Curtis HowlandField studiesField studies
Operator's template Nº02 / Exit valuation & cost of capital

DTC brand value & capital calculator.

This model works out what your brand is worth, what hits your bank account and what your capital really costs. It builds your multiple from metrics you already manage, and every band is sourced on its own tab.

Get the XLSX ↓
Free. XLSX, 3 sheets.
01
What's inside
  • 01The multiple builderEight levers, each with a premium and a discount threshold, turn metrics you already manage into turns of EBITDA.
  • 02The add-back engineIt scores add-backs the way a quality of earnings review does, so excess owner comp counts and marketing investment doesn't.
  • 03The bridgeIt takes headline enterprise value down through funded debt, the working capital peg, advisor fees, escrow, rollover and earnout to the number that clears.
  • 04The cost of capital normalizerOne formula turns any flat fee into an APR, which shows why paying it back faster makes it more expensive.
  • 05Your offer against nine alternativesIt prices your offer on one scale against options from a bank revolver to equity, and tells you in dollars what you're paying for speed and access.
  • 06The decision dashboardIt grades you against benchmark on gross margin, EBITDA margin, channel concentration, add-back load, cash at close and net-to-you, and a Benchmarks tab cites the source behind every band.
02
Read weekly by operators at

Google, Procter & Gamble, Target, ByteDance, Ritual, Dr. Squatch, Lovevery, Koala, HiSmile, Tinuiti.

Newsletter subscribers, by employer. Their companies haven't endorsed this.

Your posts consistently show a systems-level understanding of Meta rather than surface-level dashboard thinking, and that's pretty rare.
Kartike S., on LinkedIn
03
More field studies