Pulley shut down. The only migration path it built for its customers leads back to Carta, the company it spent years positioning itself against. If you're a founder weighing where to move your cap table next, the question that matters isn't which platform has the most features. It's which one isn't going to run out of money.
We built Cake for the same reason Pulley did: founders deserved a real alternative to Carta. Somewhere along the way, though, we made a different bet about how to get there.
What we're hearing directly from Pulley switchers
Talk to enough people moving off Pulley and one thing comes up more than pricing or features: stability. It's one of the most common questions we're hearing from founders weighing their options right now, and understandably so.
For one founder, this isn't even their first shutdown. They moved to Pulley after LTSE shut down, only to find themselves in the same position two years later.
They're not shopping for the platform with the most features. They're looking for a forever home, somewhere that's going to be on the journey with them.
Why Cake chose cash flow over growth
About two years ago, we decided that becoming cash flow positive mattered more than growing at any cost. That decision cost us. We couldn't build every feature or run every campaign we wanted to. Focus sounds good in a strategy deck. In practice, it means saying no to things you actually want to do.
Kim, our CEO, told our board at the time that we were betting on the long run. Some investors heard that as: okay, so you're not the rocket ship, you're just something with an opportunity. That was painful in the moment. It's also why Cake isn't the company sending its own customers a shutdown notice this week.
Staying alive isn't a decision you get to make once. It's one you keep making, the same way we did two years ago. Kim wrote about the full story, board conversation included, in Two years ago I chose profit over growth. This week I saw why.
Who's actually backing us
Cake is backed by a mix of angels, institutional investors, smaller VCs, and government funding that have stuck with our strategy for years, not investors pushing us toward hypergrowth. We've raised around $8 million total, which means we don't carry the same pressure to grow at all costs that a company that's raised ten times that does. Instead, we operate as a sustainable and durable business, whilst maintaining consistent growth.
Our investors are aligned with sustainable growth, and none of them are counting on us burning through a war chest to get big fast.
What stability looks like in practice
For a founder deciding where to move a cap table, stability isn't a promise. It's a set of financial habits you can actually observe. On Cake, that looks like: no end date on our runway, because we're cash flow positive rather than burning down a raise. A healthy cash reserve we've mandated internally, with changes triggered if it ever drops below that level. Growth decisions made deliberately, not driven by whatever the next funding round demands.
No company, including us, can promise it will never run out of money. What we can tell you is how we're funded, why we grow the way we do, and that staying disciplined about it is something we treat as an ongoing job, not a one-time claim.
We stay financially disciplined because of what we exist to do: help startup teams through their toughest journeys, so they can focus on building a better future for all of us. Teams on Cake outperform the ones that aren't, and we can't do that for anyone if we run out of money.
Our customers see us as a partner on their journey
The customers who've stayed longest don't talk about Cake like a vendor they log into. They talk about it like a partner that's been on the journey with them.
Dave Christianson, Legal Counsel at Tracksuit, has been through a fundraise on the platform:
"Cake was quite a powerful part of our Series B. When we did the Series B announcement, we included 'as part of that you can now log into Cake and see what your equity's worth.' And there was a lot of excitement... a lot of comments about how people just really enjoy Cake 'cause it's so simple and intuitive."
—Dave Christianson, Legal Counsel at Tracksuit
You can read more of Tracksuit's story here.
And Dave's not the only one. A lot of our customers have been with us for years now, and they'll tell you the same thing: we're still showing up for them, not just a platform they signed up for once.
"I have been using Cake over a year now. The support I get from Elin and team is one of the best support I've received for a product in a while. If I can't find an answer, I reach out and always have a response within 24hrs. If I need to hop on a call, they are always available."
— G2 Reviewer (Verified)
"I've been using Cake for over a year and even got the chance to meet the team. The onboarding modules are excellent, clear, quick, and easy to follow."
—Ashanti Abdullah, Host at The Load Out
"We've used Cake since we first raised funding for our startup."
— Sam Duncan, CEO & Founder at FarmLab
"I am a big Cake fan, have used the product for some time now."
— Gabriella Sprott, Co-Founder & Director at ShowMe
If you're moving off Pulley, here's how migrating to Cake works.
This article is designed and intended to provide general information in summary form on general topics. The material may not apply to all jurisdictions. The contents do not constitute legal, financial or tax advice. The contents is not intended to be a substitute for such advice and should not be relied upon as such. If you would like to chat with a lawyer, please get in touch and we can introduce you to one of our very friendly legal partners.
