Table of contents
What is a cap table
A cap table is a document that records who owns equity in a company. This includes founders, employees, investors, and anyone else who has a financial stake in the company. Cap tables are important for startups because they help founders keep track of ownership percentages and dilution.
How to create a cap table on Sturppy
From within Sturppy, click on the 🍰 Cap Table tab from the left navbar
Click the "new round" button at the top right of the screen
If you're setting up a cap table for the first time, the first thing you'll do is setup a Founding Round - a founding round is meant to capture the initial founders and any equity invested at the very beginning. *NOTE: as of Nov. 2022, you can't back-date a founding round...I know, annoying, we've got it on our backlog 😅
Select Founding Round from the Round type options to continue
If this screen looks like Latin to you, don't worry! We pre-populate the number of shares and a par value of those shares based on what's most common here in the US. In the UK and EU it's often common to have 100 or 1,000 shares of common stock. If you don't have an official cap table yet, just go ahead and leave it as is for now...
On this screen, you'll add the % Equity for the founding teams either by entering the % Equity directly or the number of shares of stock. You can also add any additional investments here - NOTE: when you add initial investments, that money will be recognized in your model in month 1 of the model. DOUBLE NOTE: You'll be adding a Employee Share Option Pool on the next page so no need to add that here
Here's where you can add an ESOP. If you don't know what ESOPs are, they're essentially a pool of shares set aside by a company to attract early stage employees and new hires. If you're unsure if you need an ESOP, leave it blank for now and hit that complete button!
How to add additional funding rounds to your cap table
What is a SAFE? A SAFE is a Simple Agreement for Future Equity. It's an investment contract between an investor and a company that gives the investor the right to purchase equity in the company at a later date, usually when the company raises additional funding at a higher valuation. Learn more here about the Pros and Cons of SAFEs.
Adding a SAFE
To add a SAFE round to your cap table, you first need to establish a Founding Round in your cap table (see above).
Navigate to the 🍰 Cap Table tab from the left navbar
Click "add round" at the top right hand of your screen
Give the round a name and click Next
Click the SAFE option
Click the (+) symbol to add new rows for each investor involved in the SAFE
Add investment amounts for each investor involved in the SAFE round and click Next
Add a valuation cap and click next
Add a discount amount (that will apply to the next liquidity event)
Add a date that the note will execute - this will be the date in which funding will be recognized in your model. Then click "Complete"!
NOTE: If you add a SAFE or a Convertible note, you will not see dilution in your equity...this is normal...this is because the investors in a SAFE or Convertible note don't actually convert into equity until a future date or future liquidity event (most often a subsequent funding round).
How to add a Convertible Note or Priced Round
To add a convertible note, go through the same steps as above for a Founding round or for a SAFE. You can read here about the difference between SAFEs and Convertible Notes.
How to edit a cap table or round
There's a few reasons why you might want to edit a round in your cap table:
You want to change a close date to change when those funds are reflected in your model
You want to change an investment amount
You want to remove an investor or add one to a round
🚨 NOTE: You can only edit the top level round in a cap table. Eg. if you have a founding round, a pre-seed SAFE, and a priced Round, you will only be able to edit the priced round. to edit the pre-seed SAFE you'll have to delete the priced Round, edit the pre-seed SAFE and recreate the priced Round.
To edit a round:
Click the 🍰 Cap Table tab from the left navbar
Click on the round you'd like to edit (in this example we're editing this one)
You have a couple of options here, you can edit the date of the round to change when that funding is reflected on your model or you can click "edit round" to edit the entire round
Clicking edit round will allow you to step back through the steps of the round and edit anything you'd like!
If you need additional assistance, use the live chat!