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Enter your round terms and watch your cap table redraw itself in real time. Visualize exactly what a new investor and a fresh option pool cost your ownership, before you sign a term sheet.
- Founder
- Other existing holders
- New investor
- Option pool
How founder dilution actually works
Every priced round dilutes existing shareholders in two separate ways. First, the new investor buys a slice of the company sized by how much they put in relative to the Post-Money Valuation — your Pre-Money Valuation plus their check. Second, most term sheets require a fresh Option Pool for future hires, and that pool is carved out of existing ownership before the new money is counted.
That second part is what founders call the Option Pool Shuffle— the pool is sized as a percentage of the company after the round, but it comes out of your slice and your existing investors' slice, not the new investor's. A bigger pool at the same check size always means more dilution for you, even though the investor's own ownership percentage does not change.
What is a normal founder dilution in a Seed or Series A round?
Most founders give up 15-25% in a Seed round and another 15-25% in Series A, once you factor in the new investor stake and a fresh option pool carved out before the round closes.
- Seed rounds typically dilute founders 15-25%, driven mostly by the new investor's check
- Series A adds another 15-25%, now with a larger option pool for the hiring ahead
- A bigger option pool at the same investment amount always means more founder dilution
Stop breaking Excel formulas. Lovie's platform simulates round modeling and dilution automatically with real-time cap table syncing — model the next round without rebuilding the table from scratch.
Curious what your option pool should look like before you negotiate? Our plain-English guide to how option pools work breaks down typical sizing by stage, and our guide to what dilution means for your shares covers the mechanics behind the chart above in more depth.
For the deal terms most Seed and Series A rounds are built on, see the NVCA's industry-standard model financing documents.