08/18/2026
A founder raises $2.5 million across four SAFEs over eighteen months, cap rising each time. Ask what they've sold and most say around 21% — $2.5M measured against the latest $12M cap.
The actual figure is 27.08%.
Each SAFE gets priced against its own cap, not the most recent one, so the ownership adds up cap by cap. That first $250,000 cheque at a $5 million cap cost as much equity as $600,000 would have later.
Here's the comparison worth sitting with: the same $2.5 million raised as a single SAFE at a $12 million cap would have sold 20.83%. Same money, same investors, same company — 6.25 percentage points different, entirely because of how the raise was sequenced.
By the time a $6 million Series A closes with a standard 10% option pool, founders are at 51.04%. Split between two co-founders, that's 25.5% each before anyone on the team vests a share.
We've written the full breakdown: how post-money SAFEs shift dilution onto founders, the conversion math step by step, what the option pool actually costs, and seven ways to cap your exposure before a term sheet arrives.
Read it: https://denotepress.com/safe-note-dilution/
