Founder Dilution
The fall in a founder’s ownership percentage as new shares are issued. Shares are never taken away; the denominator grows. A typical path runs from 100% at founding to 50 to 65% after seed, 35 to 50% after a Series A, and 15 to 25% by a Series C, which is why the question is never "how much did I give away" but "what is the smaller fraction now worth".
How a startup is financed · 7 of 26Next: SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity)
Practise it
Take a company from founding through a SAFE and a priced seed round. Set the cap, the pre-money and the option pool, watch the price per share and every holder’s stake move, then check your own arithmetic against the table.
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