

Ask HN: Has anyone used Y Combinator's SAFE instruments outside of Y Combinator - api

What the title says. If so, what was your impression. Caveats, explanations, upsides, downsides...?<p>For those who don&#x27;t know I am talking about these, which appear to be more or less &quot;open source&quot;:<p>http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ycombinator.com&#x2F;documents&#x2F;
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RealGeek
Baremetrics used SAFE to raise a seed round from General Catalyst Stripe fund.
You can see the and their SAFE agreement at
[https://baremetrics.io/blog/stripe-500000-baremetrics](https://baremetrics.io/blog/stripe-500000-baremetrics)

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rajacombinator
I used one to "paper" a small F&F pre-seed investment. Hard to comment on the
outcome, because I haven't done a new round of funding yet which is when I
would expect to run into any problems. (I don't expect any.)

The upside was that it was easy to understand and I was able to edit it myself
(copy / pasting additional parts such as MFN clause). So no lawyer fees.

SAFE makes way more sense than a convertible note for taking angel
investments. The only downside I can think of is that if you are taking money
from investors who are not F&F and who are outside Silicon Valley, you will
probably have to explain it to them, and they will probably not understand it.

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api
I wonder if LA is too far from the Valley? Investors outside SV not getting it
was one concern that came to mind.

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rajacombinator
If they're the kind of investors that know what "YC" is then your chances are
probably good. If they're the stodgy old-world type investors (most of non-SV)
then it may be tough. I've read blog posts where such people were whining
about not getting the interest on convertible notes, believe it or not!

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api
I would only take money from people who get at least the basics here. I wonder
if a SAFE might have the added benefit of selecting for knowledgeable folks.
If I try putting forward a SAFE I will blog the result.

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Folcon
We applied the basic concept and raised in Europe. We managed to get it to
work with some edits, so not a direct replica of SAFE.

