Tool 01 · Fundraising
Most founders find out at the term sheet stage. Fill in what you’ve signed and what you’re raising — this shows the number now, and where every point of it went. Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
You own, after the round
| Who | Before | After | Shares |
|---|---|---|---|
| You | 60.0% | 43.3% | 6,000,000 |
| Co-founders & others | 30.0% | 21.7% | 3,000,000 |
| Option pool | 10.0% | 10.0% | 1,384,615 |
| Angel round | — | 5.0% | 692,308 |
| New investors | — | 20.0% | 2,769,231 |
| Total | 100.0% | 13,846,154 |
Approximate split of the 16.7 points you gave up.
A SAFE isn’t equity when you sign it. It’s a promise to issue shares later, at a price set by terms agreed today — a valuation cap, a discount, or both. Nothing happens to your cap table until a priced round comes along. Then everything happens at once, which is why the number surprises people.
Y Combinator replaced the pre-money SAFE with the post-money SAFE in 2018, and the difference is not cosmetic. With a post-money SAFE, the investor’s percentage is fixed the day they wire: $500k on an $8m cap buys 6.25% of the company as it stands immediately before the new money, full stop. Every SAFE you sign afterwards, and every share you add to the option pool, dilutes you — not them. With the older pre-money SAFE, that same investor’s stake gets diluted by later SAFEs and by the pool alongside you. Post-money SAFEs are simpler to model and meaningfully more expensive for founders. If you don’t know which you signed, the document says so on the first line.
Term sheets routinely specify a pool of 10–15% of the post-round company, topped up before the investment lands. Because those shares are created pre-money, they dilute the existing holders rather than the incoming investor — so a pool increase you might read as an administrative detail is a direct transfer from your ownership. It’s negotiable, and the size should follow your actual hiring plan rather than a default number.
Three things are usually behind it: modelling a post-money SAFE as if it were pre-money, applying the cap and the discount together instead of taking whichever is better for the investor, or forgetting the pool top-up entirely. Any one of those moves the founder number by several points.
Estimates for planning only — not legal, tax or financial advice. Real SAFEs contain terms this model doesn’t price, and unusual structures behave differently. Confirm anything that matters with your lawyer before you sign.