Startup Basics

Raising money for your startup feels exciting. Finally, someone believes in your idea. But in that rush, many founders sign funding deals they don’t fully understand—especially SAFEs. SAFEs sound simple. They’re fast. They don’t carry interest. No set repayment. And no valuation to fight over. What’s not to love? Turns out, a lot—if you’re not […]

Most founders love SAFEs for how fast and simple they are. No negotiation. No valuation fights. Just a signature, a wire, and you’re off building. But what happens if your startup gets acquired before you raise a priced round? That’s where the simplicity starts to disappear. In an acquisition, things move fast. Emotions run high.

If you’re raising early money through SAFEs or convertible notes, you’re not alone. Most early-stage founders use them. They’re fast, lightweight, and let you skip the stress of pricing your company too early. But while the docs are simple, the math behind them isn’t. Every SAFE or note you sign affects your cap table. Every

Your first investors won’t all be VCs. In fact, they rarely are. They’re often friends, family, angel investors, or early believers who want to help—but aren’t deep in the startup world. So when you hand them a SAFE or a convertible note, you’re not just asking for money. You’re asking for trust in something they

At first, SAFEs and convertible notes feel easy. That’s the point. You raise money fast. You skip the valuation fight. And you avoid the legal mess of a full-priced round. But what seems simple at the beginning often turns into a tangle later. If you’re not careful, your cap table can become a maze of

SAFEs are everywhere. If you’re raising your first round, someone’s probably told you they’re the fastest, cleanest way to get capital without giving up control. No interest, no maturity, no legal overhead. And often, people throw around a phrase that sounds too good to be true: “They’re non-dilutive… for now.” That’s where things start to

Most founders hear about SAFEs and think they’re all the same. Same speed. Same simplicity. Same idea of “you’ll get equity later.” But there’s a big difference between a pre-money SAFE and a post-money SAFE—and if you don’t understand that difference, you might give away more of your company than you planned. Y Combinator made

Before 2013, raising early-stage funding was a mess. Founders had to deal with complex equity rounds or convertible notes that behaved more like loans than partnerships. Every check required lawyers, time, and long documents that few first-time founders fully understood. Then Y Combinator stepped in with something different: the SAFE. Simple. Lightweight. Founder-friendly. It wasn’t

Raising money with a convertible note feels simple. You don’t set a valuation. You don’t give up equity right away. It’s fast, it’s flexible, and lots of early-stage investors use them. On the surface, it seems like a great option—especially if you’re still figuring things out. But that simplicity can hide real risks. Most founders

When you’re just getting started, raising money can feel like a race. You’ve got a big idea, a tight team, and maybe a prototype that sort of works. And now you’re wondering—should we give away equity already? A lot of founders do. They raise their first check as equity. It feels serious, official, like a