For context, you're reading this on Hacker News, a forum hosted by YC. What Google didn't tell you is that SAFEs were invented by YC ten years ago in order to

For context, you're reading this on Hacker News, a forum hosted by YC. What Google didn't tell you is that SAFEs were invented by YC ten years ago in order to provide better angel/seed investing framework than the then-current bespoke convertible notes. You can read all about it here: https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/ https://www.ycombinator.com/documents/ "Accredited investor" is basically someone who is supposed to be sophisticated enough that they won't first give you (a startup) some money, then later on say they didn't know that your startup was risky and sue you. Accepting investments only from accredited investors is a way to shield yourself from that scenario. Both terms are used fairly often on HN (and really throughout the startup communities anywhere).