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- Idea Of The Day - Please build this: Kelley Blue Book for startups, because vibes aren’t valuations
Idea Of The Day - Please build this: Kelley Blue Book for startups, because vibes aren’t valuations
Needs To Exist
April 25, 2025
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Daily Idea - Startup Valuation Engine
Be the Source of Truth
Startup valuations, finally made simple.
Inspired by this tweet by @gregisenberg
The One Liner
Startup valuations shouldn’t be a guessing game.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
Where’s the Kelley Blue Book for startups? A dead-simple tool that shows what your company’s worth—and what deals are actually fair.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
You can Google what a 2017 Honda’s worth. But your startup?
That’s vibes-based pricing. A coin flip with a pitch deck.
Founders are raising too high or too low. Investors are overpaying or missing gems.
Everyone’s flying blind—and pretending they aren’t.
No standardized benchmark. No real comps. No shared language.
Just whispers, flexes, and inflated Medium posts.
And it’s a big problem—because pricing isn’t just ego. It’s survival.
The Solution
Imagine a Kelley Blue Book for startups.
You enter your stage, metrics, traction, category.
The system looks across thousands of similar startups—live or dead.
It runs models, compares rounds, finds real comps.
You get a valuation range grounded in actual market behavior.
Founders use it to anchor raises.
Angels use it to spot overlooked value.
VCs get a heatmap of where to hunt.
It becomes the trusted pricing layer of the startup world.
Like Pitchbook, but for people who don’t have 9 logins and a $20K subscription.
And the monetization? Clean.
$50/month for founders and early teams.
$500/year for deeper breakdowns, exit comps, and round-prep tools.
$5K/year for PE/VC dashboards, alerts, and deal flow filters.
Sell leads, license data, plug into accelerators.
Eventually: media, rankings, benchmarks, partnerships.
How You’d Build It
Why It Needs to Exist
Because startups are one of the only major asset classes with no pricing standard.
This idea brings clarity to chaos.
It helps founders negotiate better.
Helps investors find real value.
And levels the playing field for anyone not already plugged into the old boys' club.
If someone builds this right—it won’t just be useful.
It’ll be the new default.
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Truth = Traffic = Trust
The Most Underrated Startup Strategy?
Be the source everyone checks before they act.
Think about how the internet works.
Before you buy a flight: Google Flights.
Before you eat: Yelp.
Before you rent a place: Zillow.
Before you invest: Morningstar.
Before you make any decision: you search for… a source of truth.
And that’s your edge.
If you want to build a killer startup—don't just solve a problem.
Be the place people go before they try to solve it.
Why This Works
When people don’t know what to trust, they default to one thing: a system that makes sense of the noise.
The world’s full of confusion, bias, marketing, and manipulation.
So when you create a product that says “Here’s what’s real”—you instantly become valuable.
And the best part?
You don’t even have to sell anything.
Just organize what already exists.
Truth → Traffic → Trust → Monetization.
Here’s How to Think About It
When brainstorming ideas, ask:
🧠 “Where are people guessing?”
Anywhere people say: “What’s a good price for…” or “What should I do in this situation?” — that’s a goldmine.
🧠 “What do insiders know that outsiders don’t?”
If it lives in Slack threads, DMs, or old spreadsheets, bring it to the surface.
🧠 “What decision do people hate making because they don’t know enough?”
This is your cue to turn pain into a product.
Examples (Without Naming Names)
One site shows the real job titles and salaries at companies.
Now they sell data to recruiters and SaaS to HR teams.One spreadsheet turned public SaaS metrics into a database.
Now it’s a media + membership + product biz.One company just ranks tools by usefulness.
They make bank from affiliate deals, sponsorships, and newsletter ads.
None of these started with “let’s change the world.”
They started with: “Let’s just tell people the truth and see what happens.”
Tools to Make This Easy
Want to build something like this in a weekend? Here's the stack:
🔎 Data Aggregation
🛠️ No-Code Frontend
📈 Monetization Layer
Lemon Squeezy or Gumroad – Subscriptions or data reports
SparkLoop – For newsletter-driven monetization
Geniuslink – Turn your links into affiliate gold
The Cheat Code
Truth-based products monetize in sneaky ways:
You become the gatekeeper. Want access to insights? Pay up.
You get distribution without ads. People link to truth.
You build reputation by default. Even if you’re small, people trust the signal.
You own the top of the funnel. Every action starts with you.
And then, you layer in products, referrals, ads, memberships, SaaS, or all of the above.
Bottom Line
Don’t try to win the internet.
Just win one question that people ask over and over.
Answer it better than anyone.
Be the source they check first.
Once you become the default, everything else gets easier.
Your traffic is earned.
Your trust is built-in.
Your startup practically sells itself.
And it all starts with this:
👉 Find a confusing decision. Then bring the clarity.
That’s how you build a startup that lasts.
One More Meme
