Founders think the company is the product. Investors know the company is the cap table. This article explains what a cap table actually records, why the numbers on it determine who controls the company and who gets paid at an exit, and how the most consequential decisions are made in the first ninety days by people who do not know they are making them. It covers founder vesting and the tax election that must be filed within thirty days or never. It explains SAFEs and convertible notes honestly, including the dilution founders consistently underestimate. It walks through a priced round term sheet, the terms that matter and the ones that do not. It closes with the exit waterfall — the arithmetic that determines what a founder actually receives.