Style guide: how a memo looks
Every element a memo can use, written as a memo.
Terms
The clauses that decide what you own in five years.
Liquidation preferences on one napkin
Who gets paid first when the company sells, in three lines.
What a SAFE actually promises
A SAFE is a promise about a future price. Read the cap and the discount first.
Newsletter ·
Dilution, counted honestly
Count the option pool, the SAFEs and the next round together.
Newsletter ·
The cap table after three rounds
A worked example from 100% to the Series A.
Newsletter ·
Pro rata, explained once
The right to keep your share in the next round, and what it costs you.
Newsletter ·
Board seats at pre-seed
You probably don’t need a board yet. You need two people who answer the phone.
Newsletter ·
Vesting for founders
Four years, one-year cliff, and why it protects you as well.
Newsletter ·
The option pool shuffle
Why the pool is usually created before the money arrives.
Newsletter ·
A term sheet in one page
The six lines that matter, and the rest.
Cap table: three rounds, simulated
Change one assumption and watch the founders’ share move.