A simple early cap table might show two founders splitting common stock 50/50, a 15% option pool reserved for employees, and a handful of angels holding SAFEs that haven't converted yet. After a priced round, it grows to include preferred shares for the new investors, updated ownership percentages for everyone, and the fully diluted totals that account for unexercised options and outstanding SAFEs.
For an angel, the cap table is where dilution becomes real. Say you buy 2% of a company at the seed stage. After a Series A and Series B, that 2% might be diluted to 1.2% — your share count never changed, but the company issued new shares to new investors. A clean, well-maintained cap table also surfaces warning signs: too much founder stock given away too early, a messy collection of convertible instruments at different caps, or a tiny option pool that will force more dilution at the next raise. When companies report new rounds, your ownership and effective price per share shift, which is exactly the kind of thing tools like Signed track automatically.