How Tomas Milar Grew Eqvista to Manage $270 Billion in Assets

For most private companies, getting an accurate valuation means waiting weeks and paying thousands of dollars to traditional valuation firms. Cap table management has long relied on error-prone spreadsheets that create compliance headaches during critical fundraising moments. Tomas Milar saw these problems firsthand while running company formation services across Southeast Asia and the U.S., which led him to launch Eqvista in 2018.

Today, Eqvista serves over 23,000 companies and manages $270 billion in assets under administration. The platform combines cap table management with Real-Time Company Valuation® technology, delivering instant 409A valuations and equity compliance tools that founders can actually afford.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I started as a serial entrepreneur in 2006, building ventures across Southeast Asia and the U.S. I founded Startupr, a Hong Kong company formation service, acquired IncParadise (one of the top U.S. registered agents), and co-founded a CPA firm to streamline compliance for startups. These experiences revealed a critical gap: tedious equity management and outdated valuations were slowing founder growth, inspiring me to launch Eqvista in 2018.

Today, Eqvista powers over 23,000 companies, managing $270 billion in assets under administration and processing $5 billion in monthly AI-driven valuations via our Real-Time Company Valuation® technology. We handle equity issuance, RSUs, warrants, 409A compliance, ASC 718, 83(b) elections, and QSBS services—aiming for $1 trillion (or even $10 trillion) in assets by 2030. I also launched Cheqly, a neobank for startups with a Hong Kong license and Southeast Asia expansion, creating integrated infrastructure from incorporation to funding.

How does your business make money?

At Eqvista, our primary model includes tiered subscriptions for the equity management platform, which bundles cap table management, real-time valuations, and tools like waterfall analysis and round modeling, trusted by over 23,000 companies managing $270 billion in assets. Additional income comes from specialized services such as 409A valuations (with lifetime audit support), QSBS attestations, 83(b) elections, ASC 718 reporting, and custom financial modeling, often delivered via our AI-powered Real-Time Company Valuation® technology.

We emphasize affordability and speed: platform access starts low for early-stage founders, scaling with usage, while one-off valuations and compliance services are priced competitively to undercut traditional providers, ranking #1 on G2 and Clutch for value. This human-AI hybrid model drives high margins.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

It stemmed from the frustrations I saw firsthand while helping thousands of founders with company formation and compliance through Startupr and IncParadise.

Back then, equity management relied on clunky Excel spreadsheets and slow, outdated valuation processes that bogged down startups at critical moments like fundraising or hiring. Founders needed fast, accurate tools to track cap tables, issue shares, and get real-time fair market value (FMV), but traditional methods took weeks and cost a fortune.

This gap drove me to launch Eqvista in 2018, pioneering Real-Time Company Valuation® with AI and expert oversight to deliver instant, compliant 409A reports and equity solutions. It’s about giving every private company the pricing transparency public markets take for granted.

How and when did you launch the business?

I launched Eqvista in 2018. We bootstrapped the platform from the ground up, starting with core features in April-June 2018: an admin panel, user accounts, and basic storage systems to handle share issuance and document management.

By July-September, we rolled out shareholder roles, equity classes, and a timeline view; later quarters in 2018 added convertible notes, SAFEs, option pools, and warrants, rapidly iterating based on real founder feedback to replace Excel chaos.

The full public launch followed in mid-2018, with San Francisco as our headquarters, focusing on affordable cap table software, 409A valuations, and compliance tools for startups. Within years, we hit milestones like 14,000+ companies by 2022, proving the demand for our Real-Time Company Valuation® tech.

How is the business funded? 

We launched without external capital in 2018, leveraging revenue from my prior ventures like Startupr and IncParadise to build the core platform, growing to $22.6 billion in assets under administration organically. This self-funded approach fueled a 3,400% growth rate over 24 months and an 83% customer retention rate, proving our model without dilution.

In early 2025, we explored a Reg CF equity crowdfunding campaign on Securitize, aiming for $5-10 million to accelerate features like blockchain integration, but shifted to VC rounds after strong advisor feedback, maintaining control while scaling.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

We iterated the MVP in 2018 using direct feedback from these early contacts, who tested cap table tools and valuations, quickly expanding to 14,000+ companies by 2022 through word-of-mouth and partnerships. Marketing efforts doubled leads from 2018 to 2019 via content on equity pain points, SEO, and integrations that pulled in startups seeking faster 409A reports.

We sent personalized video demos showcasing how Eqvista solved specific pain points like Excel cap table chaos, achieving strong response rates and converting demos at high rates for our initial 150+ users. 

Word-of-mouth from those early adopters fueled rapid growth, with an 83% retention rate as satisfied clients referred peers, turning our lean, founder-focused marketing into a scalable flywheel that hit 14,000 companies by 2022.

What was your first year in business like?

It was hands-on chaos: coding nights away in San Francisco while testing with real founders who craved compliant, instant tools.

Customer traction came fast, organically. First, users from Hong Kong and U.S. incorporations via IncParadise loved the free cap table access and 409A integrations, sparking word-of-mouth that grew us steadily without ads. By year-end, we had a solid MVP handling SAFEs, warrants, and valuations, setting the stage for explosive growth to 14,000+ companies later—proving our vision resonated instantly.

What strategies did you use to grow the business?

A mix of organic traction, relentless product iteration, and smart, low-cost marketing that turned early users into advocates.

We prioritized building must-have features like Real-Time Company Valuation®, waterfall analysis, and round modeling based on founder feedback, which drove viral adoption.

Personalized LinkedIn outreach and content like free valuation guides generated high-quality leads cost-effectively, while partnerships with accelerators amplified reach. Our SEO-optimized blog now draws thousands monthly, converting searches for “409A valuation” into loyal customers. Bootstrapped discipline ensured every dollar went to features over ads, achieving 3,400% growth in 24 months.

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome?

The biggest challenge was overcoming the entrenched reliance on manual Excel spreadsheets for cap table management, which created massive errors, compliance risks, and delays during fundraising rounds.

Early on, founders struggled with fragmented data. Tracking SAFEs, warrants, option pools, and dilutions across clunky sheets often led to audit nightmares and stalled deals, as traditional valuations took weeks and cost thousands.

Convincing skeptics required hands-on demos and free trials from my Startupr/IncParadise network, proving 10x speed gains and error reduction.

What have been the most significant keys to your business’s success?

The most significant keys to Eqvista’s success have been our relentless focus on solving real founder pain points with innovative tech, combined with bootstrapped discipline and a customer-obsessed culture.

Constant iteration based on user feedback, like adding waterfalls, SAFEs, and round modeling, ensured we scaled seamlessly from seed to hypergrowth.

Leveraging my Startupr/IncParadise networks for early wins, paired with cost-effective content marketing and LinkedIn demos, created a referral flywheel, all without VC dilution, proving profitability trumps hype.

Tell us about your team.

We’re a group of about 50 experts spread across the US, Europe, and Asia, blending deep fintech experience with startup hustle to power our growth. I’m proud to lead alongside Colin McCrea (CFO & Head of Valuation), a CVA-certified pro handling our AI-backed 409A reports; Martin Bargl (CTO), who automates operations from my IncParadise days; Tom Novotny (Chief Growth Officer), a serial founder driving partnerships; Jakub Vele (Marketing Director), our growth strategist; and Brayton Johnson (COO & Head of Revenue), a 5x founder optimizing our revenue flywheel.

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

Some of my top recommendations for staying sharp in fintech, startups, and leadership come from books that shaped my thinking on equity, growth, and founder challenges.

Books

Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson: Essential for decoding term sheets, cap tables, and VC dynamics—it’s a must-read that I often reference when advising founders on fundraising.

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: Revolutionized how we iterated Eqvista’s MVP, emphasizing validated learning and rapid testing over assumptions.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz: Raw insights on navigating crises, scaling teams, and making tough calls—perfect for bootstrapped CEOs like me.

Blogs and Podcasts

I follow Eqvista’s own blog for cap table deep dives, HackerNoon for fintech trends, and Techstars’ resources since we mentor there. For podcasts, “20VC” and “The Pitch” deliver unfiltered founder stories and deal breakdowns that keep me ahead of private market shifts.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

True scale comes from obsessively solving one core pain point better than anyone else, rather than chasing shiny features.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

My top advice for entrepreneurs is to bootstrap as long as possible. It forces ruthless focus on revenue and real problems, not hype.

Pick one massive pain point, like our equity chaos fix, and dominate it before expanding; founders forgive missing bells but not core failures. Validate with your network early via demos, iterate weekly on feedback, and prioritize retention over acquisition—happy users compound faster than ads.

What are your future plans for the business?

Our focus is very simple: turn Eqvista into the pricing infrastructure layer for private markets.

In the next few years, we’re planning to:

• Scale revenue from our current run-rate to around $50M+, while staying efficient and product-first.
• Grow from $270B to $1T in assets valued in the next 6 months, making real-time pricing a standard expectation, not a novelty.
• Launch and expand Eqvista 500 – a real-time benchmark of leading private companies, similar to an index plus ticker for the private market.
• Push deeper into fund and portfolio valuations, giving VCs, PE funds, and institutions live NAV instead of quarterly PDFs.
• Open up our APIs and data so platforms like secondary marketplaces, data providers, and fintech apps can plug directly into real-time private pricing.

Long term, I want “What’s the price?” in private markets to have the same simple answer it has in public markets: “Check Eqvista.”

If you had to start from scratch, where would you begin?

I’d start exactly where I accidentally started the first time, just much faster and with more conviction:

I’d begin with customers, not investors.

I’d pick the same problem: pricing infrastructure for private markets. But instead of thinking “let’s raise and then build,” I’d:

• Talk to 50–100 founders, CFOs, and fund managers about how they actually value their companies and portfolios.
• Ship a very simple version of real-time valuation, even if it’s ugly, and start charging for it from day one.
• Use every conversation to refine pricing, workflows, and outputs until people depend on it, not just like it.

I’d delay fundraising as long as possible and treat revenue as my main feedback loop. Once I see real pull, people coming back, updating data, making decisions based on the price, then I’d layer in capital to scale.

So if I had to start from scratch, I’d start here:

1. Same mission – real-time pricing for private markets.
2. Less fundraising, more selling.
3. Build close to the user, not close to the deck.