01 · Raising Capital
Calculate what each post-money SAFE sells, how stacked caps and pro rata rights change the next round, and which cap-table scenarios to run before accepting another cheque.
Founder Equity
See how a pre-money option-pool top-up changes founder dilution, calculate a 10% post-close reserve correctly, and negotiate the pool from a real hiring plan.
10 min read · July 29th, 2026
AI infrastructure can create enormous value while early shareholders lose. How debt deadlines, dilution and rescue terms decide who owns the eventual profits.
A profitable company can face a debt maturity it cannot fund. See how refinancing terms can restrict distributions, collateral and asset sales when credit tightens.
Should founders wait for lower interest rates to raise? Price the runway spent waiting, the valuation needed to recover it, and the leverage a live process creates.
Algoma Steel's C$500 million government loan combines escalating interest, 6.77 million warrants and covenants that turn industrial policy into capital structure.
Magna cut estimated annual tariff exposure from US$500 million to US$250 million and expected customers to repay the rest. Its 2025 results show why tariff recovery is really a contract and working-capital problem.
Circle announced a $4.5 billion SPAC deal, repriced it to $9 billion, closed neither, and booked $44.2 million of termination costs. Here is what dies, who pays, and what a founder should model before signing.
How Chinese VC redemption clauses can turn a missed IPO into founder personal liability, court enforcement, and spending restrictions, plus what to negotiate before signing.
Cloudflare borrowed $2.5 billion at a 0% coupon, spent $259.5 million limiting dilution, and showed founders where the real cost of convertible debt sits.
The wrong angel costs more than their cheque. A screening process, the four clauses that decide whether you keep control, and the real cases where a $500K investor killed a $250M exit.
Both programs cost real equity and sell a real product. Here is what that product actually is, who it works for, and the founder profile that should almost certainly say no.
How down rounds, structured bridges, warrants, and option pools change founder ownership and voting control, with a clearly labeled worked hypothetical.