yes, but the key part of your statement is "if there are people offering to buy". Everything else about spread/bid/ask/etc is just mathematic sugar.

"People offering to buy" is key.

It's very easy for a founder to tell employees "hey I met with a VC yesterday, and they were interested in investing at $x a share!". It's easy to say that, but making it actually happen is the real deal. When someone sign on the dotted line and hand over real $. It's a much more accurate test of value.