Company details
Created pre-money, dilutes founders
Funding rounds
Add each round — SAFE converts at next priced round valuation cap.
Model SAFE notes and priced rounds. See exactly what founders, investors and employees own after each raise.
Add each round — SAFE converts at next priced round valuation cap.
This calculator models how founder ownership changes across financing events. You enter total founder shares and the employee option pool percentage, then layer on SAFE notes and priced rounds to see the resulting cap table and each holder's post-round percentage. Dilution compounds: a 20% priced round after a 15% pool expansion and converted SAFEs leaves founders with far less than a single-round estimate suggests. For companies whose largest variable cost is API and cloud spend, the two sit on the same page: the size of the round you need is driven largely by how long your inference, compute, and egress bill lets the money last, so cutting cost per request directly reduces how much equity you have to sell.
A SAFE does not dilute anyone when it is signed; it converts into shares at the next priced round, usually at a valuation cap or discount that gives the SAFE holder a lower price per share than the new investors. Because conversion happens at the same time as the new round, founders often underestimate total dilution, since the SAFE shares and the new money shares both come out of the pre-round ownership.
In most standard term sheets the option pool is created or topped up pre-money, which means existing shareholders — primarily the founders — absorb the dilution rather than the incoming investor. A 10% post-money pool established pre-money can cost founders noticeably more than 10% of their stake once the round closes.
Runway is capital divided by net burn, and for AI and API-heavy products inference and cloud spend is often the largest line in that burn. Lowering cost per user extends runway at the same raise amount, which lets you raise less now or raise later at a higher valuation — both of which mean less dilution per dollar of funding.