Cap table

A capitalization table — cap table — is the authoritative record of who owns the company: founders, employees and their option grants, investors and their preferred series, and any outstanding SAFEs or notes not yet converted. A properly built cap table is fully diluted, meaning it counts every share that could exist (granted and ungranted options, unconverted convertibles at a stated assumption) rather than only shares physically issued today.

What a good row looks like

Every entry needs, at minimum: the holder's name, the security type (common, preferred, option, SAFE, or note), the share count, and the resulting ownership percentage. Rows representing money in — preferred and converted SAFEs — also carry the amount invested and the price per share paid, which is what lets you compute return multiples later at an exit.

Why 'as of when' matters

A cap table is a snapshot, and the honest ones are always labeled with an as-of date and an assumption set (e.g., 'assumes all outstanding SAFEs convert at their caps' or 'excludes unallocated option pool'). Two cap tables built on different assumptions about SAFE conversion or pool sizing can show meaningfully different ownership percentages for the exact same underlying deal terms.

Keeping it live

A cap table earns its value by staying current through every grant, exercise, conversion, and round — a stale cap table is worse than no cap table, because it creates false confidence. Foundily's cap table builder recomputes ownership from your actual instruments (founders, pool, SAFEs, rounds) every time an input changes, rather than requiring a manual spreadsheet update.