Cairnul and Qapita both support founders around fundraising and equity, 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
Qapita is an equity management platform built around cap tables, equity plans, funding round modeling, data rooms, reporting, valuations, and ongoing equity administration. Its platform is designed to support companies from early fundraising through later-stage and pre-IPO needs.
Choosing between them
Neither product is universally better. Cairnul is more focused on the early fundraising workflow and the records surrounding the raise, while Qapita provides broader equity infrastructure that places fundraising inside a larger cap table and equity management system.
At a glance
| Category | Cairnul | Qapita |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | First-time founders running an early fundraising round | Companies needing cap table, equity management, fundraising, and ongoing reporting |
| Primary focus | Fundraising workflow and early equity lifecycle | Cap table and broader equity management |
| Fundraising | Round-centered workflow connecting investors, SAFEs, documents, governance, compliance, and equity information | Funding round modeling, scenario analysis, cap table updates, and equity workflows |
| SAFE management | Four standard, unmodified SAFE forms connected to the Round, Investor, documents, funding, and equity records | SAFEs and other equity instruments managed within the broader cap table and funding workflow, with conversion modeling |
| Investor management | Investors connected directly to the fundraising round and related records | Investor-facing cap table visibility, reporting, and stakeholder access |
| Cap table | Three connected ledgers covering issued stock, advisor grants, and SAFEs, each linked to the documents behind it | Core product for ownership, shares, SAFEs, employee equity, 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 | Board consents, 83(b) and Form 3921 support from the Growth plan, plus broader equity compliance and reporting |
| Documents and Data Room | Fundraising, governance, compliance, and company documents connected to workflows, with per-recipient watermarking and founder-approved downloads | Equity records, reports, Data Room, and supporting company documentation |
| Valuation | Does perform or require a valuation; a valuation document already in the workspace can prefill the option exercise price | 409A included from the Growth plan, available as an add-on below it |
| AI and automation | AI Startup Advisor with document-aware assistance and a fixed set of bounded actions | Automated cap table, equity, reporting, and valuation 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. | Spark free up to 25 stakeholders and under $1M raised; Surge $1,600 a year to 40 stakeholders; Growth $3,000 a year to 50 with 409A included; Enterprise custom |
| Product scope | Early fundraising and equity workflow | Equity management from early-stage through 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.
Qapita
Qapita also supports fundraising, but the workflow sits within its broader equity management platform. Its plans include funding round modeling, and the platform updates ownership records as fundraising and other equity transactions occur.
The practical difference is where the workflow starts. Cairnul starts with the round and produces the ownership record as an output. Qapita 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 what makes the record defensible. Ownership is never a number someone typed; it is the consequence of an agreement, a consent, and an issuance that can each be opened from the line itself.
Qapita
Qapita makes the cap table a core system of record, supporting founder and common stock, preferred stock, options, RSUs, SAFEs, convertible notes, vesting, dilution tracking, and ownership across funding rounds.
For a founder executing an early raise, Cairnul keeps ownership tied to the documents that created it. For a company administering equity across investors, employees, and multiple financings, Qapita covers considerably more, including the preferred stock and employee equity 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, and adding new terms mid-round is a supplemental authorization rather than a reason to close the round and open another.
Qapita
Qapita supports SAFEs and other equity instruments within its cap table and funding workflows, including tracking and modeling how financing events and conversions affect ownership.
Both support SAFE-related work, and the useful distinction is what each adds around the instrument. Cairnul adds the authorization and the evidence behind the sale. Qapita adds what the SAFE becomes when it converts, which Cairnul does not model.
Cairnul
Cairnul does not model the raise; it bounds it. The Round carries a target and a separate board-approved authorized maximum, Cairnul warns as the raise approaches that ceiling, and it blocks a SAFE at send and again at countersignature if it would push the total above the figure the board signed.
It is also deliberately silent where it cannot speak with authority. Where a market comparison range would normally sit, Cairnul says there is not one yet rather than repeating a range from someone else's report, because a borrowed benchmark is the kind of number a founder anchors a real price to.
Qapita
Qapita adds funding round modeling and scenario analysis to its cap table workflow. Founders can model rounds and dilution before transactions are finalized, and the resulting ownership changes stay connected to the company's equity records.
If you want to see dilution outcomes before choosing a cap, Qapita is built for that and Cairnul is not. Cairnul's contribution is on the other side of the decision: once terms are set, keeping the raise inside what the board approved.
Cairnul
Cairnul computes who signs each consent from the board roster as it stood on the action date, shows that signer set to the founder for confirmation before generating the document, and pins it 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 consent routes to the disinterested directors instead.
The raise then runs inside what the board approved. No SAFE can be sent on a round whose authorization is not yet effective, or on terms whose supplemental authorization is still out for signature. Alongside that sit the securities steps: the exemption locked at opening, accreditation as a ledger of dated evidence records, verification before acceptance under 506(c), and Form D and state notice filings driven by investor residence.
Qapita
Qapita supports board consents from its Growth plan, along with 83(b) and Form 3921 support, and extends into 409A valuations, ASC 718 and IFRS reporting, and other equity-management services on higher plans.
Both products therefore produce board consents, and the difference is what surrounds them. Qapita covers a far wider range of reporting obligations that arrive once employees hold equity. Cairnul goes deeper on one narrow question, which is whether the right people authorized this specific action on the date it happened, and it will not let the raise proceed until they have.
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.
Qapita
Qapita includes a Data Room alongside cap table management, equity plans, funding round modeling, and reporting, bringing the company's equity records and supporting documents into one environment.
The distinction is what the shared environment is organized around. Qapita gives stakeholders visibility onto the equity record. 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 covers advisor equity as a full sequence rather than a document. An advisor signs the standard FAST, the board consent authorizing the grant is generated and signed, the restricted stock or option agreement follows, and the position then carries its own vesting schedule, its formation date, and its 83(b) task where one applies. One advisor can hold several grants in the same company, each with its own documents, terms, and schedule, never merged.
The reason for that structure is that a signed FAST issues nothing. Stock is issued only by board authorization, so without the consent in between there is a grant nobody authorized. Option grants add one more prerequisite: the option pool has to be recorded, with the document behind it, before the grant can complete. What Cairnul does not do is employee equity: option programs, exercises, and the reporting that follows are outside it.
Qapita
Qapita extends into stock plan management, grants, vesting, employee equity, equity compensation, and ongoing stakeholder administration, and is explicitly positioned to support companies from pre-seed through pre-IPO.
For a first-time founder with a raise and a few advisors, Cairnul's chain goes deeper on how each grant came to exist. For a company hiring and granting employee equity, Qapita covers ground Cairnul does not
Cairnul
Cairnul is intentionally focused on 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.
Qapita
Qapita's product is designed to extend much further, covering the startup lifecycle from pre-seed and early fundraising through scaling, regulatory complexity, liquidity events, and pre-IPO requirements.
The choice therefore depends on current needs and expected complexity. Cairnul is centered on the immediate fundraising journey, while Qapita is designed to become broader equity infrastructure as the company grows, 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.
Qapita
Qapita prices by stakeholder and publishes the rates. Spark is free for up to 25 stakeholders and under $1 million raised, including cap table, equity plans, funding round modeling, and a Data Room. Surge is $1,600 a year for up to 40 stakeholders, with a published rate for each additional stakeholder, and Growth is $3,000 a year for up to 50, adding 409A valuations, board consents, and 83(b) and Form 3921 support. Enterprise is custom.
The two subscriptions buy different things, so the comparison is not really price against price. The question is whether you need a fundraising workflow with the authorizations behind it, or a broader equity system with cap table, reporting, valuation, and stakeholder administration.
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 cant raise from friends and family via a Y combinator SAFE and they must be accredited investors.
A platform that covers the whole equity lifecycle would have surfaced some of this. A platform focused on the early raise goes further into the part that trips founders up earliest.
Questions founders ask
Cap table management is the core, but the platform also covers equity plans, funding round modeling, Data Rooms, reporting, valuations, board consents on higher plans, and broader equity administration.
Yes. Its free Spark plan is positioned for startups where the first external round is the priority, and includes cap table management, equity plan management, funding round modeling, and a Data Room.
Cairnul computes who has to sign from the board roster as of the action date, shows that set to the founder to confirm before generating anything, pins it to the action so a later board change never rewrites it, and refuses to send a SAFE until the authorization is fully signed. The consent is a gate on the transaction rather than a document produced alongside it.
No. Cairnul records what was sold, on what terms, and under which authorization. Modeling conversion and dilution at a future priced round is something Qapita does and Cairnul does not.
No. 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. Qapita includes 409A valuations from its Growth plan and sells them as an add-on below that.
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 first raise creates more than a cap table entry. It creates a record of investors, documents, approvals, compliance, and ownership.
Keep the whole round connected with Cairnul.