> Source: https://story.law/platform/cap-table · Last updated 2026-10-28 # We make understanding cap tables easy, because we think legal knowledge should be free. Meet the founder-friendliest cap table. No manual data entry. Upload your signed agreements and our lawyers build your true cap table with the legal logic baked in. Common Authorized 8,500,000 / 10,000,000 Shares issued Authorized vs. issued ## What a difference issuance makes - TLDR: your Certificate of Incorporation creates stock with a "par value" - a minimum possible value. - That makes it \*available\* for issuance. - To actually issue it, you need more: Board approval, a contract, and "consideration" (payment of some kind). - Equity financings (aka priced round investments) usually create and issue new classes of stock. - Most startups begin with just one "class" of stock: Common Stock. Plan Reserved Shares 250,000 / 1,000,000 Option shares used 250,000 granted · 0 exercised Reserved vs. granted ## Making Space for Equity Incentives - TLDR: Using options or similar equity incentive compensation legally and effectively requires prerequisites. - Once your company is fully formed, your board and Stockholders adopt an Equity Incentive Plan. Missed this? Don't worry, we have a fast fixed-fee package for it. - Another prerequisite: optimally, you have an independent valuation (aka a 409A Valuation) dated within the last year. This is for the IRS. - Your plan reserves shares; your Board grants them as options or other forms of Equity Compensation allowed by your plan. - Most options "vest," which we explain below. Options Name Priya Raman Form of option ISO Shares 40,000 Price/Share $0.42 Document Option Agreement (ISO) Grant date 01/15/2026 Name Marcus Webb Form of option NSO Shares 25,000 Price/Share $0.42 Document Option Agreement (NSO) Grant date 02/03/2026 ISO vs. NSO ## ISO, NSO, So What? - TLDR: Use ISOs for US employees, NSO for everyone else. - When we say "employee" we mean the people who you give a W2. - You'll generally give options to individuals only, not entities. Other instruments like warrants are more common for entities. - 1099s, advisors, and international grantees should use NSOs or NQSOs (non-qualified stock options); they don't get tax treatment as preferential as ISOs. - Your cap table should indicate whether each grantee is an ISO or an NSO. Options Name Priya Raman Shares 40,000 Price/Share $0.42 Vesting Exercised10,000 shares ↓ pays $4,200 to exercise 10,000 options Common Stock Name Jordan Lee Shares 5,000,000 Price/Share $0.0001 Name Priya Raman Shares 10,000 Price/Share $0.42 Document Option Exercise Date 03/15/2026 Exercising options ## They actually want to buy those options - TLDR: Exercising an option means buying stock at the option exercise price, even if the company has increased in value. - Expect your plan to allow vesting only so long as the optionee is providing services to your company. - When a service provider stops providing services, they stop vesting and enter their "exercise window". - In most cases, the exercise window lasts 90 days after termination. - If the optionee exercises, they become a stockholder; the shares reserved for them under the plan can't go to anyone else. Vesting - Partly vested 30,000 / 48,000 - Pre-cliff Pre-Cliff (5/12mo) - After leaving the company 30 days to exercise30,000 exercisable - Fully vested Fully Vested Vesting ## How Vesting Makes the Cap Table Go Round - TLDR: Vesting is a mechanism for option (or restricted stock) shares to become available to the grantee gradually. - Expect a cliff of about 1 year and a total vesting period of 4-5 years in standard issuances. - Vesting can get MUCH more complicated than simple time-based vesting. - Unvested shares can't be exercised, so can't yet become stock for the holder; vested shares can be exercised (purchased) anytime within the exercise window, including while still providing services. Convertible Investments $2.0M raised - SAFEs$1.2M - Convertible Notes$500K - Warrants$300K Convertibles ## Convert into what, exactly? - TLDR: Certain equity instruments are simple to sign, as long as your Board approves. But how they become stock changes a lot based on the circumstances that come next. - SAFEs are contracts that "prepay" for a potential conversion into equity when a later triggering event occurs. - Convertible Notes are promissory notes that convert into equity when a later triggering event occurs. - In most cases, conversion happens on an equity investment or exit transaction. 1 of 6 Pulley announced in September 2026 they would cease operating this year, and they offered a transition to Carta with the price honored. We spent years hearing how much people hated Carta, so we built a cap table with the lawyer logic baked in. Story already had a better cap table product that requires less founder work and cash, so we're offering a limited-time deal for startups affected by the Pulley disappearance who don't want Carta: Aegis Cap Table software for $2,000 a year, with the lawyer logic built in and no human review. You dump documents; the software figures them out, and you can add a lawyer in the lead whenever you want one. Your cap table is more correct than it was on Pulley for a fraction of the price of Carta. Limited time · For former Pulley subscribers ## Story Aegis Cap Table $2,000 a year Cap table software with no human review or engagement letter required. - Software only, no legal advice - No engagement letter required Trusted by cost-savvy founders at - - - ![Genomelink logo](https://story.law/assets/static/genomelink.C9BH85Gv.svg) - ![Happy Robot logo](https://story.law/assets/static/happyrobot.qm0YEd4y.svg) - - - - ![Kapa.ai logo](https://story.law/assets/static/kapa.7OQhU-aJ.svg) - ![Photocircle logo](https://story.law/assets/static/photocircle.DFiJESBX.svg) - ![Homeaglow logo](https://story.law/assets/static/homeaglow.DQc0EQb8.png) ## Migrating to Carta means migrating your mistakes. Pulley and Carta work on data entry. Your data entry MIGHT be right if you paid lawyers to help, or your company is super-simple. Founders usually do it wrong. Story LLP lawyer logic gets it right for you, with cleaner, easier interfaces and just as much investor access and modeling. All your data is privileged and confidential. We will never sell it, much less sell it without your permission like Carta. Where you were ### Pulley Offline December 8, 2026 Where you’re being sent ### Carta $5,000–$80,000/yr Plus a lawyer to check what was imported The third option ### Story.law $2,000/yr Or $199/mo billed monthly. Rebuilt from your signed documents by software with the lawyer logic built in. No human review. THE PART NOBODY TELLS YOU ## Your securities were never *on* Pulley. We hear a lot from founders who ask, “If I quit Carta, don’t I lose my securities?” We gotta give Carta credit: they misled a lot of smart people into thinking their stuff is stuck in Carta. Let’s get the truth out there: securities in your company exist because you followed an acceptable legal process to create and issue them. We run that process, and lawyers usually do. Carta and Pulley are where you enter data about your legal reality—not the place where it lives. The data you entered might be wrong if the process is wrong. Pulley has offered migrating to Carta, which they say involves phone calls and checking data. With Story’s Aegis Cap Table, you enter no data—you upload documents. We find the legal reality, and that’s what you see on your Story Cap Table. You’re not moving your securities anywhere. You’re choosing what to rebuild the picture from: an export, which is a picture of a picture, or the documents themselves. We build from the documents. The record is built on the Open Cap Format, and it downloads as a lawyer-ready Excel file any day you want it. ### Here’s how you get your securities “off” Pulley before the December 8, 2026 shutdown: 1. Export from Pulley Company Settings → Export → Full Company Export—see [Pulley’s export guide (opens in new window) (opens in a new tab)](https://help.pulley.com/en/articles/17154936-exporting-your-data-from-pulley). 2. Sign up for Story 3. Upload your export Or just email it to gc@story.law. 4. We rebuild your cap table From the documents themselves. HOW IT WORKS ## Story Cap tables have the BigLaw lawyer logic baked in. Stop thinking about whether you entered data right. Let your General Counsel get the cap table law right for you. 1. 1 FORWARD A zip, a Drive folder, an inbox full of signed PDFs. Upload it, email it to gc@story.law, Slack it, throw it in a Linear ticket. We take it from there. You enter no other data. 2. 2 GRAPH Aegis extracts content and key data points with proprietary lawyer logic into a graph of your legal reality. 3. 3 ASSESS We consider only legally-effective documents: valid files, signed by the right parties and approved in the right way. 4. 4 VISUALIZE See your cap table and data room in investor-friendly and lawyer-friendly format. 5. 5 SHARE Invite your lawyers and investors to save them time and save both you and your investors on legal bills. Use our MCP and more to integrate with investors' fund and management software. ## A Cap Table UI that doesn't feel like you're operating a space shuttle...where you can't find anything. Most cap table software, including Carta, is built with data entry - by the founder or the lawyer founders pay. Our cap table software is a datavizualization of your legal reality. ![Common stock rows for Avery Chen and Jordan Ellis, each with a document icon that opens the signed agreement](https://story.law/images/marketing/cap-table/demo-cap-table-source-docs.png) Every row has its paperClick any holding to open the signed document it came from. Example company. Real product. BEFORE YOU BUY ## What this won’t do. We're lawyers, not magicians or psychics. Your Story.law cap table is based only on the actual, effective documents you upload and the specific references they make. 1. 1 ### We can only see what you send us. Your cap table is built from your documents. If a grant was never papered, it isn't in there, because legally it may not exist. Some tools will let you type it in anyway, which records a belief, not ownership. We'll tell you what's missing instead. Closing those gaps is legal work, and legal work costs money. 2. 2 ### We won't count a document that doesn't hold up. If a past lawyer or a template site got something wrong, like a grant with no board consent or a transfer nobody signed, we won't quietly treat it as valid to make your table look clean. We'll flag it and tell you what fixing it takes. 3. 3 ### We don't promise every edge case. Sometimes, as a startup, you had something odd happen in your legal history. We support most of that, but you should understand that some cap table realities are legal ARGUMENTS, and on our platform a manual update to your cap table must come from a lawyer unless our lawyers already said it's reasonable to treat that logic as universal. ## Cap table only, or the full platform. MonthlyAnnual ### Free Cap Table Upload your documents and see what's in them. No subscription, no card. ##### $0 Free to start. Paid only if you need more. - Certificate of incorporation and bylaws - Action by sole incorporator and organizational board consent - Stock purchase agreements - The option plan - SAFEs - A Health Check of what's found and what's missing Founders who want to see what's in their legal records first. ### Cap Table Software Cap table software with no human review or engagement letter required. ##### $2,000 /year Or $199/mo billed monthly. - A cap table built from your signed documents - Every row linked to its source document - Vesting tracked from each grant’s terms - SAFEs and notes with caps, discounts and MFN terms - Automated legal logic with no human review - Lawyer-ready Excel export Founders who only need a cap table today — upgrade to Aegis anytime. - Software only — no legal advice or human review - No engagement letter required - Upgrade to lawyer support whenever you need it PULLEY RESCUE SPECIAL ### Pulley Rescue Special Aegis Raise, with a lawyer in the lead, at the Pulley offer price. ##### $3,500 /year Regular price $9,999 Billed annually. The price stays $3,500/yr at every renewal. 65% off Aegis Raise, locked at $3,500/yr forever. Available until November 30, 2026. - Everything in Aegis Start, plus: - Growth cap table (pro formas, preferred stock series, waterfall analysis) - Growth data room with granular investor access controls - Diligence management and checklist automation - Term sheet analysis - Pro forma investment or exit modeling Companies that want a lawyer in the lead on their cap table and next raise. - Story engagement letter after payment Upgrade anytime — your cap table comes with you when you move to [Aegis Start](https://story.law/platform/aegis-start) or [Aegis Raise](https://story.law/platform/aegis-raise). ## Moving off Pulley is an export and an upload. ### From Pulley 1. 1Pulley is shutting down—all operations end December 8, 2026. Export before then. 2. 2Export: Head to their Data Room page to download a ZIP: 3. 3[Pulley’s export guide (opens in new window) (opens in a new tab)](https://help.pulley.com/en/articles/17154936-exporting-your-data-from-pulley) 4. 4Make sure you have a Story account. 5. 5Upload the zip, or email it to gc@story.law with subject "Pulley Rescue" 6. 6We assess whether your needs can be met with a spreadsheet or other options, including ours 7. 7We give you an insane discount, because you deserve better than Carta for less money ### From Carta 1. 1Export: Settings → Data Export → Download All Documents 2. 2Carta’s export guide 3. 3Upload the zip, or email it to gc@story.law 4. 4We rebuild your cap table from your source documents ### From a shoebox 1. 1Gather whatever you have: signed PDFs, email attachments, a shared drive 2. 2Forward all of it. That’s the normal case. 3. 3We work out what counts and tell you what’s missing ## Questions founders are asking this week Do I lose my shares when Pulley shuts down? No. You do not lose any shares when Pulley shuts down. Shares, options, SAFEs, and notes exist because (the right) signed documents created them—not because a cap table platform recorded them. The benefit of exporting your documents from Pulley before December 8, 2026 is making sure you don't lose anything. What if my Pulley export is incomplete? Send what you have, plus any signed documents sitting in email or a shared drive. We build from the documents, and we tell you what's missing instead of guessing. What if no lawyer has ever looked at my equity documents? That's common. The software applies lawyer logic to your uploaded documents and shows what it couldn't find, with no human review. If you want a lawyer to fix things like a grant with no board consent, choose the lawyer-in-the-lead offer (Aegis Raise with the Pulley discount), which starts with an engagement letter with Story LLP. What happens to my cap table if you shut down? Download it as a lawyer-ready Excel file any day. And the same rule applies to us: your securities live in your signed documents, not in any cap table platform. Can I upgrade to Aegis later and keep everything? Yes. Upgrade whenever you like, and your cap table comes with you. Do you do 409A valuations? We offer 409A valuations a la carte when you actually need them—not bundled into a subscription you’re paying for before it’s useful. Is this privileged? Your data is confidential from day one. It becomes privileged when you engage Story LLP as your lawyer, which is part of the lawyer-in-the-lead offer. The software-only plan is not legal advice and has no engagement letter. We're lawyers, remember? Please read this important note: Story LLP is a law firm, and Story's lawyers built Aegis to deliver better, standard legal services at scale so founders can choose between top-tier specialized lawyers and standardized process automations that replicate those lawyers according to their needs and budget. By definition, a standardized process may not be perfect for you. Please review our [Policies page](https://story.law/policies) to better understand the difference, as well as how we use AI and how we manage conflicts, privilege, etc. --- As a law firm, we must screen clients for conflicts of interest, and we treat all correspondence with clients seeking legal advice as privileged and confidential to the maximum extent possible in consideration of any conflicts. However, Story's law firm or our Attorney Allies do not represent you or your company as your lawyer, do not have an attorney-client relationship with you or your company, and do not provide you with legal advice absent a formal Engagement Letter signed between you and the Story LLP law firm. Please don't confuse the free knowledge we offer on this site with legal advice for you.