---
title: "Do You Have a Clean Cap Table?"
section: "Fundraising"
sectionId: "fundraising"
date: "2026-05"
---

A messy cap table is a **huge** red flag for investors and can stop someone from investing entirely. At LAUNCH, it's the biggest red flag seen in early-stage companies.

## Founder ownership benchmarks by stage

| Stage | Founders' collective ownership |
|---|---|
| Pre-Series A | 50–65% |
| Series A | 40–50% |
| Series B | 30–40% |
| Series C | 20–30% |
| IPO / Exit | 10–20% |

If your ownership is significantly below these benchmarks at an early stage, investors will ask hard questions.

## Common cap table mistakes

**Giving away too much to service providers.** Do NOT give away a large percentage of your company to a dev shop or consulting firm in the early days. Investors want to see capital efficiency — if equity went to someone who built a prototype, that's a red flag.

**Raising a lot without results.** If you've raised significant capital and are still pre-revenue or pre-product, that raises concerns. Investors will scrutinise what happened to the money.

Keep your cap table clean from day one — it is much harder to fix later.