Had a convo with a VC today where they stated that, with interest rates being what they are, investors are more heavily preferring / insisting on convertible notes over SAFEs than they were a year or so ago. For reference, this is a VC outside of the valley.
Does this pass your smell test? Does this line up with your very recent (less than a year) experience? We’re talking seed or earlier.
No, no, SAFEs are the standard now for a pre-equity round. This investor is just BSing.
It’s all negotiation. Chances are the VC has determined that your metrics aren’t good enough to give you any bargaining power, but they’re good enough for him to take a flyer on you. Also now with the supply of money drying up, the investors have less competition and more leverage
We just raised several million on safes from reputable investors. They aren’t going anywhere.