Equity Calculator

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Startup Equity Calculator

Calculate your ownership percentage and estimated grant value.

Calculation Results:

Ownership Percentage: %

Current Value: $

Estimated Exit Value: $

How Does an Equity Calculator Work?

An equity calculator helps employees and founders understand the true value of their stock options or grants within a company. Equity is essentially your slice of the pie; the "pie" represents the total number of shares issued by the company (fully diluted). Understanding your ownership involves more than just knowing the number of shares; you must know how many total shares exist to determine your percentage of the business.

The Basic Equity Formula

To find your ownership percentage, the math is straightforward:

Ownership % = (Number of Shares Owned / Total Outstanding Shares) x 100

Key Components of Equity Calculations

  • Outstanding Shares: This includes all shares currently held by shareholders, including founders, investors, and employees.
  • Fully Diluted Shares: This represents the total number of shares if all options, warrants, and convertible notes were exercised. This is the most accurate number for calculating your real stake.
  • Strike Price: If you have stock options (ISOs or NSOs), this is the price you pay to "exercise" or buy the share. Your profit is the difference between the sale price and this strike price.
  • Vesting Schedule: Most equity is earned over time (usually 4 years with a 1-year cliff), meaning you don't own all your shares on day one.

Realistic Equity Scenario

Suppose you are offered 25,000 shares in a startup. To understand if this is a significant grant, you look at the total pool. If the company has 5,000,000 shares total, your stake is 0.5%. If the company is currently valued at $10 million, your shares are worth roughly $50,000. If the company eventually exits for $200 million, that same 0.5% stake would be worth $1,000,000 (assuming no further dilution).

Role Typical % Range Common Vesting
Founding CEO 15% – 40% 4 Years
Early Engineer 0.5% – 2.0% 4 Years (1yr Cliff)
Mid-Level Hire 0.05% – 0.2% 4 Years
function calculateEquityStake() { // Get input values var sharesGranted = parseFloat(document.getElementById('sharesGranted').value); var totalShares = parseFloat(document.getElementById('totalShares').value); var sharePrice = parseFloat(document.getElementById('sharePrice').value); var exitValuation = parseFloat(document.getElementById('exitValuation').value); // Result elements var resultDiv = document.getElementById('equityResult'); var percentResult = document.getElementById('percentResult'); var currentValResult = document.getElementById('currentValResult'); var exitValResult = document.getElementById('exitValResult'); // Validation if (isNaN(sharesGranted) || isNaN(totalShares) || totalShares <= 0) { alert("Please enter valid numbers for shares granted and total outstanding shares."); return; } // Calculations var ownershipPercent = (sharesGranted / totalShares) * 100; var currentValue = 0; if (!isNaN(sharePrice)) { currentValue = sharesGranted * sharePrice; } var exitValue = 0; if (!isNaN(exitValuation)) { exitValue = (ownershipPercent / 100) * exitValuation; } // Display formatting percentResult.innerHTML = ownershipPercent.toLocaleString(undefined, {minimumFractionDigits: 2, maximumFractionDigits: 4}); currentValResult.innerHTML = currentValue.toLocaleString(undefined, {minimumFractionDigits: 2, maximumFractionDigits: 2}); exitValResult.innerHTML = exitValue.toLocaleString(undefined, {minimumFractionDigits: 2, maximumFractionDigits: 2}); // Show result resultDiv.style.display = 'block'; // Smooth scroll to result resultDiv.scrollIntoView({ behavior: 'smooth', block: 'nearest' }); }

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