Chapter 9 - THE CONSULTANT'S DRAFT
The goodwill valuation consultant, Peter Hall, had not fabricated anything.
He relied on information Ethan provided.
Interview notes showed:
Founder is principal creative force.
Spouse supportive but not operational.
Founder relationships drive vendors, brand, talent.
Claire stared.
“Vendors knew me.”
Grace nodded.
“Consultants are only as good as inputs.”
Peter agreed to revise after receiving additional records.
He interviewed:
managers,
vendors,
chef,
event clients.
Revised preliminary allocation:
45% founder personal goodwill.
55% enterprise/system value.
Not all of the 55% automatically marital.
Peter Hall’s revised report also separated three kinds of goodwill.
Personal goodwill tied to Ethan:
media recognition,
chef-founder reputation,
certain investor relationships.
Enterprise goodwill:
brand,
systems,
staff,
vendor agreements,
location performance.
Shared marital contribution:
growth produced during marriage through both spouses’ efforts.
The categories overlapped.
No formula could perfectly assign every dollar.
That was why valuations were ranges, not divine truth.
Peter eventually estimated personal goodwill closer to:
40% to 48%.
Enterprise value:
52% to 60%.
Claire’s lawyer did not claim all enterprise value belonged to Claire.
It did not.
The point was that Ethan’s first 72% claim had overstated how much value would follow him personally if he disappeared tomorrow.
Harbor Dining Partners confirmed this indirectly.
Their offer required Ethan to remain only eighteen months.
After that:
optional advisory contract.
If the buyer thought 72% of value literally lived in Ethan, eighteen months would be absurd.
Business reality became evidence against litigation storytelling.
Other valuation issues remained.
But the dramatic 72% founder allocation fell.
Ethan was furious.
“You poisoned the valuation.”
Claire answered:
“I gave him emails.”
“He doesn’t understand what I built.”
“He understands you left me out of the interview.”
Ethan looked away.
He had not lied by inventing a fake company.
May you like
He had curated the story.
Again.
