> Only high-growth, high-margin businesses can get 7x+ earnings
Not really, the S&P 500's P/E multiple has historically been at around 15x and now is somewhere around 30x [0]. And with that, we're talking about large, mature businesses that are not growing super fast -- more like 6-7% annualized, post-inflation [1].
It wouldn’t be that bad if you are already substracting salaries right? Having a few years in which your earnings are zero due to purchase price is pretty doable if you start earning a cool 100k every year after (even better if it’s a growing business).
I think you need to have ARR(annual recurring revenue) to have a multiplier like this. I think the company makes money when somebody buys the device, but that's it.
It would also help to know the TAM(total market area). How big is the remote KVM market? That gives you an idea on how many devices it's possible to sell in a given year.
Only high-growth, high-margin businesses can get 7x+ earnings.
Creating a sufficient level of growth to garner 7x valuation is very tough to do bootstrapped.
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EDIT: The only reason anyone gets a 10x etc valuation is because they're doubling+ year-over-year, and very likely they'll be 3x bigger in 18 months.
So basically, that's a 3-4x valuation...of your probable revenue in a year and a half.