Cap table and ESOP setup ahead of a funding round
A walkthrough of how a startup keeps ownership records accurate through a priced round — from before term sheet to after close. This is a hypothetical scenario, not a real customer account.
Before the round
Consider a Series A startup with a cap table that includes founders, an existing ESOP pool from its seed stage, and two outstanding SAFEs from early angel investors. As the company negotiates its Series B term sheet, its finance lead needs an accurate, current picture of ownership to model how the new round will affect everyone's stake — without waiting for a lawyer to manually cross-reference every prior agreement.
- 1Current ownership (founders, ESOP pool, SAFEs) is already recorded in one place, not scattered across signed PDFs and spreadsheets
- 2The finance lead can see exactly how much of the ESOP pool has been granted versus reserved before deciding how much to top up
At close
Once the round closes, three things change on the cap table at once: the two SAFEs convert into preference shares at their agreed terms, the ESOP pool is topped up to the percentage set in the term sheet, and new investor shares are issued. Reconciling these three changes by hand — checking conversion math against signed SAFE agreements, updating spreadsheets, notifying the company secretary — is the kind of work that commonly takes a finance or legal team several days per round. Recording each event as it happens keeps the post-round ownership picture accurate the same day.
- 1SAFEs convert into preference shares per their agreed terms
- 2ESOP pool is topped up to the percentage agreed in the term sheet
- 3New investor shares are issued and reflected immediately
- 4Updated ownership is available for the board pack without a manual recalculation pass
Is this a real customer story?
No. This is an illustrative, hypothetical walkthrough describing a common workflow — not an account of a specific named customer or a claimed real outcome.
Does Tabulate handle SAFEs and convertible notes converting in the same round?
Yes — Tabulate tracks common and preference shares, options, warrants, SAFEs, and convertible notes in the same ownership record, including their conversion terms.
Want to see this with your own cap table?
Book a demo and we'll walk through your current ownership structure ahead of your next round.