How this calculator works
This tool models a single funding round using the pre-money / post-money mechanic Indian startups use for seed and Series A rounds. Enter your pre-money valuation, the capital being raised, and any ESOP pool top-up the investor is requiring as a condition of the round. Post-money valuation is simply pre-money plus new investment, and the investor's ownership share is investment divided by post-money valuation. Because most term sheets ask for the ESOP pool to be topped up before the new money comes in — not after — that dilution lands on the founders' side of the cap table, not the investor's. That's the detail most back-of-envelope math misses, and the one this tool makes explicit in the cap table view above.
Why ESOP pool timing matters
A 10% ESOP top-up doesn't cost everyone 10% evenly. When the pool is created pre-money — the market-standard structure — its dilution hits existing shareholders, mostly founders, before the new investor's percentage is even calculated. That's the difference between retaining 72% instead of 80% on paper for what looks like an identical headline term sheet. Running the actual numbers before signing is the point of this tool, rather than trusting a single "you'll own X%" line from an investor deck.