Understanding how Launchboard models equity will help you navigate the product and interpret what you see on screen. This page covers the core concepts — what each entity represents, how they relate to each other, and the vocabulary used throughout the documentation.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.launchboard.xyz/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Cap table
The cap table is the authoritative record of who owns what in your company. In Launchboard, the cap table is not a static spreadsheet — it’s a live ledger of equity positions, each tied to the document that authorized it. Every entry on your cap table traces back to a signed legal document stored in the Dataroom. If there’s no supporting document, the position isn’t fully grounded. Launchboard enforces this connection through its merge and attestation workflow.Stakeholder
A stakeholder is any person or entity that holds, or may hold, equity in your company. This includes founders, investors (individuals and funds), employees, advisors, and service providers who received equity compensation. Each stakeholder has a profile record in Launchboard with their name, contact information, and type (individual or entity). Stakeholders can be invited to access the platform, where they can view their own holdings and sign documents routed to them.Share class
A share class is a category of equity with a defined set of rights and economic terms. Common stock and Preferred stock are the two broad categories, but a company can have multiple Preferred series (Series Seed, Series A, etc.), each with its own terms. In Launchboard, each share class has a name, an authorized share count, and optional terms like liquidation preference, conversion ratio, and anti-dilution provisions. Share classes must exist before you can issue securities against them.Security
A security is an individual equity position — one stakeholder’s holding in one share class, for a specific quantity of shares. It’s the atomic unit of your cap table. When Launchboard merges a document into the cap table, it creates one or more security records. Each security links to the document it originated from, so you can always trace a position back to its legal source. Securities appear in the ledger view under Cap Table → Ledger.Equity plan
An equity plan (also called an option pool) is a pool of shares reserved for equity compensation — typically for employees, advisors, and contractors. An example is a “2024 Stock Option Plan” with a defined pool size of 10,000,000 shares. Individual grants come out of an equity plan. The plan tracks how many shares have been granted, how many remain available, and the terms that govern grants from that pool.Vesting terms
Vesting terms define the schedule by which a stakeholder’s equity becomes fully owned. Most early-stage equity grants include a cliff — a period before any equity vests — followed by a monthly or quarterly vesting schedule. A typical example: a four-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff means 25% of the grant vests after 12 months, and the remainder vests monthly over the following 36 months. Launchboard stores vesting terms as reusable records that you can attach to individual grants.Dataroom
The Dataroom is Launchboard’s document storage layer. It holds all the legal PDFs associated with your company’s equity history — incorporation documents, SAFEs, board consents, stock purchase agreements, and option grants. When you upload a document to the Dataroom, Launchboard automatically classifies it by type and runs AI extraction to pull structured equity data from the PDF. You review the extracted fields in the Inspector panel before merging them into the cap table. The Dataroom is not just a file store — it’s the evidence layer that grounds every cap table entry in a verified legal document.Document status
Every document in the Dataroom moves through a defined set of states as it progresses from upload to applied.| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
DRAFT | Uploaded but not yet processed |
PARSED | AI extraction complete — fields are available for review |
REVIEWED | You have verified the extracted fields |
PENDING_SIGNATURE | Sent for e-signature, awaiting signers |
PARTIALLY_SIGNED | At least one signer has signed, others pending |
SIGNED | All signers complete — seal hash computed and stored |
APPLIED | Merged into the cap table |
REVIEWED before its data can be merged. Signature and application are additional steps for documents that require signing before they take legal effect.
Seal hash
When a document is fully signed, Launchboard downloads the final signed PDF and computes a cryptographic hash of its contents. This hash — the seal hash — is stored immutably against the document record. The seal hash gives you and your stakeholders proof that the document has not been altered since signing. It’s visible in the Inspector panel on any signed document, and it’s stored on-chain when the associated security is tokenized.OCF (Open Cap Format)
Open Cap Format (OCF) is an open standard for representing cap table data in a structured, interoperable JSON format, maintained by the Open Cap Table Coalition. Launchboard stores and validates all cap table data against the OCF schema. OCF compliance means your data is portable: you can export your full cap table as an OCF manifest and import it into other compliant tools. It also means Launchboard can catch structural errors in extracted data before they corrupt your cap table — the OCF schema serves as a validation gate at the merge step.Tokenization
Tokenization is the process of minting SPL tokens on the Solana blockchain to represent equity positions from your cap table. Each token corresponds to one security record — one stakeholder, one share class, one quantity. Tokenization requires a completed attestation. Once tokens are minted, the transaction hash is stored on the security record, linking the on-chain token to the off-chain legal document that authorized it. This gives equity holders cryptographic proof of ownership that any party can independently verify.Approval
Certain actions in Launchboard require an approval before they can proceed — for example, minting tokens for a share class that hasn’t been formally authorized by the board. An approval is a governance workflow that records who reviewed and authorized an action, and when. Approvals are tracked in the governance log and are part of the audit trail. When Launchboard requires an approval for an action you’re trying to take, it will block the action and prompt you to complete the approval workflow first.What's the difference between a security and a share class?
What's the difference between a security and a share class?
Do I need to upload every document before I can use the cap table?
Do I need to upload every document before I can use the cap table?
No. Launchboard processes documents one at a time and lets you merge them incrementally. You can start with your incorporation documents and founder shares, then add SAFEs and option grants as you go. The cap table reflects whatever has been merged so far.
What happens if the AI extracts a field incorrectly?
What happens if the AI extracts a field incorrectly?
Nothing is applied to the cap table until you explicitly review and approve the extracted fields in the Inspector panel. If a field is wrong, edit it before marking the document as reviewed. The AI extraction is a starting point — you have full control before any data touches the cap table.
Is attestation legally binding?
Is attestation legally binding?
Attestation in Launchboard is an internal checkpoint — a record that you, as the administrator, confirmed the cap table’s accuracy at a specific point in time. It’s not a substitute for legal review or a notarized statement. Consult your startup counsel for advice on the legal significance of your cap table records.
What does OCF compliance mean in practice?
What does OCF compliance mean in practice?
It means Launchboard validates all cap table data against the Open Cap Format JSON schema before writing it to the database or exporting it. If extracted data is structurally invalid — a missing required field, a wrong data type — the merge is blocked and you’re shown what needs to be corrected. You can also export your full cap table as an OCF manifest from the Settings page.