Common Shares
Definition
Shares typically held by founders, employees, and early participants that carry voting rights and economic participation but rank below preference shares in any liquidation or distribution event. Common shareholders receive proceeds from a liquidity event only after all preference shareholders have received their liquidation preference amounts.
Common Misapplication
The most common misapplication is calculating founder economic outcomes from a liquidity event based on percentage ownership without modeling the liquidation preference stack that must be satisfied before common shares participate in proceeds.
FFI Standard Reference
This term is defined and applied in Book 3, Section 3.1: The Cap Table Standard.
Related Terms
Citable URL
This term may be cited using the following permanent URL.
Full citation format: Founder Financial Infrastructure Standard, Beta v0.5, Glossary: Common Shares. https://ffistandard.org/glossary/common-shares/. 2026.