Equity
Cap tables, explained without the jargon
Reference guides and free calculators for founders, operators, and employees trying to understand what they own — including the second cap table crypto companies run. The product behind them is live: Glide Equity imports your Carta export or starts a cap table from scratch.
Free calculators
Cap table builder
Build a cap table from founders, options, and rounds. Exports to CSV.
Dilution calculator
See exactly what a new round, a bigger option pool, or a SAFE costs you.
Vesting calculator
Cliff, monthly vesting, and what is actually vested on any date.
SAFE conversion calculator
Model valuation caps, discounts, and pre- vs post-money SAFEs.
Option exercise calculator
Exercise cost, spread, and an AMT estimate for ISOs.
Exit waterfall calculator
Liquidation preferences, participation, and who gets paid what.
Founder equity split
A structured way to divide founder equity without guessing.
Token vesting calculator
Unlock schedules, cliffs, and circulating supply over time.
Cap table basics
What a capitalization table is, what belongs on it, and how to keep it clean.
Cap table management
14 min · What the job actually involves, when a spreadsheet stops working, who owns each recurring task, and what investor counsel finds when they rebuild your table from the documents.
Cap tables
10 min · Who owns what, on what basis, and what each holder receives in a financing or an exit — with a worked example and the defects that stall diligence.
Equity dilution
10 min · Your share count stays the same and the denominator grows. A worked round, the three events that dilute, the three that do not, and what anti-dilution really protects.
Option pools
11 min · How a pool is reserved, how to size it from a hiring plan, and why placing it in the pre-money costs founders ten points instead of eight.
Stock ledgers and transfer agents
11 min · What Delaware law requires a stock ledger to contain, how certificated and uncertificated shares differ, what a transfer agent does, and when a private company needs one.
Shares and share classes
Common, preferred, authorized, outstanding — and what each one changes.
Authorized vs outstanding shares
9 min · Authorized, issued, outstanding and fully diluted are not the same number — and the same holding produces a different percentage against each one.
Common vs preferred stock
14 min · Preferred is common plus a list of rights written into the charter. Here is that list, and the exit arithmetic that shows what each right is worth.
Par value
8 min · Par value is a legal floor and a franchise-tax input, not a valuation — and confusing the two is the fastest way to misread a stock certificate.
Share classes
9 min · Common, Series A, Series B — each class is a bundle of rights negotiated at a different moment, and seniority between them decides who gets paid in a modest exit.
Employee equity
Options, RSUs, vesting, strike prices, and what employees actually own.
Acceleration
15 min · Single trigger, double trigger, and what a change of control actually means in the document — plus the two tax rules that quietly change the answer.
ISO vs NSO
15 min · An ISO is a statutory option under IRC §422. An NSO is every compensatory option that is not one. What changes is who can hold it, when tax is due, and who gets the deduction.
Phantom stock and SARs
15 min · Both are contracts, not equity. They pay cash calculated from share value, never reach the cap table, and are taxed entirely as ordinary compensation.
RSUs vs stock options
15 min · One is a leveraged claim on the increase above a strike price that can go to zero. The other is the whole share, unleveraged, taxed at a time you do not choose.
RSUs
16 min · What restricted stock units actually are, why there is no 83(b) election on them, and why a private-company RSU behaves nothing like a public one.
Stock options
14 min · What an employee stock option grant actually gives you, what exercising costs, and the six ordinary ways people lose the whole thing.
Strike price
13 min · How the exercise price is set against a 409A valuation, why common is appraised below preferred, and what happens when options go underwater.
Vesting
15 min · How a four-year schedule with a one-year cliff actually releases shares, why options and restricted stock vest by different mechanisms, and what you keep when you leave.
Fundraising instruments
SAFEs, convertible notes, priced rounds, and how each one dilutes.
Convertible notes
10 min · How debt that is meant to become equity actually converts, with a worked example and an honest comparison against SAFEs.
Liquidation preference
9 min · 1× non-participating, full participation and capped participation compared across six exit values, with the per-share number employees actually receive.
Pre-money vs post-money
8 min · The arithmetic of a priced round, why the pool's placement moves the price per share, and how to read what a round actually cost you.
SAFE notes
12 min · Valuation cap versus discount, the 2018 pre-money to post-money switch, MFN terms, and a conversion worked through to a closing cap table.
Term sheets
11 min · Valuation, liquidation preference, board seats, protective provisions, pro rata and anti-dilution, sorted into what changes the money and what changes the decisions.
Valuation and 409A
Fair market value, 409A appraisals, and exit waterfalls.
409A valuations
13 min · The safe harbours, the refresh triggers, the valuation and allocation methods, and a vendor-neutral read on what you are buying.
Exit waterfalls
9 min · Debt, liquidation preferences, seniority, the conversion decision and what finally reaches common stock — one capital structure, fully worked.
Fair market value
10 min · What FMV means when there is no market, what preferred stock has that common does not, and how the number sets every option strike price.
Tax and compliance
83(b), QSBS, AMT, Form 3921, ASC 718, and the filings that bite.
83(b) elections
12 min · What the election changes about how restricted stock is taxed, who it tends to help, how it is filed, and what happens to the tax you paid if the shares are forfeited.
AMT and incentive stock options
10 min · How section 56(b)(3) pulls the bargain element into the alternative minimum tax calculation, what the AMT credit does in later years, and how disqualifying dispositions interact.
ASC 718
10 min · Grant-date fair value, the requisite service period, the forfeiture policy election, and why share-based compensation hits the income statement without touching the bank balance.
Delaware franchise tax
10 min · The authorized shares method, the assumed par value capital method, a worked comparison of both, the 1 March deadline, and the fees and penalties around them.
Form 3921
9 min · Who has to file, what each box reports, the January and February deadlines, the electronic filing threshold, and what the person who exercised does with their copy.
QSBS and section 1202
10 min · The eligibility tests for qualified small business stock, the holding period, the per-issuer cap, and how the 2025 amendments split almost every figure by when the stock was acquired.
Rule 701
9 min · Who can receive securities under the rule, the rolling twelve-month amount limit, the $10 million disclosure threshold, and why state blue sky law still applies.
Token cap tables
The second cap table crypto companies run — token allocations, unlocks, SAFTs, and warrants.
The dual cap table
11 min · A company register and a token register, usually in different entities, describing overlapping but non-identical holders on incompatible terms.
SAFTs
11 min · What a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens was designed to do, the cases that tested it, and where the analysis stands after the March 2026 interpretation.
Stablecoin payroll
11 min · The settlement mechanics, the employee and contractor split, the withholding that is still owed in dollars, and the operational risks specific to paying on-chain.
Token cap tables
10 min · Allocation buckets instead of share classes, unlocks instead of vesting, and a public ledger your records have to keep agreeing with.
Token compensation
10 min · What the IRS has said about digital assets received for services, why valuing a locked or pre-launch token is hard, and where the jurisdictional problems start.
Token vesting and unlocks
8 min · The four parameters behind every unlock schedule, the difference between on-chain and contractual vesting, and how unlocks feed circulating supply and FDV.
Token warrants
10 min · Why shares in the company confer no claim on the token, how the two instruments differ, and the terms that actually get negotiated.
Tokenomics
9 min · The four decisions behind every token design, three real published allocations compared, and how each choice lands on the token cap table.
Comparing platforms? Carta alternatives walks through where each cap table tool actually fits.