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Y-Combinator introduced the new post-money SAFE note in October 2018, only no one knows how to calculate the math. I did it for you. You can do the math on both the pre and post-money Y-Com SAFE notes.

Download the spreadsheet to analyze startup dilution from multiple convertible notes and SAFEs at:. http://www.startupsos.com/dilution Convertible securities, including the convertible note and the SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) are popular startup funding mechanisms that entrepreneurs use particularly for angel funding, but they do ...

YC Partner Kirsty Nathoo gives the lowdown on several different ways to capitalize your company and how those impact founder equity and cap tables overall. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6m-understanding-safes-and-priced-equity-rounds This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and ...

How much startup share dilution will your Y Combinator SAFE result in when you do a priced round that converts the SAFEs to stock? This video walks through a share dilution spreadsheet that allows you to analyze the dilution of the post-money SAFE. The SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) is a popular startup funding mechanism that ...

It's important for founders to understand what the dilution impact will be of their convertible notes and/or Y-Combinator SAFEs. You can use the share dilution spreadsheet (see link below), a share dilution calculator, to understand founder share dilution from convertible securities. It applies to convertible notes and the original pre-money ...

YC Partner Dalton Caldwell gives insight into how YC admissions works and what makes for a successful YC experience. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6t-how-to-apply-and-succeed-at-y-combinator This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program and global community of founders. Register and ...

There are 3 common mistakes startup founders make in raising money with convertible notes and/or the Y Combinator SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) that increase startup share dilution, resulting in a cap table (capitalization table) that has a lot less ownership for the founders than it should. One is to not keep careful track of how ...

With the YC S22 batch coming to a close, Dalton Caldwell and Michael Seibel reflect on the recent batch and their experience fundraising. The two group partners also clear up some misconceptions about Y Combinator based on feedback from founders. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DandM-apply Work at a Startup: https://yc.link/DandM-jobs ...

Unlike the original pre-money SAFE - Simple Agreement for Future Equity - the 2018 post-money SAFE uses a post-money valuation cap. The SAFE is a very popular startup funding vehicle. Both versions can (but don't always) result in the SAFE investor receiving SAFE Preferred shares upon the equity conversion. These are very similar to standard ...

YC Partner and CFO Kirsty Nathoo shares the most common mistakes startups make with their finances and how they can prevent them. You can find the lecture slides and transcript here: https://www.startupschool.org/videos/70 Find more Startup School and YC content at https://www.startupschool.org/library.

YC Partner Geoff Ralston gives an introduction to the key concepts to keep in mind once you enter a fundraising process. Learn more at https://www.startupschool.org/

In order to get your startup off the ground it's critical to keep your co-founders motivated. One of the best ways to do that is to figure out a fair co-founder equity split. In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Michael Seibel explains the ins and outs of co-founder equity, why it's important to be generous with that equity, and ...

YC Group Partner Brad Flora has seen startup fundraising from every angle: as a founder, as one of the most prolific angel investors in Silicon Valley, and now as a YC Group Partner. Brad has coached hundreds of companies on fundraising. In this talk, he shares stories and advice on how modern startup fundraising works. Paul Graham Fundraising ...

SAFEs (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) have become a popular funding vehicle for startup fundraising. When Y Combinator updated the SAFE template in September 2018, they changed the dilution calculation from a pre-money to a post-money basis. This major change increases the dilution for the founders and employees. Learn how employee ...

Topic: How discounts and valuation caps determine how much stock a convertible note or SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) investor will receive for their investment. Both pre-money SAFEs and post-money SAFEs are discussed, with examples of how both pre-money valuation caps and post-money valuation caps work.

Model your SAFE funding round with our free calculator: http://safes.carta.com Watch episode 1: How do SAFEs and convertible notes work? https://youtu.be/PtTDmeU-Kok Watch episode 2: What's a valuation cap? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcrsoartpFU Automate your cap table with Carta: https://www.carta.com Everything you need to know about ...

Sometimes a Convertible Note is the right answer, but overall the SAFE is more favorable to the entrepreneur than the Convertible Note. The two have much in common: both are convertible securities, both can have (but don't have to have) a discount and/or a valuation cap. Both present challenges in terms of understanding the resulting founder ...

It’s fair to say that few people in tech are positioned to have a bigger impact on the future than Sam Altman. As the CEO of OpenAI, Altman and his team have overseen monumental leaps forward in machine learning, generative AI and most recently LLMs that can reason at PhD levels. And this is just the beginning. In his latest essay Altman ...

Learn the difference between pre-money and post-money SAFEs (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) and how each can impact your equity ownership.

Early-stage startups typically raise funds using convertible notes and SAFEs. Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of convertible notes, pre-money SAFEs, and post-money SAFEs in order to choose the best funding vehicle for your startup. CHANNEL DESCRIPTION: Fundable Startups provides: - premium training on - deep-dive startup ...

AI is dramatically changing the way we interact with software. So for this episode of Design Review, YC General Partner Aaron Epstein sat down with Raphael Schaad, the founder and designer of Cron (now Notion Calendar), to critique some groundbreaking AI user interfaces. Together they’ll review a wide variety of examples, from agents and ...

When a major new technology comes out, huge new opportunities open up for founders that get in on the ground floor. Fortunes were made when the app store came out, when online payments became easy, and when the web itself was brand new. In this episode of Dalton and Michael we’ll talk about why this is that moment for AI, who will find those ...

Model your SAFE funding round with our free calculator: http://safes.carta.com Watch episode 1, the difference between SAFEs and Convertible Notes: https://youtu.be/PtTDmeU-Kok Watch episode 3, the difference between a pre-money and post-money SAFEs: https://youtu.be/Mj0LxtaLQIk Automate your cap table with Carta: https://www.carta.com ...

Watch episode 2: What's a valuation cap? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcrsoartpFU Watch episode 3: The difference between pre-money and post-money SAFEs: https://youtu.be/Mj0LxtaLQIk Model your SAFE funding round with our free calculator: https://www.safes.carta.com Automate your cap table with Carta: https://www.carta.com Everything you ...

Y Combinator CEO and Partner Michael Seibel on splitting equity between cofounders. https://twitter.com/mwseibel Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly ...

Today we’re going to be talking about, what is a safe note. Essentially, a safe note is a way to raise money. It’s a very founder-friendly way of raising that cash at the early stages of a seed, maybe like Series A, or in-between if you’re doing a bridge round. RESOURCES & LINKS: ____________________________________________ Join ...

The Lightcone hosts sit down with Aaron Levie, the co-founder & CEO of Box, to hear reports from the front of how large enterprise and Fortune 500 companies are adapting to the AI age. Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 0:00 Intro 1:15 Why the GPT wrapper was a bad meme 4:44 ...

In this special episode of Design Review, Aaron sits down with Raphael Schaad, the Head of Calendar at Notion to discuss why we need more quality design in early stage startups, how how to improve your taste, and what ultimately makes designers uniquely qualified to start a company today. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/DesignReview ...

YC Group Partner Dalton Caldwell shares his strategies for how to think about applying to YC. This talk goes beyond the information on YC's website, and reflects Dalton's latest advice on the topic. (Fun Fact: An earlier version of this talk is frequently mentioned by YC founders as instrumental in their decision to apply to YC and to getting ...

YC Partner Kevin Hale talks about the importance of building a successful working relationship with your cofounders, and setting up processes to optimize for the strengths of your team. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6n-how-to-work-together This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online ...

The SAFE is a very popular startup funding vehicle. It can (but doesn't always) result in the SAFE investor receiving SAFE Preferred shares upon the equity conversion. These are very similar to standard preferred shares, but with differences in liquidation preference (we show a simple liquidation preference example using a 1x participating ...

Whether it's for sales, recruiting or making new connections, cold outreach is a necessary tool for helping build your startup. But as you probably know, most cold emails either are ignored or end up in the trash. So what can you do to make sure your emails break through the noise? In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Aaron ...

In the first episode of the Lightcone Podcast, YC Group Partners dig into everything they have learned working with the top founders building AI startups today. They share the ideas that are working particularly well, mistakes to avoid, and take a look at the competitive landscape among the current AI giants. Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly ...

How to START a STARTUP with Michael Seibel (Reddit, YC, Twitch) Interested in starting a startup? In this video, YC's Michael Seibel shares valuable insights on how to start a successful business from scratch. Welcome to our channel! In this video, Michael Seibel, CEO of Y Combinator, provides a comprehensive guide on how to start a startup in ...

Apply to AI Startup School in SF: https://events.ycombinator.com/ai-sus There’s never been a better time to launch an AI startup, but many prospective founders find themselves stuck when it comes to thinking of a good idea. In this episode, the Lightcone hosts look at different ways breakthroughs can be discovered. Apply to Y Combinator ...

In this episode of Startup School, YC Group Partner Harj Taggar shares his advice on the types of people best suited to be startup founders and how to prepare to start a company in the future. Apply to Y Combinator: https://yc.link/SUS-apply Work at a startup: https://yc.link/SUS-jobs Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 ...

In this episode of Startup School, YC General Partner and Co-Founder of Algolia Nicolas Dessaigne explains the ins and outs of starting a dev tools company from the ground up. He'll explain how to find the right idea, who should be a part of your team, and whether or not you need a sales and marketing team when you're ready to go to market ...

YC Partner Kevin Hale goes over the fundamentals of pricing and monetization, how it affects your customer acquisition strategy, and how to optimize it through a few rules of thumb. Transcript and lecture slides here: https://www.ycombinator.com/library/6h-startup-pricing-101 This lecture is part of YC's Startup School, a free online program ...

Many startups fail because they run out of money. So how should you think about how to spend the money you raise? In this episode of Office Hours, YC General Partners Brad Flora, Pete Koomen, Nicolas Dessaigne, and Gustaf Alströmer discuss how to spend responsibly at each stage of a startup— including advice on when to hire, whether to ...

It’s easy to analyze your way out of taking the first step. It’s something we see a lot, particularly when founders try to choose what to build based on what they think VCs and investors will like. In this episode of Dalton & Michael, we’ll talk about the risks of “thinking like an investor”, how to know when you’re stuck in this ...

There's been a lot of news lately about the updates to some of the largest foundational AI models. But what does this mean for startups? How will future product releases from the AI giants effect the companies built on top of them? The hosts of Lightcone discuss how founders can take advantage of these developments and avoid being steamrolled ...

Familiar with the lore of Y Combinator? Then you'll know Jessica Livingston - one of the original co-founders who started YC back in 2005. On a recent visit to our SF headquarters she shared with the Lightcone hosts the stories and decisions of the early days that would form the foundations of YC as we know it today. Chapters (Powered by https ...

YC Alum Jason discusses the importance of calculating TAM (Total Addressable Market), SAM (Serviceable Available Market), and SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) for YC (Y Combinator) applications, emphasizing that the focus should not solely be on the market size but on how the estimation is made. He draws parallels to math and PM interviews ...

A little over ten years ago Paul Graham published the essay "Do Things That Don't Scale." At the time, it was highly controversial advice that spoke to the drastically different needs of an early startup versus the needs of a much larger, more established company. YC Partners discuss PG's essay, its influence on Silicon Valley, and some prime ...

Stripe, Airbnb and Lyft are a few of the most successful companies of the past decade. And there are at least two things they all have in common - great design, and Katie Dill. Katie was Head of Experience Design at Airbnb, led the design team at Lyft and is now Head of Design at Stripe. We spoke with Katie about her design philosophy, what ...

The biggest companies in the world all had to start somewhere. In this episode of Office Hours, the Group Partners explore the humble origins of several top YC companies to try and identify common traits of the most successful founders. They’ll explore what it takes to keep your company alive in the early days, where to focus your energy and ...

In previous videos, we discussed SAFEs, which mention “pre-money” and “post-money” valuations. In this lesson, we’ll discuss their meaning, how to calculate them, and their importance in startup fundraising. Free video courses for founders: Equity 101: https://carta.com/equity-101 Cap Table 101: https://carta.com/learn/cap-table-101 ...

Uncovering trends, patterns and insights from startups that got accepted at YCombinator. Data (USD): https://ideaisalluneed.gumroad.com/l/yc_data_jan25 Data (INR): https://ideaisalluneed.gumroad.com/l/inr_yc_data_25 Full Analysis: https://highsignalai.substack.com/p/what-400-yc-backed-startups-reveal Social Media & Discord Server Invitation ...

If you’re thinking about applying to Y Combinator in 2025, this guide is for you. In this video, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know as a complete beginner, including how to craft a successful Y Combinator application video, the importance of product-market fit, and how to leverage growth hacking to stand out. Whether you’re ...

Ever wondered how startups raise money? Thinking of applying to Y Combinator? Or what investors like Y Combinator actually give you in return for equity? Or maybe you just got in and want to understand their $500K deal? In this video, I break down one of the most famous startup deals in the world — Y Combinator’s $500,000 investment offer ...