post-money valuation

Definition

Company valuation after investment capital is added, the number founders brag about while carefully omitting the 'post-money' qualifier. What your company is theoretically worth with someone else's money included.

Example Usage

We raised $5M at a $20M post-money valuation, giving investors 25% of the company.

Origin

Venture capital valuation terminology standardized in the 1980s

Fun Fact

Confusing post-money and pre-money valuations is a common founder mistake that can cost millions in unexpected dilution.

Source: Venture capital valuation terminology

Related Terms

Intermediate

biotechnology

The industry dedicated to using living organisms and biological systems to create products, solve problems, and generally play god in the most profitable way possible. It's where biology meets engineering meets venture capital, resulting in everything from life-saving drugs to designer yeast that makes better beer. Think of it as science's entrepreneurial phase, where petri dishes can lead to IPOs.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

spray-and-pray

An investment strategy of making many small bets across a wide portfolio, hoping a few massive winners will compensate for numerous failures—essentially portfolio construction as gambling. The scatter-shot approach favored by funds who believe they can't predict winners.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

founder dilution

The reduction in founders' ownership percentage that occurs each time the company raises money or issues new equity. It's the slow, inevitable erosion of ownership that founders signed up for when they took outside capital.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

waterfall analysis

A spreadsheet model showing how acquisition proceeds flow to different shareholders based on liquidation preferences and other terms—usually revealing that founders get far less than their ownership percentage suggests. It's where equity dreams go to die.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

retention cohort

A group of users who started in the same time period, tracked to see how many stick around. The cruel truth about how fast people abandon your product.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

deployment velocity

The speed at which a venture fund invests its committed capital, often scrutinized as a metric of both deal flow quality and fund discipline. Too slow suggests weak deal flow; too fast suggests poor judgment and FOMO.

🚀 Startup / VC

Translate This Term

See “post-money valuation” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

Flipped Classroom

An instructional strategy where students watch lectures at home and do homework in class, effectively ensuring they do n...