Protect your founder equity from day one.

Set up founder vesting in minutes to safeguard ownership, align co-founders, and signal long-term commitment to investors.

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Loved by 10,000+ companies from all stages of growth.

Features

Founder equity tools that set you up for a lasting commitment.

Design fair vesting structures that protect your cap table, align co-founders, and earn investor trust from day one.

Prevent equity disputes

Automatically recover unvested shares if a founder leaves early

Investor-ready cap table

Show investors a clean, updated cap table without "dead weight"

Automated vesting

Easily manage cliffs, milestones, and vesting updates

Flexible for growth

Adjust vesting terms as your team expands and agreements evolve

Real-time tracking

Monitor how equity is vesting across founders and stakeholders

Audit-ready reports

Export complete, investor-friendly records with a single click

See how Cake simplifies founder equity.

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How it works

Manage your founder shares with ease, from grant to exit.

Set up founder vesting conditions, protect equity, and satisfy investors. Automate workflows and keep documents in one place.

Agree on vesting terms

Align with co-founders on ownership split, vesting period, cliff, and any acceleration triggers.

Issue founder shares

Allocate shares with your agreed vesting conditions.

Customize your vesting conditions

Set a vesting start date, add a cliff, and set milestones. You can create multiple time-based or milestone-based vesting events

Keep documents in one place

Store signed agreements, compliance docs, board approvals, tax filings, and cap table history in a central, secure repository.

Track and manage vesting

Monitor vesting milestones over time and adjust or repurchase shares if a founder leaves before fully vesting.

Frequently asked questions

Your questions on founder equity, answered.

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Which plans include founder vesting?

Basic share issuance with vesting ticked on is available on Build plans and above. For documented RSA plans with full e-signing workflows and agreement templates, you'll need Team plan.

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Can I customize vesting schedules and acceleration?

Yes, Cake supports fully flexible vesting including custom cliff periods, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly vesting, milestone-based vesting.

What's the standard vesting setup for founders

Most investors expect a four-year schedule with a one-year cliff—this ensures long-term alignment and protects company equity.

What happens if a founder leaves early?

Unvested shares are typically repurchased or forfeited, keeping your ownership structure fair for active founders and future hires.