We have added a new course section that deals with an innovative and increasingly popular instrument for seed financing: the Simple Agreement for Equity (SAFE).
The logic of a SAFE is indeed very simple: Instead of negotiating all the deal terms today, the company and the investor agree that the investor will receive company stock at a later date, in connection with a priced liquidity event such as the issuance of Preferred Stock or the liquidation of the company.
We discuss the key terms of a SAFE, namely the Valuation Cap and the Discount Rate and we provide various examples for how a SAFE works in different scenarios. We conclude with a discussion of the advantages and the disadvantages of this innovative financing instrument.
This link brings you to the dedicated course section that discusses SAFE notes.
We have also compiled a simple yet powerful online tool that allows you to assess how a SAFE affects the ownership structure and value allocation in a future round of financing.