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what if startups got appraisals like real estate. As well as "subject to" appraisals like property that needs repairs.

So, I'd value the company at X but, I'd value the company at X+Y if you added a new phd in XYZ or a CTO from a fortune 1000 company or if you add this many new accounts in this time frame.

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You can do that, and often times debt providers will attach those sorts of provisions: "we'll lend you X and you can keep it as long as you achieve Y or maintain Z". One of the challenges with that is that you can set up domino effects where you miss one goal, and then as a result you don't get the money you need to hit the next and it spirals downwards.

I've been in a company like this and know of others — it's a real pain point when those metrics that funding is tied to turned out to be less relevant than you initially thought or distraction more than true traction indicators. For example, measuring the number of sessions a user has in your app vs the amount of engaged time per user.

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