Concept

SAFE

A SAFE is a contract that converts into equity later, usually at a priced round. Venture-backed founders should care this week because the instrument you sign now sets the cap table you sell from later — valuation cap, discount, and MFN are not paperwork trivia. If you are taking money (or stacking SAFEs) without modeling conversion, you are negotiating blind.

Where founders get this wrong

• Treating the valuation cap as a vanity number instead of a dilution scenario.
• Stacking SAFEs with mismatched terms and no pro forma of the next priced round.
• Skipping counsel because 'everyone uses YC's post-money SAFE' — small edits still move ownership.