Defensible 409A valuations, produced in hours instead of weeks.
N409 automates Section 409A fair market value determinations for startups. It ingests the cap table, financials and comparable-company data, runs a full valuation engine across four accepted methodologies, and emits an audit-ready report with every exhibit an auditor will ask for.
Interface
Screenshots pending · representative layout
Capabilities
Discounted cash flow, guideline public company and transaction multiples, the option pricing model and probability-weighted expected return. Each runs independently, then reconciles into a single concluded value with a documented weighting rationale.
Parses the full preference stack — liquidation preferences, participation caps, seniority, conversion behaviour — and allocates equity value across every share class at each breakpoint.
Discount for lack of marketability calibrated by the protective put and restricted-stock studies, with a documented basis for the rate rather than a round number pulled from the air.
Assembles a guideline set from public comparables and precedent transactions, with screening criteria recorded so the peer group can be defended line by line.
The report ships with the exhibits an auditor expects: methodology narrative, input tables, sensitivity grids, breakpoint analysis, and the peer set with selection rationale.
Every number in the report traces back to its source and the moment it was set. Re-run the valuation with a changed assumption and the delta is explicit.
Workflow
Import the cap table, historical financials and forecast. N409 normalises share classes, option pools and convertible instruments into a single model.
The engine proposes guideline companies and transactions from the relevant sector. Refine the set; the screening rationale is captured automatically.
DCF, multiples, OPM and PWERM execute in parallel. Sensitivities are computed across the assumptions that actually move the concluded value.
Review the concluded FMV per share, then export a complete PDF with every exhibit attached and every input traceable.
Detail
Valuation & finance
N409 is live in production at n409.aiknol.com. Open it and judge it on the work it does.