Use Cases
Co-founders, seeded
Co-founders with a SAFE round closed. Hiring early team, granting equity, keeping the cap table investor-clean for the priced round to come.
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You've raised a SAFE (or two) but haven't closed a priced round yet. The cap table now has investors with conversion rights, MFN clauses, and pro rata side letters that need tracking. You're hiring the first three to ten employees and granting them equity. Compliance picks up — multi-state nexus is starting to matter.
Create
Bring the entity into existence — formation, founder equity, EIN, registered agent.
Most readers here already incorporated. If you didn't, run the standard founder Delaware C-Corp formation first — the seed-stage workflows below assume the entity exists with founders, vesting, EIN, and 83(b) elections already in place.
POST /v1/workflows/form_companyStandard founder Delaware C-Corp. If you're already incorporated, skip to Manage.
Manage
Operate the live entity — equity programs, board cadence, compliance, qualifications.
The seed stage is dense. SAFEs come in waves, each with their own MFN clause that ratchets every prior SAFE if the new one has better terms. Employee grants need a 409A valuation. Board consents start mattering when you take an investor seat. Foreign qualification triggers the moment you hire someone in another state.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/convertiblesPost-money SAFE template, valuation cap, discount, MFN, pro rata side letter (if any). Matter generates, routes for signature, and registers the convertible against the cap table.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/mfn_cascadeWhen you issue a SAFE with better terms than a prior SAFE, the prior holder's MFN ratchets them up. Matter discovers the eligible cascade, generates the per-SAFE amendment, and tracks each holder's accept/reject decision.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/equity_plansBefore any options issue, you need a real plan — board-adopted, with stockholder approval within 12 months for IRC §422 ISO eligibility. The formation-time stub plan is not enough. Matter routes both consents in parallel and tracks the deadlines.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/grantsISO/NSO grants on the equity plan. Each grant carries vesting, strike price (from the most recent 409A), and a 30-day signature window. Matter routes the agreement and registers the grant against the share ledger.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/resolutionsQuarterly cadence once you have an investor on the board. Approve grants, ratify the SAFE round, accept the 409A. Matter generates the resolution body, routes signatures, and stamps the corporate record.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/qualifyThe moment you hire someone outside Delaware (or sign a lease, or contract with a state agency), nexus attaches. Qualify before, not after — back-qualification penalties accrue per month.
POST /v1/workflows/file_all_dueQuarterly. Delaware franchise tax (now sized by share count, not flat-rate), federal annual report, state-level qualifications, BOI updates as ownership shifts.
POST /v1/workflows/handle_cofounder_departureDepartures get harder once investors are involved — separation agreements include investor consent recitals, share repurchase pricing references the latest 409A, and the cap-table change triggers a fresh investor disclosure.
Exit
Wind the entity down — dissolution cascade or M&A envelope.
Three real branches. Either you raise a priced round (which moves you to funded team), you sell (asset or stock), or you wind down. Wind-downs at the seed stage mean either cancelling outstanding SAFEs (with holder consent) or running a forced cascade.
Closing your Series Seed or Series A triggers the SAFE conversion cascade and moves you into funded team.
POST /v1/rounds/{id}/close_packageCharter amendment for the new preferred class, SAFE conversion cascade, investor grants, 409A refresh, Form D filing — all atomic.
A buyer wants the company (or the IP). With SAFEs outstanding, the conversion runs at the deal price as part of the cap-table transfer.
POST /v1/corporate_transactionsStock-for-stock acquisition. Matter runs the LOI → diligence → definitive → closing envelope and handles the SAFE conversion + cap-table transfer.
POST /v1/corporate_transactionsBuyer wants the assets but not the entity. Bill of sale, asset schedule, then a dissolution cascade for the shell.
Project didn't land. Outstanding SAFEs need to be cancelled or cascaded before the dissolution cascade runs.
POST /v1/entities/{id}/dissolveStandard dissolution cascade with the SAFE-cancellation step layered in. See the active-SAFE wind-down recipe for the holder-consent flow.