If it's legally dodgy; if accounting is a total mess; if it relies entirely on personal connections or favors; if tax returns or licensing are a mess; if there is no documentation; if there is no consideration for bus encounters; etc; etc - then it would take major work before it could be sold and it is worth little until that work is done. (Besides the current payouts to the owner which only exist as long as the owner works on it.) That's because if the owner quits or is incapacitated, the company just about doesn't exist anymore.
Tech startups had high multipliers in the past 10 years thanks to dumb money, low interest rates, and lot of hope. Most of those things are drying up and many tech startups that had decent valuations are now worthless.
Is this true of standard businesses like laundromat or plumbing?
Or is it a matter of such businesses rarely being in a condition that makes a sale easy? If these are in a good condition accounting-wise for example, they should integrate readily and for a basic multiple of sales into one of the neighbors?
What I have seen is unrealistic prices - and that's another matter.
Not everyone wants to IPO, or sell to big player.
You may want it to stay in the family, or protect the original culture. Maybe you found someone in your team that will be a great CEO.
Maybe you like that life.
You don't even need to big huge, look at 37 signal.
I suppose we can both say there are things we don't understand.
Probably because when given a chance, you don't take the chance to explain yourself better, and just do a junior high Uno reverse card response.
I think this is naive cynicism, as it were. Lots of companies are started by people who eventually want to sell them, be it after 5 years or 50. Being biased against Silicon Valley won't give you a good handle on this stuff.