of the feedback you were getting that you included in the premium version? Because people were saying, that’s valuable.
Tomas Milar: 19:17
You know, it was mostly it was mostly the certificate. There is. Yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:24
You signing certificates.
Tomas Milar: 19:25
Here. Yes, yes. That’s that that was the one that was the one that’s actually a, that’s actually a feature which should be in, in a while ago for my valuation package rather than in premium. But again, I love to give things free. It makes sense really for the clients. But yeah, it was the, it was the, the certificate.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:54
The, you know, on the web page, on the home page. Tom. It’s like pricing infrastructure for private markets. Can you talk about just pricing infrastructure a little bit and what it means, what it represents? Just so people get an idea?
Tomas Milar: 20:10
Yeah. So if you issue common stocks, the price is determined by the report called for 409A Valuation. So it’s a valuation which comes usually from a certified specialist. We dominate the market now. So the chance that you’re gonna find startups using 409A it mostly comes from us and you just have to get stock value out of the 409A. The preferred stocks are valued at different price, right? The 409A holds the price lower and the preferred stocks it’s a fair market value that’s where practically it exits like or invests like valuation.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:23
What stages are people at? I know the majority of companies that come to you because I know when I’m looking at your site, there’s startups that use you, there’s funded startups, there’s series A, B, C and up. What’s the most common like? What size are people at that come to.
Tomas Milar: 21:40
You, you know? Obviously, I’d love to see any clients, right? That’s our approach. We are industry agnostic type of funding agnostic. We onboard any clients. We have seen what we have seen. We have clients from early stage companies all the way to all the way to unicorns. So one of the, one of the top five, top five AI company is our client. It’s valued at $25 billion. So, so again, we can, we can do this type of equity valuation practically very fast. And going back to your question, if you go to the homepage, the first step, the pricing infrastructure for the private market, what does that mean? You know, again, the PDF documents, the 409A valuation, it’s very static. So think about it. You have a financials from December, right?
That’s actually what we require you to get us in order for us to issue stocks price, common stocks price and it’s three months old, right? Then you and our team, your team, there’s multiple back and forth. It can be another month, even though we can provide valuation within few, few, few days or the same day. It really depends how the file is prepared. So by the time we issue stocks, stock valuation, the 409A valuation, it’s only three four months old, three four months old based on the last based on the last financial data. So. So you have April and the 409A valuation is based on the December data, or May which is really wrong.
So that’s why one day I was like, hey, you know what? It’s actually a different way to do it. It’s 2020 or back then when we started it. And the pricing should be in real time. So we started, we started, we started stock price and the infrastructure comes into play later when we become the single truth pricing truth for the private market. So that’s, that’s, that’s our goal. And what it means in reality is that I believe that the private market is gonna get only bigger. You see massive rounds, a $5 billion raises $200 million.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:42
So our PE companies using you for their portfolio companies, too.
Tomas Milar: 24:47
One of the options. Yes. One of the cases. One of the use cases. Portfolio
VC companies.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:56
It’s got to be interesting because they are invested in it, right. And then they can real time see what the share price is, right?
Tomas Milar: 25:05
Yes, yes. And you know, even though our product can go that far, that you can see a cumulative valuation. So if you are holding company, if you’re holding company and you have a stake in let’s say 100 companies. So there’s a tree like diagram. So you can see the value in each company. So that’s, that’s very.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 25:32
Important for investors because they can kind of see where everything’s at real time. Yes. And I heard you explain this, Tom. It was some interview you did. And they asked you to give, like a one sentence or one liner of what you guys do. And you said we’re a ticker symbol for ticker price for private companies. I thought that was a good way of explaining it because, you know, as you if people are listening, we’re we’re looking at the website here, Eqvista right here, and you can see there’s a share price as if it’s on the stock market. But this is a private company. You can see it going up and down with real time. What are some of the things that are feeding into this to make these changes.
Tomas Milar: 26:16
So we have most important we have a huge data set over $300 billion. That’s what we have done. We have done over $300 billion in clients valuations set. And so that’s one thing that obviously these are public comps mix of public comps so that’s another thing. And I would say the most important is the mix of the formulas. So we have a very dynamic models where they talk to each other and value the asset based on the type of information. So we can actually value any type of company because.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 27:13
Obviously, like you take a software, I mean, we’ll talk maybe like you’ve had a big AI company, a spatial company, a nuclear lab, and they’ll all probably all different industries valued a little bit differently there. Maybe it’s pulling in different data, I don’t know.
Tomas Milar: 27:29
And yes, different data. So I can give you examples. So let’s say, you know, pharma, pharma, companies, they probably never get a revenue. So you value revenue based company differently than the SaaS company or marketplace or space shuttle company. That was very valuable is the research. So we have our models for that. So that’s one approach. And the most important thing here is that we can do 100 valuations in, in a few days. The fair market value, the real time valuation and that’s, that’s quite important for for the funds, mostly because they don’t have to have a 12 people working around, you know, through the year to value all the assets because by the time they are finished, they need to start over again because it takes them usually three months to, to value all the portfolios. So at the start over again, but this is typical example where you just basically plug, plug in or give us a name. We can work with limited data, obviously more data we have about a company.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 28:45
What data are people feeding into it to get the result? Like what, what? Give me an example.
Tomas Milar: 28:52
It’s much everything figures, financials, profit loss, balance sheet, forecasts is very helpful. Obviously funding around your table. You ask advice based on you know based on based on whatever securities you have. But equity convertible notes, all this play a big role, but mostly it’s mostly the revenue on top of the industry you are in.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:37
We’re looking at, you know, one of the things I was looking at, Tom, is the products, right? So there’s like, it looks like equity management. If we look at the categories, right, equity management for 409A valuations, banking. And then you have, you know, pulp or let’s see public companies secondary markets. What are the most popular on here that people are using.
Tomas Milar: 30:05
Is definitely the equity management. Equity management products is the is the equity management. All all these equity management.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:17
Because we look at the pricing, this is more the equity management. But you do have 409A valuation.
Tomas Milar: 30:24
Intentionally intentionally called the package 409A valuation because I might say, I’m very proud of it. It’s it’s really amazing. Our team, the analyst, I would say, are one of the smartest unit evaluation unit unit out there. We can we can turn around evaluation, you know, 48 hours. Very difficult one. You know, human, human, human driven is.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:58
Set to certain industries or what type of industries do you.
Tomas Milar: 31:02
Really. Not really. It doesn’t, it doesn’t, it doesn’t, it doesn’t, doesn’t, doesn’t work. We have done them. We have done so many of those. We can really see different cases and either use the same, use the same formula or just slightly different approach. So we have a lot of experiences. So that’s quite a that’s quite that’s quite valuable for the market, not for us as a provider. Obviously we get paid for it, but for the market. So that’s.Yeah. So that’s that’s the.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:37
Are the people coming in here so they can get a valuation of any type of company? Essentially they can go in here. Is it typically like an investor saying I want a valuation of this company or is it a company maybe raising money? That’s like I want to know both.
Tomas Milar: 31:51
Both. Both. So the company usually comes in, you know, 409S or prefer stocks, the preferred stocks are usually for the fund raise 409A stock option plans. So for both and investors obviously they want to understand the value of the company because most of the time, and that’s what I would really recommend unbiased now. But that certification and defensibility. So every single valuation needs to be defensible. So if you, if you are choosing a provider, you need to make sure that they have a proper license and you will always can talk to the valuation analyst who will walk you through this, walk you through the process, answer any questions and make sure that you know, in case you get audited by IRS or Big 4 because you were just acquired or you’re raising another round, the analyst will always, you know, help you to answer all those questions. And that’s actually what we do. That’s actually why, why we are one of the best on the market actually, actually the best. If you, if you look at, if you look at the, the, the homepage, we are ranked as number one equity. Yeah. Right here in the middle. The red. Yeah, yeah. Equity number one. Number one, entity management software provider on G2 and and and Clutch. So that’s the client first journey.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 33:38
Yeah, it’s pretty remarkable here what you’ve built. I’m curious if we can walk through a couple use cases. I know you talked about the AI company. You also had a space shuttle company. How do they use Eqvista?
Tomas Milar: 33:52
So for them, it was the fair market value because obviously there’s not many companies I actually learned a bit about, about building a shuttle company. I actually learned that it’s easier to build a shuttle from the space down than the other way around. I would not guess that. Yes. Very typical. Very typical. I mean, it’s one of these companies and yeah. So the thing is that how do you value very unique, very unique company. So we had to come up with a really defensible solution. So the price is valid and the investor pays a reasonable price and the founder who’s pitching to investors is also happy with the valuation. You know, always defensible, always defensible.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 34:52
Is it similar with the nuclear lab company? Is that.
Tomas Milar: 34:54
Yeah. Similar, similar thing, similar thing. There’s a lot of attestation. There’s a lot of certification. And the use case is usually, you know, they are building a company from the day one that you’re going to get acquired because the energy industry in, in the, in the US, it’s, it’s quite rigid, right? It’s not like in Europe where you have multiple individuals buying powerplants. So again, the valuation was a little bit tricky because we were pricing the stocks based on the future acquisition value and it shouldn’t be too high or too low. So most likely.
Not. Method because there’s also the pixel method, but more. More like, you know, going back to. Working towards the acquisition process from the point where you acquired it.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 35:56
I’m curious, how do people time use the. I’m looking at the Eqvista real time company valuation. Right. And it shows like it’s a ticker on the stock market. Are they using this internally? Do. Some of them put on it externally facing on their website ever or how they use it.
Tomas Milar: 36:13
Yes. That actually say three levels. One you, close it very close to your chest. Board members and just just admin then for shareholders. So you open up that platform to your shareholders. And it’s actually very important. And it’s probably for another discussion. But there is a secondary market for stocks. And I’m extremely unhappy how the stock market the secondary market actually works.
You know some some some companies get 40 60% discounted and the founder is running towards the price down price down price down motion where any of your employees or shareholder sells the stocks at 40 60% discount and you are going for be around the opposite direction. So I think that is usually that usually happens when you as an employee, as a shareholder, stockholder, don’t really understand what the company is worth. You don’t have access to your to company financials, and there’s not really a definite ability why you should sell it for whatever you think as a shareholder. But if you have access to real time and the real time is based on real data and supported by profit loss, all the financials from the company, it’s a win win win.
Obviously, there will be always a discount because that’s the risk. The second market, which is you know, the buyer is taking. But the second level of transparency. And obviously the third one is that where you put the stock price of your company on your website through our API.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 38:28
That’s maybe less common.
Tomas Milar: 38:31
That’s just common. Yes, that’s very less common.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 38:35
It’s interesting. I’ll have to time share. It’s really there’s a lot of use cases there. But Lou Sokolovskiy had on the podcast. He runs Opus Connect, which is like a private equity M&A group. So they’ll have to check out what you’re doing there because they may be able to use it. For all the deals they’re putting together, kind of cool. I have one last question, Tom, before I ask it I just want to, you know, point people to Eqvista. You could check out e-q-v-i-s-t-a.com to learn more.
It’s really interesting what you’re doing there. My last question is just mentors. Who are some of the mentors for you in business throughout your journey? It could be colleagues, also colleagues that you just learned a lot from. It doesn’t have to be personal mentors that you know, even it could be a book like that you considered that mentored you or some resource as well as personal mentors.
Tomas Milar: 39:40
You know, I, I’m quite lucky. I have a, I have a, I have a few. And. I think they usually play more strategic roles. And you need to choose who to choose from you know, each, each industry. And, as you said, yes, it is, it is nowadays, it’s probably the strongest one is my, one of my colleague and he leads revenue, Brayton Johnson. that I have a few few other big thinkers, and I think one of the most common things that I really admire about people I choose as mentors is the just happiness just to be happy and just you know, get, get things done, you know, with a big smile on your face, even though it’s hard because you can also be very sad and do stuff. Without really being happy, you know, so you can choose and you can trick your brain into it, right?
Neuroplasticity is real. You can really buy yourself differently than you were raised. Because, you know, entrepreneurship is a very lonely world, right? You need to do things differently than anybody else. And that’s why you are usually successful. So there’s no really unique path or one path or multiple. There’s your path for me, right? So that’s how it works, I believe.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 41:38
Yeah. I figured you were going to say some of the people I don’t know, these, some of these companies are, I don’t know mentors or resources. I’m looking I was looking at your Eqvista Partners page and there’s a bunch of companies here. I imagine some of these, you know, you know pretty well or the people there pretty well. Oh yes.
Tomas Milar: 41:58
Of course. Yes, yes, yes. I would say.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 42:00
Most highlight.
Tomas Milar: 42:02
Most of them. I would definitely highlight and bank that not only here, but you can, you can pull out MBanq MBanq. Yes. And bank with Q at the at the end And I think that that’s that’s common. And yes, that’s the, that’s the, that’s the website and the meeting in a couple of in a couple of hours is a big mentor is a really good, good guy. And he built, I would say the last standing and the only standing bus company banking as a service company, extremely, extremely successful. So yeah, that’s, that’s, I would like to definitely mention. So thank you so much for your support. Without, without checking our new bank wouldn’t, wouldn’t exist. And there’s a symbiotic mechanism between.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:12
These right.
Tomas Milar: 43:13
Here.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:14
And this is also.
Tomas Milar: 43:15
Your company and it’s also our company, you know, so we can open account for businesses and most importantly for our Cheqly. Well, technically clients so they can exchange, sell and buy stocks, get a visa card and transact, transact on the platform.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 43:42
This is great, Tom. I just want to be the first one to thank you. Everyone can check out eqvista.com like you’ve seen, you can check out Cheqly, check out the partners page and everything else and we’ll see you for next time. Tom, thanks so much.
Tomas Milar: 43:58
Thank you. Bye.
