Ethan Orlander

Introducing: PACT (Privacy Agreement for Cap Tables) The last few days have made it clear that there needs to be a standard for how cap table providers treat their customers. The PACT will be open-source so startups can hold their vendors accountable. The agreement contains what we think are obvious guidelines, but apparently it needs to be said given the experiences founders & investors have had: Solicitation: It is not ok to use a company's cap table to send unsolicited sales & marketing emails to shareholders Data Ownership: Companies own the data and vendors can't unilaterally change the status of securities or lock away the companies data. (The example a founder shared was that their vendor unilaterally cancelled all securities & alerted shareholders as way to force them to renew) Privacy: Vendors can only access cap table information for purposes authorized by the company (like directly supporting a company request) and can only share aggregated metrics more broadly. See the full PACT at captablepact.com. Founders & investors can now just ask cap table vendors if they adhere to the PACT.

Today at @AngelList's annual conference, I announced that our equity assistant is now available for companies using AngelList's cap table product. It helps draft paperwork, can answer questions about your company, pull reports, and get broader market data. Here's a demo:

I often get asked "Why is @Angellist building cap table software. Aren't there plenty of people doing that?" The answer is in our long term plan (which we are sharing for the first time today here) 👇