Apicus · a field guide for founders
Everyone talks about VC, angels, friends & family, and loans. Almost nobody talks about strategic corporate capital, non-dilutive grants, or revenue-based financing. Explore every path, with the documents, the pitfalls, and the actual people to call.
No. 01 · The landscape
Every card shows typical check size, how much of your company it costs, and how fast the money lands. Click any card for the deep dive: pitfalls, documents, and who to contact.
No. 02 · The one nobody tells you about
Large corporations invest billions into startups every year through corporate venture arms and partnership programs, and they bring things a VC never can: distribution, pilot customers, and instant credibility.
Start with the corporate development or CVC arm of companies already adjacent to your product, then work partner programs in parallel. Full contact list in the
No. 03 · Side by side
Typical ownership given up in a single raise from each source. Bars are representative midpoints; real terms vary with stage, leverage, and negotiation.
Post-money basis. Venture debt shown with warrant coverage of roughly 1%. Crowdfunding shown for equity campaigns; rewards campaigns cost 0%.
| Source | Typical check | Dilution | Speed to cash | Repayment | Best stage |
|---|
No. 04 · Protect the company
Y Combinator open-sourced the post-money SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity), the default instrument for early fundraising. There are exactly three official variants, plus an optional side letter. All are free.
The workhorse. Sets a maximum valuation at which the SAFE converts. If you raise your priced round above the cap, the investor converts as if the company were worth the cap, rewarding early risk.
No cap. Instead, the investor converts at a fixed discount (commonly 10–25%) to whatever price the next priced round sets. Simple, but gives the investor no protection against a huge valuation jump.
No cap, no discount. Instead, if you later issue a SAFE with better terms to anyone else, this investor can adopt those terms. It's what YC itself uses for the $375k portion of its standard deal.
Optional add-on giving a SAFE investor the right to buy into your next priced round to maintain their ownership percentage.
YC's official PDF walking through conversion math, dilution examples, and when to use each variant. Read it before you sign anything.
When you graduate to a priced equity round, the National Venture Capital Association publishes the industry-standard term sheet, stock purchase agreement, and charter, free at nvca.org ↗.
Post-money vs. pre-money matters. YC's current SAFEs are post-money: each SAFE's ownership is calculated after all SAFEs convert, so stacking many SAFEs dilutes founders, not earlier SAFE holders. Model your cap table before every signature. A spreadsheet now beats a lawyer's invoice later.
No. 05 · Before you sign anything
A handshake with family is still a securities transaction. Use a SAFE or promissory note for every check, no matter who writes it.
7% to an accelerator plus 20% at seed plus 20% at Series A leaves founders under 50% before Series B. Run the math on every stack of SAFEs before signing the next one.
Exhaust non-dilutive options first: customers, grants, partner programs. Equity sold at your weakest moment is the most expensive capital you'll ever take.
A clean $8M cap beats a $12M cap with a 2× liquidation preference, board control, or a ROFR. Ugly terms follow you into every future round.
You can fire an employee. You can't fire your cap table. Reference-check every investor with founders they've backed, especially the failed ones.
Investors don't just hand over money. They fund a machine that multiplies it. Here's how to show them the machine.