Article · 12 min read

Modeling Post-Money SAFEs in Your Cap Table: Tools and Mistakes to Avoid

EquityList Free Intermediate India

Written by an India-based cap table platform, so the modeling assumptions match how Indian founders actually raise. It walks a concrete stack (a $250K SAFE at $5M cap = 5%, then a $500K SAFE at the same cap = 10%) to show you giving away 15% before Series A even opens, then models the Series A on top so you see founder equity drop from 85% to roughly 64%. This is the ownership-percentage-that-the-cap-implies math the answer is pointing at, done for you.

• Post-money SAFEs concentrate all dilution on founders and existing shareholders, unlike pre-money SAFEs where SAFE holders share the hit
• Stacking SAFEs without modeling the cumulative percentage is the classic mistake: 5% plus 10% is 15% gone before your priced round
• SAFEs also move your 409A valuation and employee option pool, so the cost is bigger than the cap number alone suggests