When I first started working with stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024, I thought I had it figured out. I was dead wrong.
After reviewing 500+ pitches, I noticed one glaring pattern in SAFE agreements. Here is how the top 1% do it differently.
What I've Learned From 82 Companies
After investing in 200+ startups and running two companies to successful exits, I've developed a pretty clear picture of what works with stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024.
The biggest misconception is that you need to most founders overthink this and underspend on execution. That's backwards. The companies that win are the ones that your team matters more than your technology.
I remember sitting with the Anthropic team early on and discussing how they thought about stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024. Their approach was counterintuitive but brilliant.
The Counterintuitive Truth
Here's what surprised me most about stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024: the best practitioners do less, not more.
When I was building MovieLaLa, we tried to do everything at once. We had the best technology, the smartest team, and we still almost failed because we spread ourselves too thin.
The lesson I took from that experience, and from watching hundreds of other companies, is that you need to move fast and break things. It sounds simple. It's incredibly hard to execute.
Why Most Approaches Fail
Let me be direct: about 70% of the approaches I see to stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024 are fundamentally flawed. Not slightly off. Fundamentally flawed.
The root cause is usually one of three things:
- Copying what big companies do without understanding why they do it. What works for Google doesn't work for a 10-person startup.
- Over-engineering the solution when a simple approach would work better. I've seen teams spend six months building something that could have been done in two weeks.
- Ignoring the human element. Technology is the easy part. Getting people to actually use it is where the real challenge lives.
Lessons From the Trenches
I want to share a few specific lessons I've picked up over the years. These aren't theoretical. They come from real companies, real failures, and real successes.
Lesson 1: The best time to start thinking about stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024 was yesterday. The second best time is now. Don't wait until you have the perfect plan.
Lesson 2: Hire for attitude, train for skill. The best stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024 practitioners I've met weren't the most technically gifted. They were the most curious and persistent.
Lesson 3: Your competitors are probably getting this wrong too. That's your opportunity. While everyone else is following the same playbook, you can zig when they zag.
This connects to broader themes around Series A, pitch deck design, fundraising timeline, revenue-based financing, investor relations that I've been thinking about a lot lately.
Wrapping Up
I've shared a lot here, and I know it can feel overwhelming. But here's the thing about stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024: you don't need to get everything right on day one. You just need to get started and keep improving.
The founders in my portfolio who excel at stop doing safe agreements like it's 2024 share one trait: they're relentlessly practical. They don't chase perfection. They chase progress.
That's the mindset I'd encourage you to adopt. Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. And keep pushing forward.
As always, I'm rooting for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.
Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.