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Hello, Carta Community and equity friends alike! My name is Chris and I am the founder of Equity Admin Co. We are a firm that specializes in Equity Administration for companies who use Carta. We provide standard equity administration and cap table updates - issuances, transfers, modifications, etc. - financial reporting (ASC 718) help, and anything else equity related that is done on or off Carta's platform.

It was in 2018, when I started working at Carta, that I discovered I could have a career in equity. I had previously been in college for 7 years and could never find a degree or topic that I was passionate about. When I started at Carta and discovered this new world, I walked away from school without hesitation - I had found my passion!

In 2019, a new role at Carta opened up as a Stock Plan Administrator. We offered an additional service to take the actual management of the cap table out of the hands of the company executives and their attorneys, and it was a huge hit among Carta customers. A few months later I left on paternity leave with my first son, and while I was out, my boss decided to leave Carta…I came back a month later and they told me they were no longer going to offer our service, but that I could keep working with my current clients until their contracts were up. For the next year, I continued my work and also worked a different position at Carta, but I missed actually managing cap tables full-time. In August 2020 I talked to Carta about starting my own firm that specialized in their platform, and they were more than supportive.

I was able to take my business full-time in March 2021 and we now have a team of 7 additional consultants (almost all ex-Carta) who help manage company cap tables and equity data. We have 40+ current clients that range from newly-incorporated startups to massive decacorns. The total valuation of our clients is above $90 billion, and we're blessed to work with some of the most amazing founders and companies on the planet.

I want to share some cap table and equity tips for founders:

1. Make sure your cap table is up-to-date from the incorporation of your company. The sooner you ensure accuracy (and maintain it), the less money you'll spend later trying to go back through years of documents to make sure it's right - and the less headache you'll have during an audit or due diligence in the future.
2. Assign one person to manage your cap table (whether that's internal or external), and make sure they have bandwidth to handle it and make sure it's up-to-date. Your equity is simple to manage when you first begin, but if you scale quickly, it can be difficult to keep up with it when you don't have someone dedicated to it.
3. When offering equity to your employees, be open and transparent with them regarding what type of equity they are receiving, how much they are receiving, and what it's currently worth (FMV & preferred price, if applicable). The more answers you can offer up front, the less you'll have to worry about your employees being distrusting or disheartened later, because they feel like you were dishonest early on.

Now is the time - Ask me anything!

Hello, Carta Community and equity friends alike! My name is Chris and I am the founder of Equity Admin Co. We are a firm that specializes in Equity Administration for companies who use Carta. We provide standard equity administration and cap table updates - issuances, transfers, modifications, etc. - financial reporting (ASC 718) help, and anything else equity related that is done on or off Carta's platform.

It was in 2018, when I started working at Carta, that I discovered I could have a career in equity. I had previously been in college for 7 years and could never find a degree or topic that I was passionate about. When I started at Carta and discovered this new world, I walked away from school without hesitation - I had found my passion!

In 2019, a new role at Carta opened up as a Stock Plan Administrator. We offered an additional service to take the actual management of the cap table out of the hands of the company executives and their attorneys, and it was a huge hit among Carta customers. A few months later I left on paternity leave with my first son, and while I was out, my boss decided to leave Carta…I came back a month later and they told me they were no longer going to offer our service, but that I could keep working with my current clients until their contracts were up. For the next year, I continued my work and also worked a different position at Carta, but I missed actually managing cap tables full-time. In August 2020 I talked to Carta about starting my own firm that specialized in their platform, and they were more than supportive.

I was able to take my business full-time in March 2021 and we now have a team of 7 additional consultants (almost all ex-Carta) who help manage company cap tables and equity data. We have 40+ current clients that range from newly-incorporated startups to massive decacorns. The total valuation of our clients is above $90 billion, and we're blessed to work with some of the most amazing founders and companies on the planet.

I want to share some cap table and equity tips for founders:

1. Make sure your cap table is up-to-date from the incorporation of your company. The sooner you ensure accuracy (and maintain it), the less money you'll spend later trying to go back through years of documents to make sure it's right - and the less headache you'll have during an audit or due diligence in the future.
2. Assign one person to manage your cap table (whether that's internal or external), and make sure they have bandwidth to handle it and make sure it's up-to-date. Your equity is simple to manage when you first begin, but if you scale quickly, it can be difficult to keep up with it when you don't have someone dedicated to it.
3. When offering equity to your employees, be open and transparent with them regarding what type of equity they are receiving, how much they are receiving, and what it's currently worth (FMV & preferred price, if applicable). The more answers you can offer up front, the less you'll have to worry about your employees being distrusting or disheartened later, because they feel like you were dishonest early on.

Now is the time - Ask me anything!