Understanding Equity Ownership with Cap Tables

Learn how companies keep track of shareholder equity using cap tables. In this course we walk you through building a cap table for a startup, editing it for multiple rounds of financing and forecasting potential payout scenarios for all shareholders.

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Meet Your Instructor

Nic Barnhart

Cofounder & CPO, Pareto Labs
Finance/Analytics, ZipRecruiter

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Curriculum

01

Introduction

Understand what cap tables are and why they are important.

02

Cap Table Components

Learn cap table basics as we take you on a tour of a standard cap table.

03

Founders’ Round & Initial Employees

Begin building a cap table from scratch with the first step, establishing the founders’ equity.

04

Seed Round & Employee Option Pools

Learn how to edit the cap table when the first round of venture capital is raised.

05

Raising a “Series A” Round

Learn how to edit the cap table when adding a second round of venture capital financing and see how dilution impacts all existing shareholders.

06

Liquidation Analysis and Waterfall

Gain an understanding of the importance of liquidation preferences, which establishes which shareholders get paid out first when a company is sold, and learn how to model different potential payout scenarios for all shareholders.

What people are saying about this course…

"Wonderful job putting together this content in a way that everyone can understand. This is such an important topic too, so your clarity is especially appreciated."
Mike S EVP
"This is a game changer for me! I have been trying to figure out how to scale. And this lays out how investor capital works!!! Super excited to put into action!"
Donte W Business Owner
"This is a very difficult topic to cover so I really appreciated the fact that the content was delivered in bitable sizes which made it easy to follow."
Joy A CEO