Hacker News Reader

They do have established business lines and are profitable, so the valuation models are supposedly more accurate. The unicorn startup models would have much higher variance, so that leaves a lot of room for hand waving and personal branding to be factored in.

Don't all those example assets change hands for cash (or equivalents) pretty regularly?

Valuation by comparables is an acceptable model if both parties agree on it.

However, it's still far from a done deal as each transaction has its own minuscule details, and in commercial property, e.g., one party might value such things as location, quantity/quality of parking spots, proximity to traffic flows, quality of neighbors, recently incurred maintenance, etc. differently from the other.

With that said, a 409a valuation firm (or potential acquirer) is likely to look at the peers, current and historic ones, to at least start at some ballpark figure.

Comps are a lot easier with those assets.

How about securitising the assets in clusters just like MBS.