SAFE Notes Update
Founders are still favoring SAFE notes at pre-seed and seed — they close faster and cut legal complexity — but 2026 deals show more realistic valuation caps and tougher investor asks on dilution and pro‑rata rights []. The video’s advice: treat every SAFE as the start of a long-term investor relationship and be prepared to negotiate cap table protections early [].
Carta recorded SAFEs in 90% of pre‑seed rounds on its platform in Q1 2025. carta.com Industry benchmarks put the median pre‑seed pre‑money valuation at $7.7M as of Q3 2025. zeni.ai Carta’s Q3 report also found healthtech pre‑seed valuation caps reached a median of $35M for rounds of at least $2.5M. carta.com Y Combinator publishes a standard pro‑rata side‑letter that many early investors use to secure follow‑on rights. ycombinator.com Market data shows median founder dilution for $1M–$1.9M SAFE raises around 15.6% in recent benchmarks, while legal analysis reports anti‑dilution language in 2026 term sheets favors broad‑based weighted‑average protections. futuresight.ventures Founders and law firms increasingly rely on Carta’s SAFE calculator and modeling tools to simulate conversion and dilution scenarios before signing, and Carta has published multiple state‑of‑pre‑seed reports to guide term choices. carta.com
