Founder’s Pocket Guide: Cap Tables

Founder’s Pocket Guide: Cap Tables

Sooner or later startup founders face the investor question “How’s Your Cap Table Look?” The goal of this guide is to help you prepare for this question. <br /> <br />This highly visual guide helps you understand the key moving parts of a startup cap table, review typical cap table inputs, and demystify terminology and jargon associated with cap table discussions. Along the way, this guide provides easy-to-follow examples for the most common calculations related to cap table building. <br /> <br />Expanding on these key skills every startup founder should know, this Founder’s Pocket Guide helps you learn how to: <br />• Build your basic cap table step by step, including founder’s shares, option pools, angel investor rounds, and VC rounds. <br />• Decipher cap table specific lingo, such as fully-diluted shares outstanding, preferred shares vs. common shares, Series A, Series B, and so on. <br />• Establish a stock option pool in your cap table and understand the option pool effect on founder dilution. <br />• Understand the simple math behind cap table formulas and calculations, including calculating fully diluted shares outstanding, investor equity ownership percentages, and share price. <br />