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It's Nathan.

I want to tell you about a calculation more founders are running before they raise.

It's the calculation that decides whether you keep $1.54m at your exit or hand it to a VC.

Imagine you meet this founder:

$1.5m revenue

Wants to fund a 12-month growth sprint

Needs $500k

Her instinct is to call her network and start the VC conversations.

Then, she has a meeting with a VC.

The pitch goes well, and she gets a term sheet at 5x annual revenue.

$7.5m valuation

$500k check

6.7% dilution

The founder signs the deal.

Four years later: exit at $25m.

That 6.7% she gave up equals $1.67m left on the table.

This founder could have done better math:

$500k fund

Same 12 months

She takes a SaaS term loan instead.

15% interest

36-month term

Total interest paid: $130k.

Cap table: unchanged.

At the same $25m exit, she keeps the $1.67m.

The $130k capital cost exists.

But the dilution cost was 13x higher.

This is something I can't stop thinking about since I sold my own company for much less than I should have in 2011.

This is why I built Founderpath, my non-dilutive fund.

Since then, I've watched 724 SaaS founders run this math and get life-changing money when they sell or exit.

To date, I've wired $271m to SaaS companies.

0 equity taken

No warrants

No personal guarantees

Just capital that doesn't change your cap table.

I want to share three successful founders who took this path:

BadgerMaps ($4.2m drawn): SaaS for field sales reps, used Founderpath to grow without dilution.

Exercise.com ($3.5m drawn over 19 draws): bootstrapped to a strategic exit. Joel said the deal was “maybe 10x more personal liquidity than any previous exit.”