Starting a new company from the ground up takes money, but it also takes “blood, sweat & tears”-it takes ideas, long nights of overtime, personal relationship contributions as well as contributions of equipment, home office space or storage & countless other contributions, which might be forgotten by partners when the money starts rolling in.
Slicing Pie, a fair-equity calculation platform, offers startup investors a software solution that assesses the “real” value of each members’ contribution, in real-time. Traditional equity splitting models fail to add non-monetary contributions to the “pot”, which often results in dissatisfaction among startup members when shares are calculated, for instance, when a buyer is found & the company is sold for profit.
Engaging Slicing Pie from the onset prevents unnecessary bickering & even the probability of lawsuits at a later-stage of the business’ development, because as the company progresses along its journey each member can obtain the actual value of their share at any point along the way, at all times.
Working with Slicing Pie’s Online system allows users to track time, expenses, supplies, equipment, royalties on ideas, commissions on sales & any other contribution an individual makes. Contributions can be set to repeat at regular intervals-such as monthly rent contribution or a weekly payroll.
Slicing Pie’s software tracks monetary investments by using what they call the “Well”. When money is invested it is held in the Well. When money is drawn from the Well to cover company expenses, the Pie Slicer allocates slices to each participant in the Well according to their share. The Well helps prevent unnecessary equity allocations by only calculating slices when investment funds are consumed.
Although Slicing Pie is set up to result in the best fair-equity split for startup members, certain location or company niche criteria might mean that the basics need to be altered to reflect legal requirements specific to the user. Therefore, Slicing Pie allows administrators to edit commission & royalty rates, set up their own project categories or determine how to calculate mileage rates. The system is as flexible as necessary.
Slicing Pie offers a 14 day free trial & also has a “solo-operator” free tier, pricing is discounted if users choose to pay annually. So get to know your startup equity.
Image credit: Slicing Pie
