[clairity]

ha, yes, we used damodaran's book in my corporate valuation class!

i forgot to mention that you can also employ an option pricing model, like black-scholes or the binomial model (in simpler cases), in cases with multiple classes of equities, wherein you can back out a valuation (and subsequently, a discount rate) based what the various VCs involved are expecting.

[pstrazzulla]

Very true. Especially since the equity value of a startup basically looks like an out of the money call option where you're paying a small amount now for a potential large payoff of our money (but high chance of $0 outcome). Also, more volatility will increase the value of this option (whether it's founder or market volatility - aka Travis from Uber or Cypto or Cannabis).