Reading: Cap Table Vocabulary — English for Startup Engineers
Practice reading a capitalization table: shares outstanding, dilution, option pool, and fully diluted share count. Learn the vocabulary engineers need when reading their equity grants.
Cap Table Summary — Post Series A
Founders hold 5,600,000 shares of Common Stock (56% fully diluted). Series Seed investors hold 1,200,000 shares of Preferred Stock (12% fully diluted). Series A investors hold 2,500,000 shares of Preferred Stock (25% fully diluted). The Employee Option Pool contains 700,000 shares reserved (7% fully diluted), of which 310,000 have been granted and 390,000 remain unallocated. Total fully diluted shares outstanding: 10,000,000. Note: an engineering hire granted 40,000 options at a strike price of $0.45, vesting over 4 years with a 1-year cliff, would represent approximately 0.4% of the company on a fully diluted basis at the time of grant — this percentage will be further diluted in future financing rounds unless the employee is granted additional refresh equity.
Question 1 of 5