Tool · templates + primer

YC Safe Financing Documents (Official Post-Money SAFE)

Y Combinator Free Intermediate

The primary source for the SAFE itself, plus YC's plain-English primer explaining post-money mechanics. Use the official document, not a random copy, and read the primer before you sign.

  • Post-money SAFE lets you calculate investor ownership precisely and immediately
  • Five standard variants (cap, discount, MFN, etc.) plus an optional pro-rata side letter
  • It's a starting point usable in most situations without modification
Open on ycombinator.com ↗

It answers 9 questions

  1. What is a SAFE and how does it actually work?
  2. What's the difference between a valuation cap and a discount on a SAFE?
  3. How is my startup's valuation actually decided at the early stage?
  4. What do the key terms in a term sheet actually mean?
  5. How do SAFEs and term sheets differ in India versus the US?
  6. How much dilution should I expect across seed and Series A?
  7. A SAFE has no valuation cap and no discount. Should I ever sign it?
  8. Post-money SAFE or pre-money SAFE: which one am I actually signing and why does it matter?
  9. An investor wants a pro-rata right. What am I giving up and is it standard?

Read with it

  1. The reference primer on the metrics and market-sizing logic investors use, including bottom-up market sizing that keeps... a16z Article · ~15 min read 16 Startup Metrics Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
  2. The definitive book on how VC deals really work, written by two Foundry Group VCs. It demystifies the term sheet term-by-term... Wiley Book · book (~300 pages) Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson
  3. YC's fundraising library collects the canonical explainers on how SAFEs convert, how caps and discounts work, and how they... Y Combinator Startup Library Article · varies A Guide to SAFEs, Caps, and Discounts (Startup Library) Kirsty Nathoo / Y Combinator
  4. 100X.VC pioneered the iSAFE, India's answer to the US SAFE, and offers the standardized document plus a plain explanation.... 100X.VC Tool · template + explainer iSAFE: The Founder-Friendly Fundraising Instrument for Early-Stage Founders 100X.VC
  5. A practical India-specific guide to term sheets and iSAFEs, written by working Indian VCs and startup lawyers (3one4 Capital,... Inc42 Article · 30 min read (guide) Decoding Term Sheets for Early-Stage Startups Siddarth Pai, Roma Priya, Yagnesh Sanghrajka
  6. This is the worked dilution example, actual numbers, not a hand-wave: a $100k SAFE with an $8M cap and a 15% discount... FundersClub Article · 6 min read Numerical Example: SAFE, Cap and Discount FundersClub
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