Getting an independent assessment before you engage with a buyer or a broker is not about producing a competing number. It is about understanding your own position with enough clarity that you cannot be moved by a confident presentation of someone else's number. The founder who knows what their business is actually worth, and why, negotiates from a different position entirely.

There is a moment many founders describe in almost the same words. They are sitting in a meeting room with their accountant, their lawyer, maybe a broker who came recommended. The deal, the raise, or the restructure is taking shape. And somewhere in the middle of it, a quiet thought arrives: is anyone here actually on my side? It is not an accusation. It does not come with a name attached. Most founders push it down. They have trusted these people for years. They are profe