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, that dilution lands on the founders' side of the cap table. Most back-of-envelope math misses this, and the cap table view above makes it explicit.
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. This tool lets you run the actual numbers before signing instead of trusting a single "you'll own X%" line from an investor deck.