Build a Cap Table from Scratch
4.6 (10)
1 Day
·Cohort-based Course
2 hour workshop for founders, VCs, and lawyers to build a cap table for a startup, modeling equity, SAFEs, convertible notes, and options.
Build a Cap Table from Scratch
4.6 (10)
1 Day
·Cohort-based Course
2 hour workshop for founders, VCs, and lawyers to build a cap table for a startup, modeling equity, SAFEs, convertible notes, and options.
Course overview
Build a cap table you can use
Today more than ever, it's important to know how fundraising structures impact ownership and dilution as valuations change, but the terminology and structures can often be confusing and opaque even to people experienced in finance. Even if you are working with experienced investors, lawyers, and founders, knowing the fundamentals of how venture financing structures work can save you from costly misunderstandings and errors.
I've helped over 35,000 founders, venture capitalists, and lawyers from around the world with tools and classes to understand how equity, convertible notes, SAFEs, and tokens impact their cap tables, dilution, and ownership. We'll build a cap table using examples of equity, SAFEs, convertible notes and options and you'll leave with a model you can use.
The workshop is two hours long and can be joined live or watched on your own time. All students will receive the slides, the example spreadsheet, the case study, and the recording of the full workshop, and all of the materials can be downloaded for viewing on your own time.
The content in this course covers a portion of the material from the comprehensive Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Masterclass, a 4.6 star (out of 5) rated class from the 300+ students that have joined the thirteen cohorts over the last two+ years.
No advanced preparation is required, a basic knowledge of venture capital is recommended.
Who this course is for
01
Venture Capital analysts and associates, lawyers and accountants looking to learn how to build cap table models
02
Founders, CFOs, Controllers, VPs of Finance, and finance executives raising capital who are creating and managing cap tables
03
Anyone looking to get into venture capital or startups and understand how cap tables work.
Learn how to read, understand, and create cap tables
Understand how to calculate share counts, share prices, ownership, and dilution
Build an example cap table to show you how to calculate the key aspects of cap tables, including price per share, share counts, ownership percentages, and how raising capital dilutes shareholders.
Model common and preferred equity
How common and preferred equity are modeled on cap tables, and why founders and investors care about different share classes.
Learn how to issue and convert SAFEs and convertible notes
Build a cap table showing how to issue SAFEs and convertible notes, how to calculate the number of shares to issue and share prices at conversion in equity financings, and what terms to care about when negotiating these instruments.
Learn how to create and expand option pools
How to create new option pools and expand existing option pools through equity fundraising events, how options dilute existing shareholders, and what to look for when negotiating option pools and valuation.
Model down rounds
Understand how to model typical anti-dilution structures to deal with down rounds
Scenario plan fundraising rounds
Understand how to change the parameters for fundraising rounds to see the impact on ownership, dilution, and share value.
Understand the hidden incentives behind term sheet structures
Gain an introductory knowledge of how the key terms of these financing structures impact shareholder incentives
What’s included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Taylor Davidson in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Build a Cap Table from Scratch
Course syllabus
Week 1
Jun
18
Build a Cap Table from Scratch
Prereading and Background Materials
Workshop Materials
Practice Exercises
Post-course
How I can help (after the class)
4.6 (10 ratings)
What students are saying
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Meet your instructor
Taylor Davidson
Founder and Managing Director, Foresight
Taylor Davidson is the founder of Foresight, which helps entrepreneurs use financial models for business decisions.
Through his template financial models and strategic advisory services, he has helped over 50,000 entrepreneurs from 116 countries on financial planning, projections, fundraising, valuations, and business strategy.
Taylor has also worked with over 800 angel investors and venture funds on investment strategy, portfolio tracking, capital planning, and fundraising.
He created the Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Masterclass to help founders and VCs learn how to understand and build cap tables and exit waterfalls for their financing rounds.
He created How to Model Venture Funds to help VCs learn how to model portfolio construction, capital flows, and unpack key performance metrics.
Contact him at hello@foresight.is or @tdavidson on Twitter.
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Build a Cap Table from Scratch
Workshop Details
2 hour workshop
Tuesday, June 18th
12:00 PM to 2:00 PM EST
Modeling a cap table from start to finish in two hours, with Q&A, live over Zoom. Immediate access to slides, spreadsheets, background readings, and a class recording.
Bite-sized, practical exercises
We'll build a model live, and you'll leave with a model you can use and the knowledge to build your own from scratch. Practical exercises for you to apply what you learn in class. Download an example of the exercises here.
No required homework or prereading
Structured to be manageable for busy professionals with actionable takeaways that you can use at work today.
Join live, watch anytime
The workshop will be recorded, so you can watch again if you have to miss a section, or just want a refresh on the material.
Here's a sample from a recent workshop
This was a free workshop on modeling SAFEs, which is a small portion of modeling convertibles.
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Build a Cap Table from Scratch
3 free mini-cases for learning cap tables (with answer keys)
Today more than ever, it's important to know how fundraising structures impact ownership and dilution as valuations change.
Download three of the fourteen mini-cases we use in Build a Cap Table from Scratch and the Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Masterclass to learn cap table math, including how to model equity raises, convertible notes and SAFEs, anti-dilution, option pools, and more.
Get the free spreadsheet and videos
Frequently Asked Questions
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