Why cap table software for US startups still needs a profile
Most cap-table tools are US tools by default, so a "US profile" sounds redundant, until you list what a Delaware C-Corp actually expects its software to know. Share classes split into Common Stock and Preferred Stock, not "ordinary shares". Early money arrives as a post-money SAFE, and the conversion math has to match the YC instrument your lawyers signed, not an approximation. The valuation on file is a 409A Valuation with a real expiry, because option strike prices depend on it. Equity-grant activity is visible over a rolling twelve months, with the USD 10 million Rule 701 enhanced-disclosure marker clearly distinguished from the exemption's separate sales-limit tests. And governance questions get answered in DGCL terms, because that is the law your charter, board consents, and investor counsel all speak.
Vquity's United States profile configures all of that at once. Jurisdictions cover the states US startups actually incorporate in: Delaware first, plus California, New York, Texas, Nevada, and Wyoming. The cap table carries Common and Preferred as first-class share classes alongside options and SAFEs, every amount renders in USD with standard grouping, and the valuations module labels and tracks your 409A the way your paperwork does. One honesty note up front: Vquity tracks the 409A lifecycle (recalculation, rollback, audit trail, expiry alerts) but the valuation itself comes from your valuation provider. You bring the number; Vquity keeps it current and auditable.
The profile matters most when the US entity is one of several. A Delaware parent over an Indian or Southeast Asian subsidiary is a standard flip structure, and each company in Vquity carries its own region profile: C-Corp and 409A here, Pte Ltd or Pvt Ltd there. The regions overview shows how the six profiles differ.
Worked example: a Delaware seed close, SAFEs converting
Here is the shape of a typical US seed round, run end to end.
Worked example: Delaware C-Corp seed round
A Delaware C-Corp has two founders holding 9,000,000 shares of Common Stock and no option pool yet. Pre-seed, it signed two post-money SAFEs: $600,000 at a $6,000,000 post-money valuation cap (a fixed 10% of the company) and $900,000 at a $12,000,000 cap (7.5%). A seed lead now prices the round: $4,000,000 at a $20,000,000 post-money valuation (20%) with a term-sheet condition that an option pool equal to 12% of the post-close company be in place.
Under post-money SAFE mechanics, the SAFE holders take their 10% and 7.5% immediately before the new money, so the founders stand at 82.5% going into the close. The seed investor then takes 20% and the new pool takes 12%, scaling every existing holder by 68%. Final cap table: founders 56.1%, SAFE holders 11.9%, seed investor 20%, option pool 12%. All of it in Preferred, Common, and options, in USD, under a Delaware charter.
One more thing surfaces at the close. The 409A on file is eleven months old, and Vquity's expiry alert has already flagged that it lapses next month, and a priced round is a material event that ends the safe harbor early anyway. Before the first grants go out of that new 12% pool, the company orders a fresh 409A from its valuation provider and records the new fair market value, so the options are priced at a strike the IRS framing supports.
In Vquity, the conversion itself is one atomic operation: the Close-Round wizard converts both SAFEs with a tested, YC-style post-money solver, tops the pool up to the negotiated 12%, and captures a pre-close snapshot in a single committed step, so the cap table never sits half-converted. To sanity-check the dilution before your lawyers do, run the numbers through the free SAFE calculator, or work through the Academy lesson on SAFEs and convertibles first.
How the profile plays with rounds, grants, and compliance
Rounds and history. SAFEs and convertibles run through an approval queue, and you can upload the signed documents for AI extraction instead of retyping terms. Every round close auto-captures a pre-close snapshot with field-level diff and PDF export, so when Series A counsel asks what the cap table looked like before seed, you show the diff, not an old spreadsheet tab.
Option grants under Rule 701. Grants run the full lifecycle (schedules, cliffs, milestones, accelerations) in a vesting ledger, with a pool-utilization chart showing how much of that 12% pool is committed before you promise more. The compliance module keeps a Rule 701 rolling-12-month issuance counter, so the grant volume your securities exemption depends on stays visible instead of buried in a ledger. Recipients accept grants through a public link that produces a signed PDF, and stock-comp expense can be computed under ASC 718 with a Black-Scholes model and posted to the Vinance general ledger.
The 409A cycle, continuously. The expiry alert from the worked example is not a one-off: Vquity tracks each 409A Valuation from the day you record it, with recalculation and rollback in an audit trail, and flags it before the twelve months run out or a new round restarts the clock. The Academy lesson on valuations and the 409A covers why the safe harbor is worth protecting.
Diligence and stakeholders. The Data Room organizes roughly 120 document types across 8 sections with a 12-item readiness score, so charters, board consents, SAFEs, and 409A reports are filed before the request list arrives. Investors and employees follow their own holdings through passwordless portals: stocks, options, SAFEs, documents, and a tax view, in USD.
Already running on another tool? The importer auto-detects and de-duplicates Carta, Pulley, and AngelList exports; see the Carta comparison for how the two differ. The fastest way to judge cap table software for US startups, though, is to point it at a real company: create yours with the US profile, or explore the seeded sample company first, at lisan.org/vquity.