Paying 7-10% tax is a fabulous expense for founders if that leads to company growth >10% (ignoring smallprint). Certainly that's a reasonably likely outcome. "

Paying 7-10% tax is a fabulous expense for founders if that leads to company growth >10% (ignoring smallprint). Certainly that's a reasonably likely outcome. "Hyper growth" is irrelevant. Do the benefits exceed the costs? That's a harder thing to judge. Worthwhile reading https://paulgraham.com/articles.html https://paulgraham.com/articles.html which has many articles expounding the benefits (understandably biased and unfortunately mostly pro VC). There are unfortunately very few decent articles or good data on the costs. Here's one good article against the YC SAFE: https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/05/01/startups-shouldnt-use-yc-post-money-safe/ https://siliconhillslawyer.com/2019/05/01/startups-shouldnt-... Sometimes compromises are needed! Not many businesses can find $500k another easier way.