Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by warrenm 3228 days ago
TechCrunch had an article about this a month ago: https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/08/why-safe-notes-are-not-saf... (interestingly - an investment note created by Y Combinator in 2013 (https://www.ycombinator.com/documents)).

>"We have observed the following in our own recent direct experience investing in SAFE and convertible notes: that many founders have a tendency to associate the valuation cap on a note with the future floor for an equity round; that they further assume that any note discount implies the minimum premium for the next equity round; and that many founders don’t do the basic dilution math associated with what happens to their personal ownership stakes when these notes actually convert into equity. By kicking the valuation can down the road, often multiple times, a hangover effect develops: Entrepreneurs who don’t do the capitalization table math end up owning less of their company’s equity than they thought they did. And when an equity round is inevitably priced, entrepreneurs don’t like the founder dilution numbers at all. But they can’t blame the VC, they can’t blame the angels, so that means they can only blame… oops!"