Priced round and option pool
Pre-money to price per share, with the pool shuffle.
By Surojit Chakraverti, founder of L3VLUP and an investor running a long-short healthcare and technology equities strategy.
On this subject: priced round and option pool.Updated 30 September 2026
What it does
The round itself. The pre-money is divided over everything the investor insists on counting, which with the pool in the pre-money includes the top-up that brings the unallocated pool to its target; the price per share falls out, the new money buys its shares at that price, and every holder’s ownership is restated on the post-money fully diluted count. The schedule carries both pool treatments and a switch between them.
Where it lives
The same schedule in each model that carries it, with the rows to open. Open a model in the browser, go to the sheet, and click the lines.
- Assumptions, rows 6–8: Founder A shares, Founder B shares, Options already granted or reserved
- Assumptions, rows 16–19: Pre-money valuation, New money invested, Unallocated pool wanted, % of post-money fully diluted, Pool top-up in the pre-money (1 yes, 0 after the round)
- Round, rows 12–23: Post-money valuation, Capitalisation excluding the existing pool (X), Pool top-up with the pool in the pre, Price per share with the pool after the round…
- Cap Table, rows 6–11: Founder A, Founder B, Option pool, SAFE…
- Cap Table, rows 14–20: Founder A, Founder B, Option pool, SAFE…
- Cap Table, rows 23–24: Founders together, Points given up since founding
What a reviewer looks for
- A pool sized on the pre-round count, so it misses the target the term sheet states.
- Solving the price by iteration or a circular reference when the closed form exists.
- Reporting the headline pre-money as what the founders received.
- Ownership rows that do not sum to one because a holder is missing from the count.
Learn it, then build it
Understand · Primer
Cap Tables and Startup Financing
Build · Lab · ~15 min
Cap Table Builder
Convert a post-money SAFE, price a seed round and size an option pool by hand, and say who paid for the pool.
Read · Guide · 13 min
Cap Tables, Dilution and the Option Pool
Vocabulary: Pre-Money Valuation, Post-Money Valuation, Option Pool, Option Pool Shuffle, Founder Dilution.