Cairnul and Eqvista both help companies manage equity and fundraising-related work, but they are built around different priorities.
Cairnul is an agentic, document-centered platform for first-time founders running early fundraising rounds. It connects SAFEs, investors, advisor agreements, documents, governance, compliance, and the cap table in one workflow built around the first 12 to 18 months of a company's equity life.
Eqvista is an equity management platform built around cap tables, equity issuance, stakeholder management, compliance, valuations, and funding-round modeling. It supports companies from early-stage startups through later-stage and enterprise equity programs.
Choosing between them
Neither product is universally better. Cairnul is more focused on managing an early fundraising round and the records surrounding it, while Eqvista provides broader equity infrastructure for companies that need ongoing ownership, valuation, compliance, and stakeholder management.
At a glance
| Category | Cairnul | Eqvista |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | First-time founders running an early fundraising round | Companies managing ongoing equity and cap table needs |
| Primary focus | Fundraising workflow and early equity lifecycle | Cap table, equity management, valuation, and compliance |
| Fundraising | Round-centered workflow connecting investors, SAFEs, documents, governance, compliance, and equity information | Funding-round modeling, SAFE and equity workflows, dilution modeling, and related ownership management |
| SAFE management | Four standard, unmodified SAFE forms connected to the Round, Investor, documents, funding, and equity records | SAFE agreements, e-signing, cap table entries, and SAFE conversion modeling |
| Investor management | Investors connected directly to the fundraising round and related records | Stakeholder accounts and investor access within the equity platform |
| Cap table | Three connected ledgers covering issued stock, advisor grants, and SAFEs, each linked to the documents behind it | Core product for shares, options, SAFEs, employee equity, ownership, and dilution |
| Governance and compliance | Board authorization with a computed and pinned signer set, accreditation evidence, Rule 506(b) and 506(c), Form D preparation, and state notice filings | Rule 701, Form 3921, ASC 718, 83(b), board resolutions, voting, and broader equity compliance |
| Documents and Data Room | Fundraising, governance, compliance, and company documents connected to workflows, with per-recipient watermarking and founder-approved downloads | Equity documents, SAFE agreements, board resolutions, certificates, stakeholder access, and data room |
| Valuation | Does perform or requires a valuation; a valuation document already in the workspace can prefill the option exercise price | 409A and other valuation services connected to equity management |
| AI and automation | AI Startup Advisor with document-aware assistance and a fixed set of bounded actions | AI-powered valuation and automated equity management workflows |
| Pricing | Free until you open a round. Then $110 a month billed yearly, or $130 monthly, per company. The investors and advisors you invite pay nothing to take part, and Cairnul takes no percentage of the raise. | Free for fewer than 20 stakeholders; Premium at $2 per stakeholder a month for companies under 50 stakeholders; 409A plans from $990 a year with unlimited renewals in the subscription year |
| Product scope | Early fundraising and equity workflow | Equity management from early-stage through later-stage and pre-IPO |
Pricing, features, availability, and product offerings can change. Please confirm current pricing, features, and terms directly with each provider.
Nine differences
Cairnul
Cairnul organizes the fundraising round as the central workflow. The Round holds the exemption, the target, the board-approved ceiling, and the authorized term sets, and each investor moves through accreditation, signature, a cooling-off window, funds confirmation, and countersignature, which is the point a position forms.
Each of those is a gate rather than a status. The SAFE cannot be sent before the board authorization is effective, the investor can withdraw during cooling-off, and the founder confirms funds have arrived rather than the system inferring it from a signature.
Eqvista
Eqvista supports fundraising through funding-round modeling, SAFE management, dilution analysis, and equity workflows inside its broader cap table platform. Its product is designed to keep ownership records accurate as funding rounds and other equity transactions occur.
The difference is where the workflow starts. Cairnul starts with the round and produces the ownership record as an output. Eqvista starts with the ownership record and treats a round as one of the events that changes it.
Cairnul
Cairnul's cap table is built from three ledgers: issued stock, advisor grants with their own vesting, and SAFEs tagged to the round and exemption they were sold under. Each line traces back to the document that created it, and updating shares or the option pool requires a supporting document attached as justification.
That constraint is the point. Ownership is never a number someone typed in; it is the consequence of an agreement, a consent, and an issuance that can each be opened from the line itself, which is exactly what a diligence reviewer asks for.
Eqvista
Eqvista makes the cap table a core system of record. It supports shares, options, SAFEs, employee equity, ownership changes, vesting, stakeholder management, and future funding and liquidity scenarios, and offers migration support for companies arriving from another platform or a spreadsheet.
For a founder executing an early raise, Cairnul keeps ownership tied to the documents that created it. For a company administering equity across employees, investors, and multiple financing events, Eqvista covers considerably more, including the employee equity and preferred stock that Cairnul does not handle at all.
Cairnul
Cairnul ships four standard SAFE forms, valuation cap, cap and discount, MFN, and discount only, and fills them rather than editing them. Which form and numbers an investor is offered comes from a term set the board has authorized, is fixed at invitation, and travels with that SAFE, so authorizing new terms later never re-prices one already sent.
That means an open round can hold a capped SAFE for one angel and an MFN for the next, each traceable to the consent that authorized it. It also means the label always shows the discount the founder entered rather than the discount rate that goes into the document, since those two numbers read very differently to anyone scanning a list.
Eqvista
Eqvista supports SAFE agreements and electronic signing, adds SAFEs directly to the cap table, and models how those SAFEs convert into equity at a future round.
The conversion modeling is a genuine gap on Cairnul's side. Cairnul records what was sold and on what terms, but it does not model what those SAFEs become at a priced round, and a founder who wants to see that before choosing a cap will find it in Eqvista and not in Cairnul.
Cairnul
Cairnul's compliance work is tied to the raise. The exemption is chosen when the round opens and locks for its life, accreditation is held as a ledger of dated evidence records on the investor's account, verification is required before acceptance under 506(c), and Cairnul prepares Form D and the state notice filings that follow from where each investor lives.
Board authorization sits underneath it. The signer set is computed from the roster as it stood on the action date, confirmed by the founder before the consent is generated, and pinned to the action, so a later change to the board never rewrites what a past approval meant. If an investor or advisor is also a director, the transaction routes to the disinterested directors instead.
Eqvista
Eqvista supports broader equity administration, including Rule 701, Form 3921, ASC 718, 83(b), board resolutions, voting, and reporting workflows, positioned as part of a platform that grows with the company's ownership structure.
These are two different compliance surfaces. Cairnul covers the securities work attached to a specific offering and the authorizations behind it. Eqvista covers the accounting and reporting obligations that accumulate once employees hold equity, which Cairnul does not address.
Cairnul
Cairnul performs valuations. What it requires before is an advisor option grant can complete is the option pool: the size in shares, recorded with the document that supports it. Without a pool the grant cannot finish, and the flow explains what a pool is and that creating or increasing one takes a corporate action.
A valuation is optional on top of that. If a 409A or another recognized valuation document is already in the workspace, Cairnul can read the fair market value and prefill the exercise price, which the founder reviews before the option agreement is generated. If there is no such document, the founder enters the value manually and the grant proceeds normally. Each grant records where the number came from, a document or manual entry, and Cairnul does not run a freshness clock or a renewal workflow around it.
Eqvista
Eqvista combines cap table management with in-house valuation services. Its 409A plans start at $990 a year and include unlimited valuations and renewals within the subscription year, with pricing varying by funding stage, revenue, stakeholder count, and capital structure.
For a founder who needs the valuation produced, consider both Cairnul and Eqvista. Cairnul's contribution is narrower: making sure an option grant has a pool behind it and a price the founder has seen and confirmed.
Cairnul
Cairnul treats documents as evidence behind the fundraising and governance workflow. Fundraising documents, approvals, compliance records, and supporting materials stay connected to the people and processes they relate to, and every fact carries its provenance: whether the founder declared it, a document proves it, or the founder confirmed what the system read.
Access is controlled at the same level of detail. The Startup Profile and Data Room are separate grants that can each be withdrawn at any time, including from someone holding an active position, documents are watermarked per recipient, and downloads happen only when the founder approves them, while what a person signed always stays visible to them.
Eqvista
Eqvista includes a data room, stakeholder accounts, equity documents, SAFE agreements, board resolutions, and certificates as part of its equity platform. Its free plan includes the data room and stakeholder accounts, while Premium adds e-signing for certificates and SAFE agreements.
The distinction is what the shared environment is organized around. Eqvista gives every stakeholder a portal onto their own equity. Cairnul is built around the founder deciding what a specific person can see during a specific raise, and being able to take it back.
Cairnul
Cairnul's AI Startup Advisor opens as a side panel on whatever page the founder is working on and is given that page and its object as context, so a question about the round being configured or the consent awaiting signature does not have to be explained first. It works from a fixed, defined set of actions, and it never signs, approves, or files anything.
That ceiling is shown rather than assumed. The permission screen displays the three acts no setting reaches, so a founder can tell the difference between something switched off and something the product will not do under any configuration.
Eqvista
Eqvista uses automation across its equity workflows and offers AI-powered real-time company valuation alongside its certified reports, with automated ownership management, equity transactions, compliance, and valuation workflows.
The difference is what the automation is pointed at. Eqvista automates the maintenance of an equity record and the production of a valuation. Cairnul automates the thinking around a workflow while keeping the consequential acts with the founder.
Cairnul
Cairnul is designed around the early equity lifecycle, particularly the first 12 to 18 months, and it is explicit about where that ends. It supports Delaware C-Corps raising under Rule 506(b) or 506(c) on post-money SAFEs, with advisor grants alongside them. A priced round, preferred stock, employee equity programs, and later reporting all sit outside it.
Eqvista
Eqvista supports companies from early-stage startups through later-stage and enterprise organizations, covering increasingly complex ownership structures, reporting, waterfall modeling, stakeholder management, and liquidity planning.
For a first-time founder focused on a first raise, Cairnul's narrower scope goes deeper on the raise itself. For a company expecting several financing and liquidity events, Eqvista is built to extend much further, and a founder who values not migrating later may reasonably start there.
Cairnul
Cairnul has a free tier and a paid one, and the round is the line between them. Free is where you build the cap table, invite the people involved, and see what the raise will need. Nothing is charged until you open a Round. The paid plan is $110 a month billed yearly, or $130 a month for a short round without an annual commitment.
It is priced per company, never per stakeholder and never as a cut of the raise. The investors and advisors you invite pay nothing to take part, so a round made of twenty small cheques costs the same as one made of two, and the money never passes through Cairnul at all: it moves directly from the investor's bank account to yours.
Eqvista
Eqvista prices by stakeholder. Its cap table plan is free for companies with fewer than 20 stakeholders, Premium is listed at $2 per stakeholder a month for companies under 50, and its 409A plans start at $990 a year with unlimited valuations and renewals inside the subscription year, priced by funding stage and other factors.
Both have a free tier and both cost money after it, and a small company on Eqvista's Premium plan may well pay less per year than Cairnul's paid plan. What that buys is different: Eqvista is priced for holding an equity record over time, Cairnul for the period in which a round is being run. If you are not raising, Eqvista's model is the one that keeps making sense.
The real world
A first-time founder posted in r/startups, partway through raising a friends and family round on a 506(b) offering. They had already missed their 83(b) election at incorporation and some California state filing deadlines, and were trying to work out how much of a first raise is pitching and how much is paperwork nobody warned them about.
It is a common position to be in. Most fundraising advice covers the pitch. Very little of it covers what has to be in order before anyone says yes.
First-time founder, already started to raisereddit.comhow much of it was pitching versus documents? And is there anything you'd get sorted before you start rather than during?
A solo hardware founder asked whether they could raise a small round from friends and family on a standard YC post-money SAFE, or whether everyone involved had to be an accredited investor. They had read contradictory answers and could not work out which was right.
The replies did not settle it. One said the SAFE only works with accredited investors. Another pointed out that Rule 506 permits up to 35 non-accredited investors. A third said it was a non-issue. All of it from people who had raised.
Can you raise money from family and friends with a YC post-money SAFE?reddit.comI keep hearing mixed things, some people are saying I can't raise from friends and family via a Y combinator SAFE and they must be accredited investors.
None of what these founders missed is visible on a cap table. It sits in the authorizations and filings behind it, which is a different kind of record.
Questions founders ask
Cap table management is the core, but the platform extends into equity issuance, SAFEs, compliance reporting, valuations, stakeholder management, funding-round modeling, data rooms, and governance records.
No. Cairnul records what was sold, on what terms, and under which authorization, and shows SAFEs on their own ledger tagged to the round and exemption. Modeling conversion and dilution at a future priced round is something Eqvista does and Cairnul does not.
Cairnul does perform valuations. What it requires before an advisor option grant can complete is the option pool, recorded with the document behind it. If a valuation document is already in your workspace, Cairnul can read the value and prefill the exercise price for you to review; if not, you enter it yourself, and the grant records which of the two it was. Eqvista bundles 409A valuations with cap table management if you want the valuation itself produced.
They solve different problems, so yes in principle. Cairnul runs the round and produces the record of how each position was created. A specialized equity platform handles ongoing ownership administration, employee equity, and valuation. Nothing in either product prevents that, though you would be maintaining the cap table in two places, which is worth thinking through before you start.
No. It covers advisor equity through the FAST agreement, the board consent authorizing the grant, and the resulting restricted stock or option agreement with its own vesting. Employee option programs, exercises, and the reporting that follows are outside it.
Your cap table tells you who owns the company. Your fundraising workflow records how those ownership positions were created.
Keep the investors, documents, approvals, funding, compliance, and equity records around the raise connected with Cairnul.