✗ Fundamentals

How a Priced Equity Round Works

A real valuation, new shares, and everything that was deferred now comes due.

A priced round is what people usually picture as raising money: investors agree on a valuation, the company issues new shares at that price, and everyone's ownership is recalculated. It is also the moment all the deferred instruments, the SAFEs and notes, finally convert.

Setting the price

The round begins with a negotiated pre-money valuation, the company's agreed worth before the new money. Add the investment, and you get the post-money valuation. The price per share is the post-money valuation divided by the total shares after the round, and the new investors' ownership is simply their check divided by post-money.

The conversions land

Any outstanding SAFEs and convertible notes convert into shares at this round, at their caps or discounts. This is where founders who lost track of their early instruments get surprised: the converting SAFEs can take a larger slice than expected, diluting the founders alongside the new money. A clean pre-round cap table models every conversion before signing.

Ownership after

When the dust settles, ownership has shifted three ways at once: new investors now hold their percentage, converted early investors hold theirs, and everyone who came before, founders and employees, has been diluted to make room. Understanding all three movements together is the difference between a round that feels fair and one that feels like a shock. This is general information, not investment advice.

A real price, and a real reshuffle.

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