This articleoriginally appeared on SOCAP, a thought leadership platform for the accelerating movement towards a more just and sustainable economy.

We build our businesses to be valuable. We build them to increase in value for the founders, the investors, and maybe even to be worth something to the people the business serves and the community the business is supported by. And, generally, the way we assess that value is by how much financial capital we can attract and generate with that business.

The valuation of startups, in particular, can be frustratingly subjective and somewhat abstract, based on measurements like recurring revenue models, obtainable market value, liquidation analysis, and cashflow forecast. (It is alsonotoriously biasedagainst women and people of color.)

Unfortunately, almost every common valuation method focuses on the financial capital, missing the opportunity for a full cost accounting of the complex and interdependent value of that organization.

Just like using only the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure the wealth and health of nation is reductive and wrongheaded, measuring solely the financials of a company leads to a skewed and inaccurate valuation of any business. For instance, the 2010 BP oil spill, considered the worst oil spill in US history, resulted in the decimation of marine life in the Gulf and on the 125 miles of oil-soaked coastline. However, this environmental catastrophe contributed toa measurable rise in the United States’ GDP that year because of the huge expenditure on clean-up work in the Gulf of Mexico. Similarly, Uber came to be one of the highest fiscally valued private startups in the world, despite its value as a safe, egalitarian or enjoyable place to work beingwell-known for being exceptionally low.

Turns out that financial capital is just one form of wealth worth measuring. Permaculture offers us some classifications for appreciating and evaluating several other forms of capital. Permaculture’s form ofwhole systems thinking, modeled on the patterns and the resilient features observed in natural ecosystems, provides us with a template for looking at integrated and adaptive wealth in its various forms. In their book, “Regenerative Enterprise,” Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua outlined8 Forms of Capital: intellectual, spiritual, social, material, financial, living (or natural), cultural, and experiential (or human).

Other helpful diagrams can be found on Appleseed Permaculture’s website.

Other helpful diagrams can be found onAppleseed Permaculture’s website.

Building a business and sharing its value with investors clearly need not be limited by the narrow vertical of financial metrics. When opening your company to investors, consider expanding the type and spirit of investment possible for your company by including a broader picture of its capital in its valuation. In measuring and extending this value, here is a toolkit of questions for doing a more whole-systems accounting of that value.

Some questions for an intellectual capital evaluation:

Intellectual capital resources:

Some questions for a spiritual capital evaluation:

Spiritual capital resources:

Some questions for a social capital evaluation:

Social capital resources:

Some questions for a material capital evaluation:

Material capital resources:

Some questions for a financial capital evaluation:

Financial capital resources:

Some questions for a living capital evaluation:

Living capital resources/experts:

Some questions for a cultural capital evaluation:

Cultural capital resources:

Some questions for an experiential capital evaluation:

Experiential capital resources:

More and more entrepreneurs arerejecting venture capitaland its prerogative to shape companies exclusively for a fast and lucrative exit. As they have historically been, and increasingly so, companies are benefiting from the value of being built on the capital inherent in diverse experience, community support, and dedication to a long-term, sustainable business model. Reframing capitalization from its narrow focus on traditional financing to a more comprehensive understanding of the various forms of capital creates opportunities that bypass many of thepitfalls of venture capital, and even conventional financing and investment. Each kind of capital affords unique opportunities — together they provide a resilient foundation for evaluating the worth of a company and a pragmatic reflection of its real value.

Special thanks to Adam Brock. Much of his elucidation of the eight forms of wealth in his chapter about Commoning inChange Here Now: Permaculture Solutions for Personal and Community Transformationwas used here.