Post-money SAFE or pre-money SAFE: which one am I actually signing and why does it matter?
The short answer
YC's post-money SAFE (the standard since 2018) locks the investor's ownership percentage the moment they sign, which means every new SAFE you add dilutes you the founder, not them. That's cleaner for investors and more expensive for you than the old pre-money SAFE, so read which version is on the paper before you celebrate the cap. The number that matters is not the cap alone, it's the ownership percentage that cap implies at your expected raise.
Go deeper, your way
3 hand-picked resources, 3 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
📄 Article
✓ Link checkedIndiaFreeIntermediate
Why we picked it
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.
Why we picked it
This is the side-by-side numbers piece: three investors each putting in $1M at a $10M cap end up owning exactly 30% of you under post-money SAFEs, but only about 25% under the old pre-money version because the SAFE holders share the dilution instead of you eating all of it. Seeing the same raise cost you 5 extra points depending purely on which version is on the paper is the fastest way to internalize why you read the header before you celebrate the cap.
Why we picked it
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.
