Editorial Guidelines

The Private Company Valuation Guide exists to help investors, founders and advisors value private companies with confidence. The standards below describe how the guide is researched, reviewed and kept current. They apply to every page in the guide and the glossary.

Editorial principles

Accuracy and clarity

Every page is written by people with direct experience in private-market valuation and investing. We aim for precision first and plain language second, explaining technical concepts without unnecessary jargon and defining terms in the glossary so a reader can follow the reasoning rather than take a number on trust.

Expert review

No page is published without review by a senior practitioner. Each article carries a named author and a named reviewer at the top, so readers can see who stands behind the content. Reviewers check the methods, the worked examples and the figures before a page goes live.

Independence and objectivity

The guide is editorially independent. We do not accept payment to feature, favour or alter content, and where the guide references DealMatrix products it does so because they are relevant to the topic, not as paid placement. Where a method has limitations, we state them plainly rather than overselling a single approach.

Sources

Claims rest on reputable sources: recognised valuation standards such as the IPEV guidelines and IFRS 13, peer-reviewed academic work, and primary market data. Each article lists its sources at the end so a reader can verify the basis for a statement and read further.

Continuous updates

Private markets move, and a valuation that ignores that movement is not a fair value. We review the guide regularly and update it as standards, market conditions and methods change. Every page shows the date it was last updated. We welcome corrections and feedback from readers.

How we use AI

We use AI tools to support drafting, to structure information and to check readability. We do not use AI as a substitute for human expertise. Research, judgement, the worked examples and the final review are done by people. AI is not used as the source of facts or as the fact-checker, and no page is published on the strength of a model alone.

Editorial review board

The guide is produced and reviewed by the DealMatrix team:

• Denis Voldman, Head of Product at Venionaire DealMatrix, leads authorship of the guide.
• Berthold Baurek-Karlic, CEO of Venionaire DealMatrix, serves as senior reviewer.

Corrections and contact

If you spot an error or have a question about a method, we want to hear about it. Corrections are made promptly and the update date on the affected page is revised. The guide sits alongside the wider DealMatrix methodology, which documents how the multiples dataset is built.