For founders · free to use
Close the round yourself.
SAFR (Simple Agreement for Future Redemption) is a free, open instrument. A SAFE needs a priced round or an exit to convert, so until one comes it can sit open on your cap table for years. A SAFR settles quarter by quarter instead: you can pay down part of the claim from a Declared Budget you set, which can be zero, or a holder can convert their position into common stock. There is no maturity date to default against and no personal recourse.
A sample Quarterly Update for Tinwheel Systems, the worked example, quarter ending March 31, 2026. The Standard computed an Expected Capacity of $37,000 from a quarter of free cash flow. Tinwheel Systems set its Declared Budget at $25,000, the amount it put toward closing claims that quarter, and added one line on why it held the rest. That budget is the founder’s lever, and it can be zero.
The problem
Most early paper waits for a round that may never come.
A SAFE is fast to sign, and that is real. What it cannot do is close on its own. It was built to convert in a priced round, so the decision that ends it belongs to your next investor, not to you. When that round does not come, nothing closes, and the paper sits open on the cap table for years. A Convertible Note hands the timing to a date instead, one that can arrive before the company is ready. Either way the obligation outlasts the reason you signed it, and the people who backed you can go a long time without a read on the company.
The paper that never closes.
A SAFE can sit unconverted for years, an open promise with nothing in the instrument you can use to settle it.
The maturity clock.
A Convertible Note comes due on a date. If the date lands before a round, it can force a repayment or a conversion under pressure.
The cap-table overhang.
Unresolved paper sits over every later conversation, with the holders you have and the investors you want next.
Investors in the dark.
Between the check and the round, there is no shared, verified read on how the company is doing.
What changes for you
Control where it counts.
You set the pace.
Closing a SAFR is your move, not your next investor’s. Each quarter you set the Declared Budget, the amount you put toward settling claims, and it can be zero. A quarter with nothing to pay is not a breach and triggers nothing. The Standard publishes an Expected Capacity as a reference, and when your budget comes in lower you add a sentence on why. There is no repayment schedule and no maturity, so the pace is yours.
No maturity date to default against.
A SAFR has no maturity date, so no balance comes due on a calendar and there is no acceleration to fear. On the standard Fixed Pool schedule the claim stands at 1.5× from day one, holds there through month 36, and then climbs to a capped 2.5×. It ends when you close it through redemption or when a holder converts, not on a deadline. No officer, director, or founder carries personal recourse, so nothing here is tied to your personal assets.
Legible, not exposed.
The Quarterly Update that carries your Declared Budget is computed from a conforming data feed, so the reporting is bounded rather than open-ended, and the figures are ones investors can trust. It shows aggregates only: a standardized economic base, a capacity figure, the Declared Budget, and one owners-and-leaders pay total. It never includes customer or counterparty names, partners, pipeline, individual pay, or the raw ledger.
Common, never preferred.
The other way a position closes is conversion, and it is into common, never preferred, with no liquidation preference and no special voting or blocking rights to manage later. Conversion still dilutes, like any conversion does, and on the Fixed Pool schedule the dilution cap holds any single position to 25% of the company, enforced as a conversion-price floor, so no one position can convert its way to control. You can also take the initiative: buy out positions at the schedule price, or extend a Conversion Offer a holder is free to decline.
Get started
Offer it.
Draft a SAFR in your browser, fill in the parties and the amount, and take the completed agreement to your counsel. Closing is part of the same free flow, with the Form D filed rather than left undone. There is no fee for the instrument and no fee to close. Increasingly, investors are asking for an instrument that resolves, so offering a SAFR can help you stand out in a raise.
Already have paper out?
The paper you already issued can graduate.
If you have SAFEs or Convertible Notes outstanding, holders can graduate them onto SAFR once the company has earned it: four consecutive Quarterly Updates, each with positive Expected Capacity and independent attestation, with the same offer open to every holder of that paper for two quarters. Each claim crosses at its current value, which becomes its Entry Value. See how the instruments compare and how graduation works.
Compare and graduateQuestions
The questions founders ask.
SAFR is an open canonical instrument and reporting standard, provided without warranty and without legal advice. The instrument, the Reporting Standard, and the reporting tools are free under their open license. A SAFR is risk capital that may not be returned. SAFRs are offered as private, exempt offerings to accredited investors. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security, and nothing here is legal advice. Review the instrument with your own counsel before issuing or accepting it.