Read your company's future through the mystical art of equity allocation
(or: understanding investor incentives through occult symbolism)
"The cap table never lies."
Every investor type is an archetypal energy in your company's story. Angels are The Fool - optimistic, early, sometimes reckless. VCs are The Emperor - controlling, structured, seeking dominion. Employees are The Hanged Man - suspended between equity dreams and cash needs. Liquidation preference is The Tower - the moment everything crumbles or crystallizes.
Learn to read these energies. Your fundraising outcome is already written in the cards.
Upright Meaning: Early belief, small checks ($25K-$100K), high risk tolerance. They invest in YOU, not your traction. The blessing of someone believing before evidence.
Reversed Meaning: Too many angels = messy cap table. Death by a thousand small investors. You'll spend more time managing them than building.
Energy: Abundance in small doses. Angels fill your first tank of gas. They won't judge your pivots because they know startups are chaos magic.
Upright Meaning: Structure, governance, serious capital ($1M+). Brings network, credibility, expectations. The VC is both king and kingmaker. Can open any door.
Reversed Meaning: Control without trust. Micro-management. Forced out of your own company. The Emperor becomes the Tyrant.
Energy: Authority and acceleration. VCs give you rocket fuel but also install the controls. Choose your Emperor wisely - you can't divorce them.
Upright Meaning: Suspended between present sacrifice and future reward. They work for below-market salary for potential life-changing equity. The ultimate delayed gratification.
Reversed Meaning: Worthless options, bad strike prices, no liquidity. Working for equity that never materializes. The sacrifice was for nothing.
Energy: Hope and patience. Your early employees are betting their prime years on your vision. Honor this or face karmic debt.
Upright Meaning: The moment of truth. When the company sells or goes public, liquidation preference determines who gets paid first. 1x is fair. 2x+ is predatory.
Reversed Meaning: You sell for $50M. VCs invested $40M with 2x liquidation preference. They take $80M. You take $0. The Tower falls on you.
Energy: Destruction and revelation. This clause seems distant until it isn't. Negotiate it like your future depends on it. Because it does.
Upright Meaning: Wisdom, guidance, checks and balances. A good board is your strategic advantage. They've seen your movie before and know the plot twists.
Reversed Meaning: Misaligned incentives. VCs who want an exit you don't. Founder control lost. The Hierophant becomes the Inquisitor.
Energy: Governance and balance. Control your board or it will control you. Majority of board seats = you still run your company. Lose majority = you work for your investors.
Upright Meaning: The right to invest in future rounds. Good investors who add value get to stay in the game and maintain ownership. The cycle continues.
Reversed Meaning: Predatory pro-rata. Investor who adds no value but keeps diluting others by exercising rights. The snake eats its tail.
Energy: Continuity and commitment. Grant pro-rata to investors you want in every round. Deny it to investors you hope to dilute away.
Draw three cards to reveal your company's past, present, and future cap table dynamics.
See how different investor types affect your ownership and control
Tarot works because it forces pattern recognition and reflection. Cap table "tarot" works because it forces you to understand investor incentives.
Here's the actual magic:
The "reading" is just you forced to think about these dynamics. The cards are investor incentives. The future is determined by who you give equity to and on what terms.
There is no mysticism. There is only: read your term sheet carefully or get rekt.
Scenario: You raise $50M total. Your company sells for $100M. You think you're about to be rich.
The Tower reveals itself:
This is not a hypothetical. This happens. The Tower falls on founders who don't read their term sheets.
NEGOTIATE LIQUIDATION PREFERENCE. 1x or walk away. This is non-negotiable.
Want to know your future? Look at your term sheet. Want to avoid bad outcomes? Hire a lawyer who's seen 100+ deals. Want to keep control? Don't give up board majority. Want to actually make money? Watch liquidation preference like your life depends on it.
The tarot metaphor works because cap tables ARE mystical to most founders. The symbols feel random. The outcomes feel predetermined. The language is arcane.
But it's not magic. It's just math + incentives + negotiation.
Learn the cards. Understand the energies. Read your term sheet. Negotiate better terms. Your future isn't written in the stars. It's written in your cap table. And you can still edit it before you sign.
you've learned to read the mystical cap table
← back to reality | ← read the prophecy | ← discover your class