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.
Dashboard mockup

Trusted by startup founders and experts

Turn founder equity into a lasting commitment

Founder equity tools that set you and your company up for success
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

Book a demo

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.

Your questions on founder equity, answered

Need help? Visit the Help Center.
Which plans include founder vesting?

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

See plans
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.