Why this document
What is
Y Combinator?
The document you sign in this round was written by Y Combinator. Here is who they are, and why their name on a document is a form of protection for you.
- founded
- 2005
- companies
- 4,000+
- combined value of its companies
- $1T+
The school where startups are born.
Y Combinator, usually called YC, is the world's best-known startup accelerator, founded in 2005. Four times a year it takes in a group of very young companies, funds them, and teaches their founders for three months. More than 4,000 companies have gone through it.
You already use YC companies, probably today
- Airbnb
- Stripe
- Dropbox
- DoorDash
- Coinbase
- Twitch
How YC works.
Airbnb began as air mattresses rented out on an apartment floor; Stripe was two brothers with an idea about payments. Over twenty years this system produced companies now worth, together, more than a trillion dollars, and it made YC the closest thing the startup world has to a central institution: when YC publishes a practice, the industry adopts it.
- Thousands applyFour times a year, young companies from everywhere.
- A few hundred get inEach receives an investment.
- 3 monthsDaily work with YC's partners.
- Demo DayThe world's investors watch them present.
Their gift to everyone.
YC's most copied invention is not a company at all. It is paperwork. In 2013 they took the messy, expensive contracts of early investing and replaced them with short free standards that anyone on earth can use, published openly at ycombinator.com/documents. This round runs on one of those standards.
Why their name is protection.
- Nothing hiddenThe text is public and famous. Thousands of lawyers and investors have read this exact document for over a decade. A trick clause cannot hide in it, because everyone knows every line.
- Neutral authorThe rules of your deal were written by an institution whose business is protecting both sides of thousands of deals a year, not by the person asking for your money.
- Easy to checkHand the document to any startup lawyer in the country and they will recognize it in seconds. Checking costs you one short call, not a legal project.
In short: when you check who wrote the paper, the answer is one of the most examined institutions in technology. That check is the point of this page.
Using YC's document does not mean MOZGII is a YC company or endorsed by Y Combinator. The SAFE is a free public standard, open to every startup. What it does mean: the rules of your investment were written by a neutral, famous institution, not by the person asking for your money.
Please read this. This page explains a public standard in plain words as part of the founder's own round. It is not investment, legal, or tax advice, and it is not an offer; any offer is made only through the offering page and the signed documents, to verified accredited investors, under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D. Investing in startups involves substantial risk, including the loss of your entire investment.