Amar Varma, a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist, encountered the formidable challenge of administering equity stakes within startups firsthand. He firmly believes that many existing solutions, such as spreadsheets and even software-as-a-service tools, demand founders to undertake an excessive amount of manual management and accounting work. These solutions often complicate rather than streamline the behind-the-scenes processes of running a business.
In response to these challenges, Varma founded Ten Key Labs, a platform that harnesses the power of AI to alleviate the burden of managing equity stakes across various platforms. According to Varma, Ten Key Labs can swiftly establish approvals and templates with just a few clicks, sending reminders for pending tasks.
In an email interview with TechCrunch, Varma explained, “I saw an opportunity to combine my understanding of what founders truly need with the latest advancements in AI to provide them with a tool that allows them to concentrate on growing their companies, thus saving time and reducing their mental workload.”
Ten Key Labs enables founders to efficiently track and organize their startup’s cap table—the document displaying each investor’s equity stake in the business. It also offers predictive tools for modeling hiring and financing needs. Moreover, founders can use the platform to issue equity and manage all stakeholders, including employees, investors, and board members, along with their approval workflows—all conveniently located in one place.
While Ten Key Labs doesn’t overuse AI, it employs it judiciously as a “co-pilot” for tasks related to corporate matters, as Varma describes it. For instance, the platform can automatically convert stock options in an offer letter approved by the company’s board of directors, a process that often consumes considerable time for lawyers during financing and exit situations.
Varma pointed out, “The challenge is that founders and operators often fail to grasp the true cost of equity in the allocation process. By providing a fully transparent and collaborative platform for equity management, various stakeholders can work together and understand the consequences of their decisions.”
Ten Key Labs faces substantial competition in the equity management software market, with established players like Shareworks, Carta, and AngelList. However, Varma contends that Ten Key Labs stands out in several ways.
Firstly, it places a strong emphasis on automation and collaboration with external stakeholders. Additionally, the platform incorporates built-in safeguards to prevent errors in cap tables.
It’s worth noting that safeguards and automation for cap tables are not entirely novel concepts. Nevertheless, questions arise about how effectively Ten Key Labs’ technology performs in practice. Even Carta, considered one of the more robust equity management solutions available, has faced allegations (albeit from a competitor) of introducing errors.
Ten Key Labs is still in its early stages, having recently launched a public waitlist for its paid product. Despite this, Varma believes that with millions of startups emerging worldwide each year and $10.5 million in funding from supporters like Eniac Ventures, Craft Ventures, Sierra Ventures, and several angel investors, Ten Key Labs has the potential to make a significant impact.
Varma stated, “We understand the importance and intricacies of managing company equity. Over the past year, we have collaborated with key design partners to refine the product use cases, user profiles, and the value proposition of the Mantle platform. We are now prepared for expansion.”
While the company doesn’t plan to immediately expand its ten-person team with the funds raised, it intends to significantly ramp up its marketing efforts. This focus will center on acquiring customers within the startup, accelerator, incubator, legal, and venture capital sectors.
