Fully diluted
In accounting, fully diluted means counting every share that exists or could: issued stock, options granted, the unissued option pool and convertible securities as converted. The basis a SAFE's Company Capitalization, a priced round's price per share and most ownership percentages are quoted on.
Authority: YC post-money SAFE — Company Capitalization (opens in a new tab). Sources
The lessons that teach this
From the free founder back-office course, taught on one company's books, with exercises to work it yourself.
- Cap tableThe cap table explained › Fully diluted versus outstandingOutstanding counts what exists; fully diluted counts what could. The same Northwind table, both ways.4 min
- Cap tableWays to raise: SAFEs, notes, priced rounds, debt and grants › Post-money SAFE mathThe Safe Price, Company Capitalization and conversion shares, worked on Northwind's $250,000 SAFE.6 min
- Cap tableSAFE conversion and dilution, worked end to endNorthwind's SAFE converting in a $2,000,000 Seed with a pool top-up, step by step, to a cap table that sums to 100.00%.10 min
What it is not called
Each of these means something else. Use one here and an accountant reading the product notices.
- outstanding (issued shares only)
- authorized
Nearby in the catalog
No component names this concept outright. These sit in the same part of the system.
Also in Equity & financing
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two can't disagree.