Tomas Milar, Founder & CEO of Eqvista

Built differently

• 20 years Building and acquiring companies
• 25,000+ Companies using Eqvista
• Eqvista’s real-time models cover 65,000 companies with an estimated combined value of $9 trillion

Why Tomas

• He bought the company that rejected him: IncParadise turned down his internship application. Years later, he bought it. Since 2006, Tomas has built and acquired businesses across company formation, accounting, banking, equity management and valuation.
• He builds around paying customers.: From Hong Kong to San Francisco, Tomas has grown businesses with a bootstrapped mindset: solve real problems, focus on revenue and make every dollar count. Each business creates opportunities for the next.
• He’s building a stock ticker for private companies: More than 25,000 companies use Eqvista, and its real-time valuation models cover 65,000 companies with an estimated combined value of $9 trillion. Tomas brings that perspective to discussions about founder dilution, employee ownership and his next ambition: connecting better pricing with company-controlled liquidity.

Ideas worth a conversation

Choose one, combine a few, or bring your own angle. Tomas brings founder stories, market data and a point of view.

• New country. $2,000 in your pocket. Build a $10 million business. How do you move somewhere new and build a company from scratch? Tomas shares what it takes to get the first customers, bootstrap growth and turn limited resources into a business that pays its own way.
• Start at zero. Break into an industry. Build a company. You don’t need to know everything before you start. Having built businesses across telecommunication, compliance, company formation, banking and equity management, Tomas explains how he learns an unfamiliar market, finds a problem customers will pay to solve and builds a team with the expertise to deliver.
• The company that rejected him, then became his: What happens when a company that once rejected your internship application eventually becomes yours? Tomas can unpack the journey from rejection to acquisition, why he chose to buy rather than build, and what he learned becoming the owner of a business that once would not hire him.
• Do you actually need VC money to build something big? Tomas has built and scaled businesses across the U.S. and Asia without following the traditional raise-big, hire-fast playbook. He can unpack when venture capital genuinely accelerates a company, when it becomes a distraction, and why revenue, retention and capital efficiency still shape how he builds.
• What 25,000+ cap tables reveal about founder dilution: When do founders give away too much of their company? With visibility into equity data across more than 25,000 private companies, Tomas can go beyond the usual rules of thumb and discuss how ownership actually changes as startups grow, from founder dilution and option pools to employee ownership and the decisions that become expensive several rounds later.
• What we learned from valuing 95% of the private market: What if every company had a live price signal? Eqvista’s real-time models now cover 65,000 companies representing 95% of the market and $9 trillion in company assets valued. Tomas can explore what that scale reveals about how company values move, why private markets still lack meaningful price discovery, and whether valuation is shifting from an occasional report toward continuously updated market infrastructure.
• Why private-company equity still has a liquidity problem: Private companies are staying private longer, but employees and early investors can still spend years holding equity they cannot easily price or sell. Tomas can explore what Eqvista sees across the private-company market, why reliable current pricing matters, how tender offers and secondaries are evolving, and what needs to happen before private shares become meaningfully more liquid – pricing discovery before liquidity.
• AI can calculate the number. Who should stand behind it? AI can analyze comparables, financials and market signals faster than any analyst. But should it make the final call? Drawing on Eqvista’s work across thousands of valuations, Tomas can unpack where AI genuinely improves financial analysis, where human judgment still changes the answer, and why accountability matters when a valuation reaches auditors, investors or regulators.

Meet Tomas Milar: 20 years of building financial infrastructure for founders

Tomas Milar is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Eqvista. Over the past 20 years, he has built and acquired businesses across the U.S. and Asia spanning company formation, registered agents, accounting, business banking, equity management and valuation.

His entrepreneurial journey began with Startupr, which grew into one of Hong Kong’s leading company formation providers. He later built and acquired businesses across the startup financial stack, including IncParadise, a U.S. registered agent service, and Cheqly, a banking platform for startups.

In 2018, Tomas founded Eqvista to rethink how private companies manage ownership and understand what their equity is worth. Today, more than 25,000 companies use Eqvista, giving Tomas a broad view of how ownership, valuations and private markets are changing.

Across his businesses, Tomas has remained focused on capital-efficient growth, solving real customer problems and simplifying industries that have traditionally been difficult to navigate.

Today, he is focused on the next evolution of private markets: better price discovery, continuously updated valuations and more efficient liquidity for private-company equity.

Tomas at a glance

• Founder & CEO, Eqvista – the $9T Valuation engine for private companies
• Founder, Cheqly – the online bank for startups
• Owner, IncParadise – the company that once rejected him
• Founder, Startupr – one of Hong Kong’s largest company formation providers
• Forbes Finance Council contributor
• Techstars mentor
• Built businesses across the U.S. and Asia since 2006

See Tomas in conversation

Watch Tomas in action, then explore more of his interviews, talks, and commentary.

More interviews & appearances

• The Firehorse Podcast: Real-Time Company Valuations Are Replacing the PDF – Why private-company valuation is moving from periodic reports toward continuously updated pricing.
• The Built to Exit Podcast: What Is Your Business Really Worth? – Tomas breaks down private-company valuation, founder dilution, employee equity and how AI is changing the way businesses build value.
• Mastering Workplace Culture Podcast: Why Fast-Moving Cultures Win – Tomas discusses how speed, ownership and a strong company culture can help teams execute faster and build growing businesse
• Benzinga: Why Annual Valuations Are Losing Relevance As Private Markets Evolve – Tomas explains why point-in-time valuations are becoming less useful as private companies and market conditions change faster, and why valuation is evolving into an ongoing financial metric.
• Management Blueprint Podcast: Value What’s Hard to Value – Tomas talks entrepreneurship, company valuation and the journey behind building Eqvista.
• The Growth Unleashed Podcast: The Hidden Price of Your Startup – What founders often misunderstand about company value, equity and the price of their startup.
• Inspired Insider: From Rejected Intern to Acquiring the Company – Tomas tells the story of being rejected by IncParadise, then returning years later to acquire it.
• SaaS Mag: Real-Time Pricing Infrastructure for Private Markets – Tomas explains why private markets need better price discovery and the infrastructure behind real-time valuation.
• Finextra: Private Markets Still Don’t Have a Price and That’s About to Change – Tomas makes the case for real-time pricing infrastructure in private markets and explains how better price discovery could support equity, liquidity and investment decisions.
• Founder Reports: How Tomas Milar Grew Eqvista – A look at bootstrapping Eqvista, capital-efficient growth and competing in financial technology.
• FinovateSpring: Eqvista Live Product Demo – Tomas takes the stage to demonstrate Eqvista’s approach to real-time company valuation.
• HackerNoon: Innovating ESOP Distribution – A conversation about employee ownership, equity distribution and building better infrastructure for private companies.
• Forbes Finance Council: Tomas Milar’s Contributions – Tomas’s perspectives on valuation, private-market infrastructure, entrepreneurship and the future of financial technology.