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Exit waterfall calculator

Owning a slice isn't the same as keeping that slice of the sale price — investors are paid back first. See what you'd actually walk away with at exit.

$

Their money comes back first (1× preference).

%

Preferred shares, as converted.

%

Common shares — the rest is the team pool.

Exit value $25M

Drag to the price the company sells for.

What you’d keep

$3.3M

  • If you owned it outright$7.5M
  • You get nothing below$20M

Preferences take a big cut

You'd keep about $3.3M — well under the $7.5M your ownership alone implies.

Benchmark Above $36M your full stake converts

What you keep vs what your ownership implies

The blue line is what you actually pocket; the dashed line is your % × the price. The gap is the cost of preferences.

$0$8.7M$17M$0 below$0$29M$58M
What you keep What your % implies

Why it matters

Investors usually get their money back before founders see a cent. Raise a lot at high valuations and a respectable exit can still clear the preference stack with little left for you — which is why "we sold for $50M" and "the founder did well" aren’t always the same sentence.

Stop recalculating by hand

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