Comparables
Who does this company really compare with?
Hebrides reads the data room to learn what the company sells and to whom, searches for companies that do the same thing, and checks every candidate’s own description so only real comparables make the set. Then it reads the market around them.
Try it · Comparables for the sample Acme Corp deal. Press Find comparables to watch the set being built, then open any section’s Guide or Method, dock add-ons in the Roll-up Board, or switch evidence off in the Model Triangle.
A peer set is a judgement. Make it a good one.
Most comp sets come from a keyword search and a hunch. Hebrides reviews every candidate against its own description and marks it a direct competitor, adjacent or not comparable, with a score out of 100 and a one-line reason. A company that only shares a keyword, a generic technology or a broad industry is never used to fill the set.
What comes back is a core set of peers and a wider market of up to 150 companies around them. Nine sections then read that market, each opening with a question an investment committee would ask of it.
How it works
How Comparables works
01
Built from what the company actually does
Hebrides reads the data room for what the company sells and to whom, classifies it against an industry taxonomy, and searches for companies that do the same thing. With no files yet, it starts from the deal’s name, sector and description; adding data-room files first gives a sharper search.
- Direct competitor: a substitutable product sold to the same kind of customer
- Adjacent: the same product for a different customer, or a close product for the same one
- Not comparable: shares only a keyword, a generic technology or a broad industry
02
Nine sections, nine questions
Roll-up Board, Buyer Appetite, Syndicate Relay, Model Triangle, Category Demography, Winner-Take-Most, Job Flows, Market Replay and Category Genome. Each opens with the question it answers, and each is built on its own, so a gap in one never takes down the rest.
- Is there a platform worth building around, and which add-ons would it buy, in what order?
- Who buys companies like these, and what did they pay?
- When these companies raise again, do existing investors follow?
- Is this a software market, or services and hardware under a software label?
03
A guide and a method for every section
Guide steps through each part of a chart and what you can do with it. Method sets out the formula, the data and the limits. Thin evidence is drawn as thin evidence: hatched where the record can’t tell, “can’t compute” where a figure needs more than the data holds, and the sample size on every figure.
What’s inside
Comparables, in detail.
- Relevance review
- Direct competitor, adjacent or not comparable, with a score and a reason for every candidate.
- Roll-up Board
- A fragmentation gate, platforms, a docking board for add-ons, adjustable fit weights and the combined company.
- Buyer Appetite
- Who has bought what, at what EV/Revenue, and which peers fit each buyer type’s pattern.
- Syndicate Relay
- Which investors follow on, which hand over, and how every round was led.
- Model Triangle
- Software, services or hardware from lines of evidence you can switch off, and what each corner sold for.
- Category Demography and Winner-Take-Most
- The category’s stage, fates by founding year, rank-size slope and concentration.
- Job Flows and Market Replay
- Jobs created and released, hiring speed limits, and where each peer sits in its funding cycle.
- Category Genome
- Eighteen operating traits across team, sales, stack and capital, beside each company’s growth.
FAQ
Comparables: questions investors ask.
How does Hebrides choose comparables?
It reads the data room to learn what the company sells and to whom, classifies it, searches for companies that do the same thing, and reviews every candidate against its own description. Each is marked a direct competitor, adjacent or not comparable, with a score and a reason, and companies judged not comparable are never used to fill the set.
Does Comparables value the company?
No. Comparables reads the market around the company. Valuation happens in the Valuation Suite, which uses the same peer set, scored for similarity, to derive the multiple.
How do I know how far to trust a section?
Every section has a method sheet with its formula, data and limits, and shows its sample size. Records that can’t tell are hatched, and figures that can’t be computed from the data say so rather than guess.
What happens when the data room changes?
Refresh the set and Hebrides searches again, keeping any companies your team added or excluded. The set is versioned, and a valuation tells you when a newer set exists so you can re-run it.
Keep exploring
Valuation Suite
One workflow that reads the data room, classifies the company, chooses the methods and weights, and lands on a range with its confidence beside it.
ExploreResearch insights
Hebrides reads every document in the deal, cross-checks claims against each other, surfaces risks and contradictions, and scores the deal against your thesis.
ExploreStories
Ask for an LP briefing, an IC read or a teaser for buyers.
ExploreBook a walkthrough
A structured, reliable read on every deal.
All your deal data in one place, with the analysis run end to end.
Or write to sales@allermuircapital.com