Capital Structure & Ownership
How to prepare your capital structure submission
This stage evaluates how your company is structured from an ownership, control, and fundraising perspective.
You are not describing what you want your structure to be.
You are describing what exists today and what you are proposing next.
Access to this submission is only provided after your Lions Den outcome.
How the submission works
You will:
confirm your company identity
provide full funding history
describe your current ownership structure
disclose investor rights and control dynamics
define your current fundraising round
Your answers must reflect your actual cap table, agreements, and structure.
If your answers and underlying documents do not align, the diagnostic cannot produce a reliable output and your submission may be rejected.
What you must prepare
This submission is structured exactly around the sections below.
1. Funding History
You must provide a complete record of capital raised to date:
total capital raised (all sources)
number of funding rounds completed
details of your last round:
date
amount
post-money valuation
This establishes your baseline for valuation and dilution.
Incomplete or inconsistent funding history creates immediate credibility issues.
2. Ownership Structure
You must clearly define how your company is currently owned:
total founder ownership (%)
total equity issued to investors (%)
largest shareholder ownership (%)
total number of investors
You will also need to provide:
employee option pool (%)
whether the option pool is allocated
whether founder shares are subject to vesting
vesting schedule and cliff
This section determines control, dilution risk, and governance complexity.
3. Governance Structure
You must describe how your company is governed:
board structure (founders only, mixed, independent, or none)
existence of formal governance
You must also disclose:
convertible notes outstanding
SAFE notes outstanding
Investors assess governance maturity early. Weak or undefined structures increase risk.
4. Control and Investor Rights
You must clearly show who controls the company:
who holds majority voting control
whether investors hold board seats
whether investors have observer rights
You must also disclose:
liquidation preferences
pro-rata rights
protective provisions
These are not minor details.
They define how future rounds behave and how outcomes are distributed.
5. Capital Structure Complexity
You will be required to assess:
how complex your cap table is
whether ownership is clean or fragmented
whether multiple instruments are in place
A simple structure is easier to fund.
A complex structure increases friction and risk.
6. Use of Capital (Historical)
You must break down how capital has been used:
product development
sales and marketing
hiring
operations and infrastructure
Percentages should reflect how capital has actually been deployed.
This is used to assess capital efficiency and operating discipline.
7. Current Fundraising Round
You must clearly define your next raise:
target raise amount
round stage (pre-seed, seed, Series A, etc.)
target pre-money valuation
equity being offered (%)
minimum and maximum ticket sizes
runway expected after the raise
minimum viable raise
maximum acceptable dilution
You will also need to confirm:
whether you are willing to expand the option pool
This section directly feeds valuation modelling and investor positioning.
8. Convertible Instruments
You must disclose all convertible structures:
total convertible notes outstanding
valuation caps
discount structures
If you do not understand these, your answers will be incomplete or incorrect.
What this stage is actually testing
Investors are assessing:
whether ownership is clear and defensible
whether dilution has been managed properly
whether control is aligned or fragmented
whether investor rights create future friction
whether the next round is structured realistically
If this is unclear, investors slow down or disengage.
What typically goes wrong
Most companies fail this stage because:
cap tables are inconsistent or outdated
founder ownership is unclear
too many small investors create complexity
investor rights are not understood
convertible instruments are poorly tracked
valuation expectations are not aligned to reality
the proposed raise does not match the stage
This stage exposes structural issues that are difficult to fix later.
What to do before accessing the form
Before starting this submission:
review your cap table in detail
confirm all ownership percentages are correct
gather all investment agreements
understand your investor rights and obligations
validate your planned raise assumptions
You are not preparing numbers.
You are preparing your company’s ownership structure for scrutiny.
Where this fits in your journey
You will access this submission after:
completing Lions Den
receiving your outcome
receiving your submission links
At that point, your capital structure is analysed and fed into your valuation and investor readiness outputs.
Next step
Return to your onboarding flow and proceed once your Lions Den outcome has been received.