Y Combinator's Simple Agreement for Future Equity

Описание: Are you raising money for your startup? You're almost certainly using the SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) document, invented by Y Combinator. But here's the problem: it's not actually that simple to understand.

I'm Arjun, Founder & CEO of doola.com, and I've successfully raised over $13 million using these exact documents. In this video, I break down every version of the SAFE on the Y Combinator wiki, explain the complicated math, and show you exactly which one you should sign.

Chapters:
00:00 – What is a SAFE?
00:15 – Why the SAFE isn't actually simple
00:30 – Pre-money vs. Post-money SAFEs
00:55 – The "Stacking" math trap explained
01:25 – How dilution works in a normal price round
02:10 – The reality of SAFE stacking (Losing extra equity)
02:48 – Flavor #1: Valuation Cap, No Discount (The Standard)
03:22 – Flavor #2: Discount, No Valuation Cap (The Coupon)
04:10 – Flavor #3: Uncapped MFN (Most Favored Nation)
04:31 – When to use an MFN for angel investors
05:08 – Side Dishes: Pro Rata side letters
05:40 – The warning on Pro Rata rights
06:03 – International SAFEs (Canada, Singapore, Cayman)
06:15 – Next steps for your fundraising strategy

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CONNECT W/ ME:
X (Twitter): https://x.com/ArjunMahadevan
LinkedIn:   / mahadevanarjun  
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ABOUT ME:
If you’re new to my channel, my name is Arjun Mahadevan. I’m the founder and CEO of doola.com—the Business-in-a-Box™ for E-Commerce. We help entrepreneurs incorporate, get EINs and bank accounts, and handle compliance like bookkeeping and taxes—so they can focus on building. Given this is the internet and anyone can claim anything, I’ll give you some stuff you can google to verify below.

How I got here…

21 yrs old: Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School of Business with a BA in Mathematics and a BS in Economics with a Statistics concentration.

21 yrs old: Landed a job at Dropbox—my "dream job."

24 yrs old: Realized my dream job wasn’t my dream and left. I had the itch to build.

25 yrs old: Started doola to help global founders launch U.S. businesses.

26 yrs old: Went through YCombinator, pitched at demo day, and raised our $3M+ seed round.

27 yrs old: Raised our $8M+ Series A from investors like Nexus Venture Partners, the YCombinator Continuity fund and more.

29 yrs old: Raised a strategic round of $1M+ in funding from HubSpot Ventures and strategic angels like Codie Sanchez and Graham Stephan,

30 years old: Scaled doola into a global business, with customers in over 175 countries and over 10,000 customers served.

Today: We’re on a mission to help 1B founders start and scale their dream business. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not, and I’m all in on e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and enabling builders. If you’re a founder who wants to spend less time on admin and more time growing your business, we built doola for you.

To all the entrepreneurs out there building, I’m rooting for you.

Starting an LLC, sending an email, and talking to a stranger are all examples of asymmetric upside, and life is too short not to shoot your shot and do the damn thing.

Keep on climbing cringe mountain.

Keep on shooting your shot.

And ignore the crabs,

Arjun