What Is Your Database Worth?
September 11, 2015
I don’t have a single answer to this question. There is an interesting database valuation item in “CrunchBase Is Spinning Out, Backed by Emergence Capital.”
CrunchBase is an aggregator of technology company information. I think the service does a good job with companies in the Sillycon Valley area. The coverage tails a bit for Rust Belt start ups, but that’s no surprise.
The database attracts two million “visitors” each month. I remain uncertain about the meaning of a “visitor,” but when most Web sites get a few hundred or fewer hits, two million seems like a lot. It is almost identical in hype thought to Facebook’s one billion users in a 24 hour period. I was pretty good at math in grade school too.
The write up’s gem was this statement:
Eight-year-old, San Francisco-based CrunchBase looks to become a standalone company in the very near future. According to several sources, the unit, which calls itself the “definitive database of the startup ecosystem,” is finalizing a term sheet with the venture firm Emergence Capital Partners for an investment of between $5 million and $7 million.
Assume that the $7 million number is on the money. That works out to $0.30 per visitor. That is almost a million in my book.
Stephen E Arnold, September 11, 2015