Announcing o11's backing from Y Combinator.
How to Spread Comps Instantly: From CapIQ to Excel Instantly
“Spreading Comps.” The phrase sends shivers down the spine of any first-year analyst.
It involves taking a set of peer companies (The “Comps”), looking up their financials, adjusting for non-recurring items, and entering them into a standardized valuation template to calculate multiples like EV/EBITDA and P/E.
Data providers like Capital IQ and FactSet have Excel plugins to help with this. But they often break, or they pull in “standardized” data that doesn’t match the specific adjustments your MD wants.
So, you end up doing it manually. Looking at the 10-K. Hardcoding the numbers. Adding footnotes.
It is slow, error-prone, and painful.
The “Smart Spread” with o11
o11 introduces a new way to spread comps: Generative Mapping.
Instead of relying on rigid plugin formulas (e.g., =CIQ(AAPL, "IQ_TOTAL_REV")), o11 uses AI to understand your model’s structure and the source data’s context.
The Workflow
1. Define Your Universe List the tickers you want relative to your target. e.g., AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL.
2. Open Your Template Open your bank’s proprietary “Trading Comps” Excel template. It has specific rows for “Adjusted EBITDA” that might exclude Stock-Based Compensation (SBC).
3. The Prompt Highlight the empty columns. Ask o11:
“Fill these columns for the selected tickers. For EBITDA, ensure you add back Stock-Based Compensation and one-time litigation expenses found in the latest 10-K.”
4. The Execution o11 doesn’t just pull a database field. It:
- Retrieves the latest filings.
- Reads the “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures” table in the PDF.
- Calculates the custom EBITDA number based on your specific instruction (adding back SBC).
- Populates the cell.
- Crucially: It adds a comment to the cell showing the calculation logic and a link to the source 10-K page.
Why This Wins
- Traceability: Every number is audit-trailed. You can show your Associate exactly where the number came from.
- Customization: Standard data feeds often miss deal-specific adjustments. o11 follows your logic, just like a human analyst would.
- Speed: What took 4 hours takes 5 minutes.
The End of the “All-Nighter”
Spreading comps is usually the task that keeps analysts in the office until 2 AM during earnings season.
By automating the mechanical retrieval and adjustment of data, o11 gives analysts their lives back—and gives MDs faster, more accurate valuation materials.
