A Startup Cap Table is usually a spreadsheet, usually utilized by early stage or start-up ventures, which identifies the ownership structure of the business. The spreadsheet generally shows which individual or entity owns what, how much they own and what their stake in the business is. The spreadsheet can be used as part of a proposal to investors or as a basis for an equity injection. It can also be used as part of a negotiation between start-up partners. It can also be used as part of an accounting tool for tax purposes. A well designed startup cap table will help facilitate decision making and provide information to potential funding sources.

Most start-up businesses want to use the startup cap table template because it saves them time and trouble when coming up with a potential funding prospectus. Most venture capitalists want to see cap tables as part of the presentation that accompanies a prospectus for new investments. In most cases, the investor will require that the start-up business provide them with one in order to give serious consideration to investing in the company’s capital raising efforts.

It should be noted that a startup cap table is not the same as an equity shares table. Equity shares are normally referred to as the “equity units” in the corporate structure. The term equity shares refers to shares of stock. These types of securities are always preferable to traditional forms of capitalization because they do not require the same degree of financial reporting and disclosure standards as fixed rate loans or common equity.

Startup cap tables are Excel spreadsheets that provide information needed by funding rounds and venture capitalists during the early stages of a company’s development. This type of financial reporting is called real-time financial reporting. This allows interested parties to view funding rounds from all points of view – the investor’s perspective. In other words, it provides a real-time picture of the company’s operations after going though the initial stages.

An entrepreneur’s notebook, for instance, would include the following data in the form of a spreadsheet: stock ownership percentages, average number of shares outstanding, cash flow data, net income and profit and loss statement. The data shown here would then need to be transformed into the Excel format necessary for startup founders to use when presenting their ideas to investors and venture capitalists during the early stages. This means that startup founders would have to insert these items into the blank fields in the appropriate cells in their startup cap table templates. It is also advisable, however, for these entrepreneurs to include a couple of other indicators to indicate when these indicators are indicating the “peak” of their businesses’ operations. The results of these calculations can then be linked to indicate when the companies have hit certain milestones within their growth plans.

These waterfall charts are also useful for funding rounds. The startup founders can simply include one or more scenarios into the funding prospectus they prepare. One such scenario could be one in which the funding target is met with a solid revenue mix. Another scenario is one in which a revenue target is missed completely. Still another scenario is one in which the target revenue is exceeded by the startup’s revenue and profits, causing the valuation of the shares to tumble.

One more scenario in which startup cap tables might be useful is one in which early shareholders exercise their rights and sell their shares into full ownership. There are two primary cases for this scenario, first among startup founders who hold convertible or non-convertible shares. In this case, the value of the shares will fall for the founders upon the sale of their shares. In the second scenario, this is not necessarily the case, as the value of the shares of common stock held by the founders will increase immediately. Either scenario is useful for providing funding targets and scenarios for calculating valuation multiples.

Startup capital plans typically include one or more cap tables. The purpose of cap tables is to provide a spreadsheet which the founders can use to calculate potential equity value and future equity value. These spreadsheets can be very useful for helping founders think about equity risks and reward losses. They can also be extremely useful for helping new startups prepare their initial financial statements.