The concept of valuating a website for venture capital funding seems bizarre, or at least hard to do.
You don’t see it often. It’s not discussed much in the press.
Websites have no hard assets that can be collateralized as with traditional brick and mortar stores.
The dot com bust that happened at the dawn of the millennium is still fresh in the minds of many would-be backers. Recall that was when VC funds were throwing money at companies whose only property was an email subscriber list.
Investors have since gone back to staying away from investments that cannot be scaled or aren’t commodity-based.
But there has been big digital publishing deals in recent weeks.
Comcast Corp invested $200 million in digital publisher BuzzFeed which has a $1.2 Billion valuation for the fun blog -turned serious news outlet.
Earlier this year, Comcast also lent another $200 million to Vox Media, re/code and other digital publishing companies and sites.
Analysts say digital media is game changing.
These new media outlets have millions of subscribers so they can exist on ad revenue alone if they want. But now, pay-walls are a thing. Ebooks from popular columnists make commoditizing a website possible, and profitable.
But what about solo-run websites or single blogs with a massive following?
When the time comes for owners of those sites to expand and they are thinking of going after getting investor cash, there really isn’t much information out there to guide the site owner or investor on what to look for.
TechYaYa editor Jeneba Jalloh Ghatt changes that and has released an ebook on Amazon.com and iTunes that provides guidance, “How to Valuate a Blog for Ventire Capital Funding (A Primer)”
The ebook helps small independent publishers assign realistic and a tangible dollar value to subjective and hard to calculate attributes of a website or blog.
For VCs, Ghatt, who is also a media lawyer, gives those looking to invest in a website other factors to consider that cannot be ascertained from automated services available online.
Get it HERE for just $4.99!
