Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Masterclass

4.6

(56 ratings)

·

6 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Hybrid masterclass for founders, investors, and lawyers to learn the structures and math for building cap tables and exit waterfalls.

Course overview

Master cap tables and exit waterfalls

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. This six session workshop provides a comprehensive education on equity fundraises, convertible financing instruments (e.g. convertible notes and SAFEs), options, warrants, exit waterfalls.


This is a hybrid course, with options on how you want to participate in the course:


- Self-paced with the pre-recorded videos of each session along with the bite-sized projects that accompany each session. All materials are immediately available so you can start learning today.

- Live sessions with Taylor and the rest of the cohort for going over the material, Q&A, and exercises to dive deeper into that week's material.

- Or do both! Regardless of how you choose to participate, you'll leave the sessions with access to a spreadsheet resource library covering numerous examples of cap table calculations, slides and videos for you to review whenever you need, and a solid understanding of the fundamentals.


No advanced preparation is required, 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 and exit waterfalls

Build a cap table from scratch

Understand the math and structures necessary to create fundraising rounds, convert notes and SAFEs, calculate proratas, and more.

Build an exit waterfall from scratch

Understand the terminologies and math involved in showing how proceeds from an exit are distributed to the owners of a business, and be able to build your own.

Create scenario analyses around fundraising events

Be able to take a list of shareholders, rounds, share prices, and more from any cap table management software and create your own custom scenario analyses around future fundraising rounds or exits.

Understand how fundraising rounds impact cap tables

Understand how to calculate dilution and ownership over time to understand the impact of different fundraising structures (equity, notes, SAFEs). We will cover the common legal structures used in fundraising and how to understand the terms and the math they imply.

This course includes

6 interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

13 in-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

4 projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Apr 15—Apr 21

    Apr

    16

    How to model equity fundraises

    Tue 4/164:00 PM—5:30 PM (UTC)

    How to model equity fundraises

    3 items

    Practice Exercises

    1 item

Week 2

Apr 22—Apr 28

    Apr

    23

    How to model convertibles

    Tue 4/234:00 PM—5:30 PM (UTC)

    How to model convertibles (SAFEs and convertible notes)

    3 items

Week 3

Apr 29—May 5

    Apr

    30

    How to model options

    Tue 4/304:00 PM—5:30 PM (UTC)

    How to model options

    3 items

Week 4

May 6—May 12

    May

    7

    How to model exit waterfalls

    Tue 5/74:00 PM—5:30 PM (UTC)

    How to model exit waterfalls

    2 items

Week 5

May 13—May 19

    May

    14

    How to model investor returns

    Tue 5/144:00 PM—5:30 PM (UTC)

    How to model investor returns

    2 items

Week 6

May 20—May 21

    May

    21

    Case Study

    Tue 5/214:00 PM—5:30 PM (UTC)

    Case Study

    2 items

Post-course

    How I can help

    1 item

4.6

(56 ratings)

What students are saying

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Meet your instructor

Taylor Davidson

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.

Course schedule

2-4 hours per week

  • Self-paced lessons

    1.5 hours per week

    1 module per week with slides, spreadsheet, background readings. Watch the 1.5 hour recording of a class on the material, or join each module's live class for Q&A and interaction.

  • Bite-sized projects

    1 hour per week

    Practical exercises for you to apply what you learn in class. Download an example of the exercises here. The time commitment is manageable for busy professionals, with actionable takeaways to use in your business.

  • Live sessions

    1.5 hours per week

    Live session with Taylor and the rest of the cohort for going over the material, Q&A, and exercises to dive deeper into that week's material.


    Tuesdays at 12 PM Eastern time

Free resource

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 (Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets) three of the fourteen mini-cases we use in 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. Each case contains answer keys and videos that explain the important calculations.


Questions, contact me anytime.

Get the free spreadsheet

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Example - How to model SAFEs

This was a free workshop on modeling SAFEs, which is a small portion of modeling convertibles.

Example - Modeling Anti-Dilution for Cap Tables

This was a free, live workshop on modeling anti-dilution and their impact on cap tables.

Learning together is more effective - and more fun

Learning together is more effective - and more fun

Active learning with hands-on tools

Six live sessions conducted over Zoom plus downloadable example tools to help you create your own cap tables to edit and use during the course.

Learn with a cohort of peers

You’ll be learning with other venture capitalists, founders, and people looking to learn how to create and understand cap tables and waterfalls.

Learn how you learn best

Join live or just watch the recordings, it's your choice on how you want to participate. Everyone learns differently, and the course is structured to allow you to learn how you learn best.

Build your own models

I've taught over 50 in-person and virtual classes around financial modeling, and it's easy to follow someone else's work, hard to do it yourself. This course is packed with practice exercises and a case study so you can work on building your own models.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Cap Table and Exit Waterfall Masterclass