Base Hit to Homerun Values in a Startup Exit

The business world loves sports metaphors. When I was at Duke in the late 90s the business school offered a course on sports metaphors geared towards foreign students because metaphors are so prevalent. One of the more common phrases for startups is homerun, meaning that the startup was bought for a huge amount or went public at a massive valuation. In addition to homerun, other types of baseball hits are used regularly.

Here are baseball hits to describe different types of approximate startup exit valuations:

• Base Hit: $2 – $10 million
• Double: $10 – $25 million
• Triple: $25 – $100 million
• Homerun: $100+ million

If the startup is in Silicon Valley multiple these by 10x otherwise this holds true for most parts of the country.

Sports metaphors are common in startup land and baseball hits are the most popular way to describe startup exits.

What else? Do you agree with these baseball hits to describe different types of exit valuations?