Equity Management
Made Crystal Clear
Designing an intuitive cap table management tool for startups and private companies to track ownership, dilution, and investor relations.
Demystifying equity ownership for growing companies
This project focused on designing a comprehensive capitalization table management system that helps founders, investors, and legal teams understand and manage company ownership.
As companies grow through multiple funding rounds, equity structures become increasingly complex. Our goal was to create a tool that makes this complexity manageable while providing the accuracy and auditability that investors and regulators require.
The details at a glance
What we set out to achieve
Design a cap table tool that gives founders instant clarity on ownership while providing the depth investors and legal teams require.
The platform needed to handle complex equity structures (including common shares, preferred stock, options, warrants, and convertible notes) while presenting information in ways that both financial experts and first-time founders could understand.
My contributions to the project
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1
Advanced Equity Analysis Created interactive charts for deep ownership breakdown, dilution tracking, and potential exit payouts
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2
Securities Administration Designed workflows for managing complex instruments including SAFEs, Warrants, and Convertible Notes
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3
Stakeholder Portal Design Built custom views for investors and employees with detailed holdings and vesting tracking
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4
Document & Compliance System Designed automated certificate generation and secure document storage for legal audit readiness
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5
Audit Trail Interface Created a transparent, immutable history of all equity transactions for compliance and due diligence
Aligning design with business objectives
Replace Spreadsheets
Provide a more reliable, auditable alternative to Excel-based cap tables that eliminates formula errors and version conflicts.
Enable Self-Service
Empower founders to manage equity and generate reports without requiring legal or financial advisors for every question.
Streamline Due Diligence
Make cap table data investor-ready with export formats and data rooms that accelerate funding rounds.
Understanding the problem space
We interviewed founders, CFOs, lawyers, and investors to understand how different stakeholders interact with cap table data and where current tools fall short.
Key Research Methods
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Stakeholder Interviews 25+ interviews across founders, investors, and lawyers
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Spreadsheet Analysis Audited 15 real company cap tables for common issues
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Task Analysis Mapped key workflows from issuance to equity administration
From insights to solutions
The ideation phase focused on creating visual representations of complex ownership structures and intuitive tools for securities management and stakeholder engagement.
Interactive Ownership Charts
Dynamic pie and waterfall charts that update in real-time as users model different scenarios.
Stakeholder Portals
Role-based views giving investors and employees access to their specific equity information.
Multi-instrument Tracking
Centralized management of common shares, SAFEs, warrants, and convertibles in one unified view.
Bringing the vision to life
Impact and results
The platform is now used by hundreds of companies to manage their equity. Users report significant time savings in scenario modeling and due diligence preparation, with legal teams particularly praising the audit trail functionality.
What this project taught me
The best data visualization doesn't just show numbers: it tells the story behind them.
This project taught me that financial data tools need to serve multiple audiences with very different needs. Founders need quick answers, while lawyers need complete audit trails.
The breakthrough was designing layered interfaces that provide simple overviews with the ability to drill into full detail: serving both audiences without compromising either experience.