Astrella Blog

“We needed an expert to help manage our ownership data”

White-glove cap table management

Disaster Tech optimizes employee ownership with the Astrella platform

Introduction

Starting a business is hard. In addition to building a solution and bringing it to market, founders and CEOs need to wear many hats and be experts in legal, tax, HR, international requirements, marketing, communications, and so much more. Managing the company’s cap table and employee stock plan is complex, highly confidential, and just can’t be wrong.
Sean Griffin, co-founder and CEO of disaster recovery service provider Disaster Technologies, Inc. (aka Disaster Tech), knows this all too well. A fast-growing startup in a highly competitive industry, their goal is to stay in line with financial obligations without compromising business agility or transparency for employees and stockholders. To manage this task, they turned to AST Private Company Solutions and their cap table management solution, Astrella.

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Starting a company is an exciting and often intimidating adventure. Making the climb from the company’s founding to a public offering or exit strategy can seem impossible. In fact, about 40% of businesses who say they are about to go public later realize that they are missing crucial data and are unable to reach an IPO. But, with the right tools guiding you, your business is much more likely to arrive at the peak. Read on to learn how a cap table management system can be an invaluable asset at each point in your company’s journey. 

When managing your capitalization table or, cap table, maintaining the precision and validity of its information should be top of mind. Whether your business is looking to increase investor acquisition, prepare your cap table for the next financing round, or predict capital gains with scenario testing, a “dirty” cap table will hold you back.

As a start-up company, you’ll want to consider creating a cap table to manage your financial assets. However, tracking ownership, shares and various funding sources can become overwhelming quickly. Creating a capitalization table that offers the quick setup, security, and automation you need is the best way to ensure your business’s shareholders and employee stock plans remain efficiently managed.

The private market is often considered an exclusive club. While it may tout accessibility for everyone, only those with substantial personal wealth or connections can reliably find their way in through a secret door. In fact, there are many qualified “accredited investors” who don’t realize they can participate in this asset class, because they do not know where to turn for information and investment opportunities. More and more companies are launching platforms to help open up and navigate this elusive market. But why is this taking so long?

The Great Resignation is making many employers nervous about the future of their businesses. With 38 million workers leaving their jobs and 25 major companies experiencing employee strikes, 2021 highlighted a major labor shift in the U.S. Companies, however, are far from powerless in this shift and can use several tools available to them to ensure they are seen as an “employer of choice.” Offering company stock to your workforce can be one effective way to retain your best employees, motivate your workforce, and attract top talent. Learn about the three top challenges for private businesses when establishing broad-based employee stock programs, plus the opportunities these challenges can create.  

The link between blockchain technology & business corporations, alongside how finance is inventing new ways to make blockchain technology more useful and reliable in...

Sobering statistics are often tossed around about the single-digit percent of startups that make it, with relatively few companies receiving venture capital funding. But there are steps you can take from the start to significantly increase your chances of success. Decisions you make now will determine how sustainably you grow, the quality of investors and investment you attract, and the level of control you maintain. Our new eBook, A Get-Real Guide to Establishing Your Company, will help you start strong.

Astrella hosted a few hundred alliances and leaders from the Private Market ecosystem for #CAPtivate21 at The Pearl in San Francisco. The event included a panel discussion and was also used to launch the new book from President of AST Private Company Solutjons, Carine Schneider “The Democratization of the Private Market.”