Safe on Stack & Scale Journal

The Best Startup Accelerators and the Terms They Actually Publish

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:47:00 +0000

An accelerator is a financing first and a program second. The check arrives attached to a document, and that document decides how much of the company the program owns after the next round. Founders who compare programs on reputation alone skip the part that lasts longest.

This list covers seven programs that publish enough of their terms to compare. Where a program’s own site doesn’t state its equity figure, the entry says so instead of filling the gap with a number from a third-party roundup.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Method

Published terms. Check size and equity taken, as stated on the program’s own site. Aggregator summaries were not used for terms.
Still running. Evidence on the program’s site of an open application, a scheduled cohort or year-round intake.
Instrument. Whether the equity comes as a fixed percentage, a post-money SAFE, an uncapped MFN SAFE or a mix.
Stage and sector fit. Who the program says it backs, and who it turns away.

Checked against each provider’s own pages on November 5, 2026.

Terms at a Glance

Program	Published check	Equity on the program’s own site	Format
Y Combinator	$500,000	7% fixed, plus an uncapped MFN SAFE	Batch in San Francisco, Jan to Mar for Winter 2027
Techstars	$220,000	5% common via a CEA, plus an uncapped MFN SAFE	Three-month programs by city or theme
Entrepreneur First	Up to $250,000	8% on the first $125,000, plus an uncapped MFN SAFE	SF residency
Antler	$500K to $1M typical initial commitment	Not stated on the US page	Up to three months, NYC, SF or Austin
500 Global (500 Fellowship)	Up to $50K at the start, up to $1M more	Not stated on the Fellowship page	Four months in San Francisco
Alchemist	$60,000 to $1 million	Not stated on the current site	Enterprise focus, San Francisco base
SOSV	Up to $550,000	Must exceed 10% ownership	Four to six months in the US, deep tech

The Programs

Y Combinator

Included: $500,000 per company, delivered as two SAFEs plus a YC agreement.

Cost: A fixed 7%, plus whatever the $375,000 uncapped MFN SAFE converts into.

The catch: The second SAFE has no cap, so YC’s final stake depends on the price of the company’s next round.

The standard deal page lays it out: $125,000 on a post-money SAFE for 7%, and $375,000 on an uncapped SAFE with a most favored nation provision. The MFN clause lets that SAFE adopt the best terms the company gives later SAFE investors. YC’s own example uses a $15M post-money cap on the next SAFEs, at which point the $375,000 converts to 2.5%. YC also takes a pro rata right in later rounds.

On November 5, 2026, the apply page said YC was taking applications for the Winter 2027 batch, which runs January to March in San Francisco. The on-time deadline of November 2 had passed, but late applications were still being reviewed, and early decision was open for later batches.

Techstars

Included: $220,000 on day one, split into a $200,000 uncapped MFN SAFE and a $20,000 post-money Convertible Equity Agreement (CEA).

Cost: 5% common stock through the CEA, plus whatever the SAFE converts into.

The catch: A side letter adds pro rata, drag-along, digital-asset and reporting terms, and both instruments wait for a priced round of at least $1M before converting.

Per the investment terms page, the 5% includes the existing option pool and is measured after SAFEs and other convertibles convert. The company has to be a US corporation or a foreign equivalent. Companies from some countries must reorganize first. Asia-Pacific programs use a $100,000 SAFE instead, for $120,000 total. The accelerators page describes three months of mentorship-driven support and links out to open applications by program.

Entrepreneur First

Included: Up to $250,000 for US founders who are ready to start full time.

Cost: $125,000 on a post-money SAFE for 8% from EF, and a second $125,000 on an uncapped MFN SAFE from EF and its partner, Transpose Platform.

The catch: The deal assumes founders live and work in EF’s San Francisco residency during the build period.

EF’s US page also offers a second door: a Fellowship Residency with a $10,000 equity-free grant and three months of housing for people still deciding what to build. The general FAQ describes a 12-week FORM phase in a local hub followed by a 12-week LAUNCH phase in San Francisco. EF is designed for individuals who arrive without a cofounder, which makes it relevant to anyone working through how to find a technical cofounder.

Antler

Included: An in-person residency of up to three months in New York, San Francisco or Austin, followed by a chance to pitch Antler’s investment committee.

Cost: Antler’s US page states a typical initial commitment of $500K to $1M plus $650K in partner credits. We couldn’t confirm the equity percentage on that page.

The catch: Antler doesn’t sponsor visas. At least one cofounder needs existing US work authorization.

There is no fee to join the residency. Antler says it reviews applications year-round and invites a group each month. Founders should ask for the current US term sheet before comparing Antler’s dilution with the fixed-percentage deals above.

500 Global (500 Fellowship)

Included: The flagship program now runs as the 500 Fellowship, four months in person in San Francisco.

Cost: “Up to $50K right away,” with up to $1M more as companies progress, per the Fellowship page. We couldn’t confirm the equity taken on that page.

The catch: The older $150,000-for-6% deal still circulates in third-party lists, but it doesn’t appear on the current Fellowship page. Treat it as history until a term sheet says otherwise.

The page lists dates of November 30, 2026 to April 9, 2027, and says the program takes founders from day zero through first users, revenue or pilots.

Alchemist

Included: An enterprise-focused program with San Francisco offices, a founder retreat and investor showcases in Silicon Valley.

Cost: The How We Invest page lists check sizes of $60,000 to $1 million at pre-seed and seed. We couldn’t confirm a current equity figure on the site.

The catch: The thesis is companies that sell to enterprises. A consumer app sits outside it.

The flagship page pitches support that lasts as long as the company is building, set against a 9 to 12 month enterprise sale. The program has moved from alchemistaccelerator.com to alchemist.vc, and old links redirect.

SOSV

Included: Pre-seed investment in deep tech through HAX (hard tech) and the SOSV SF and SOSV NY programs.

Cost: SOSV’s investment FAQ says its pre-seed check is up to $550,000 and that it needs to get above 10% ownership for its $550k average check.

The catch: Programs require four to six months in the US, and companies that have already raised a VC-backed seed or Series A are too late.

The same FAQ says SOSV reviews thousands of pitches a year and funds about 60. Its programs are geared to teams under 10 people with under $1M in annual revenue and, usually, under $1M in prior equity raised. Most SaaS, e-commerce and fintech companies fall outside its focus.

What the Fixed-Plus-MFN Deals Do to Ownership

Three programs publish enough to model. The MFN SAFEs are the moving part.

Assumptions
- Each program's day-one deal, exactly as published.
- The company's next financing is a SAFE round at a $15M post-money cap
 (the figure YC uses in its own example). MFN SAFEs adopt that cap.
- Ignores option pool changes and the interaction between instruments
 at conversion. Treat results as approximations.

Program Fixed MFN SAFE conversion Approx. total
Y Combinator 7.00% $375,000 / $15,000,000 = 2.50% 9.50%
Techstars 5.00% $200,000 / $15,000,000 = 1.33% 6.33%
EF 8.00% $125,000 / $15,000,000 = 0.83% 8.83%

Cash per 1% owned (cash / total %)
Y Combinator $500,000 / 9.50 = about $52,600
Techstars $220,000 / 6.33 = about $34,800
EF $250,000 / 8.83 = about $28,300

Drop the next cap to $10M and every MFN line grows by half. Raise it to $25M and the MFN lines shrink. The fixed percentage never moves. That’s the trade founders are actually signing.

Two Shortlisted Programs Left Off

MassChallenge and Plug and Play were on the original shortlist. We couldn’t confirm current program terms and intake on either program’s own site, so neither appears above. A program that can’t be checked doesn’t get a guessed number.

Before Sending an Application

Get the entity right first. Techstars requires a US corporation or equivalent, and most of these instruments assume a Delaware C corp. The tradeoffs are in Delaware C corp vs LLC.
Put the founder split and vesting in writing. A co-founder agreement signed before the check arrives avoids renegotiating with an investor watching.
Model the MFN at three different next-round caps, not one.
Read the side letter as closely as the SAFE. Reporting and pro rata obligations last longer than the program.
Ask for the current term sheet in writing. Several programs above changed structure in the past two years.

For the wider sequence of setup steps around an accelerator application, see how to start a startup company.

How to Start a Startup Company, From Day Zero to Day 90

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 15:28:00 +0000

A startup company, in the sense this publication uses, is a corporation built to raise venture capital and grow fast enough to need it. That narrows the first 90 days to a short list of documents, a few filings with hard deadlines, and one or two decisions that are expensive to undo later.

Most of the work is paperwork. The product matters more, but the paperwork is where the permanent mistakes happen: a missed tax election, founder shares with no vesting, code that the company does not actually own. None of those show up on day one. They show up in diligence before a seed round, when fixing them costs legal fees and negotiating position.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Every filing below has an official source linked at the point it comes up, and those sources control over any summary.

The 90-day map

Window	What gets done	Document or filing	Hard deadline?
Days 0 to 7	Founding team, split, entity choice	Founder term sheet (informal)	No
Days 7 to 14	Incorporate	Certificate of incorporation	No
Days 7 to 14	Board organizes the company	Bylaws, initial board consent	No
Days 7 to 14	Founders buy their stock	Restricted stock purchase agreements	Starts the 83(b) clock
Days 7 to 14	Company owns the IP	IP assignment agreements	No, but do it at issuance
By day 44	Tax election on founder stock	IRS Form 15620 or written statement	30 days after transfer
Days 14 to 30	Tax ID	EIN from the IRS	No
Days 30 to 60	Equity plan and first grants	Stock plan, 409A valuation	Valuation within 12 months of grants
Days 60 to 90	First outside money	SAFE, Form D	Form D within 15 days of first sale
Every March 1	Delaware annual report and tax	Annual franchise tax report	Yes

The rest of this guide walks through each row.

Days 0 to 7: decide who the founders are

The founding team is the first decision and the hardest one to change. Adding a co-founder later means issuing new stock at a higher value. Removing one without vesting in place means that person keeps the shares.

Three questions settle most of it:

Who is building the product? A company selling software with no one who can write it is a company that will spend its first raise on contractors. Founders without a technical partner should read the guide on how to find a technical cofounder before incorporating, because the split conversation is easier before shares exist.
How is equity split? Y Combinator partner Michael Seibel has argued for equal splits among co-founders on the grounds that nearly all the work is ahead of the team. Unequal splits are legal too; what matters is that the reasoning survives a conversation with a future investor.
Is everyone full time? Part-time founders with full founder equity are a diligence question. It is better answered now than in a partner meeting.

Write the answers down in a one-page founder term sheet. It is not the legal agreement. It is the record of what everyone agreed before lawyers turned it into documents.

Days 7 to 14: incorporate the right entity

Venture investors buy preferred stock. Preferred stock is issued by corporations. That is the short version of why venture-backed companies are C corporations, and why so many of them are formed in Delaware.

The Delaware Division of Corporations says on its annual report statistics page that nearly 70% of US-based IPOs in 2025 chose Delaware as their corporate home. The practical reasons for an early-stage company are narrower: investors and their counsel know the Delaware statute, the Court of Chancery has a long body of case law on corporate disputes, and the model financing documents published by the National Venture Capital Association are drafted with a Delaware corporation in mind.

Other structures exist and suit other businesses. A company that plans to stay profitable and owner-run is not the reader this playbook is written for.

What the certificate of incorporation sets

The certificate of incorporation is filed with Delaware and is short. The founder decisions inside it:

Authorized shares. How many shares the company may issue. A figure in the millions, with founders issued most but not all of them, leaves room for an option pool without amending the charter.
Par value. A nominal figure per share. A very low par value keeps the price founders pay for their stock tiny and, as shown below, matters for Delaware franchise tax.
Classes of stock. At formation, usually common stock only. Preferred stock gets added when the first priced round closes.

The organizing documents

After filing, the incorporator hands control to the board. The board then adopts bylaws, appoints officers, approves the sale of founder stock, and adopts the form of IP assignment. A single written board consent usually covers all of it.

Day of issuance: founder stock, vesting and the IP

Founders buy their shares under a restricted stock purchase agreement. Two clauses in it matter more than the rest.

The repurchase right. The company can buy back unvested shares at the price the founder paid if the founder leaves. That repurchase right is what vesting means for founder stock. YC’s essay on splitting equity describes four years with a one-year cliff as a typical setup in the Valley. The full mechanics, including acceleration, get their own article later on this site.

The IP assignment. Each founder assigns to the company any code, designs, domain names and other work made for the business, including work done before incorporation. Investors check this. A founder who wrote the first version of the product before the company existed and never assigned it still owns it.

A worked example of the purchase:

Assumptions
- Two founders, equal split
- 10,000,000 shares of common stock authorized
- Par value $0.00001 per share
- Each founder buys 4,500,000 shares at $0.00001 per share
- 1,000,000 authorized shares left unissued for a future option pool

Price paid per founder: 4,500,000 x $0.00001 = $45.00
Shares issued: 9,000,000 of 10,000,000 authorized (90%)

Paying a real price, even $45, matters for the next step: it lets the fair market value and the purchase price match on the day of transfer.

By day 44: the 83(b) election

Restricted stock that vests over time is, for tax purposes, not fully owned until it vests. Without an election, the founder recognizes ordinary income each time a tranche vests, measured at the stock’s value on that date. If the company has raised money in the meantime, that value can be large, and the tax comes due with no cash to pay it.

Section 83(b) lets the founder elect to recognize the income at the time of transfer instead. With the purchase price equal to fair market value, the income recognized is zero.

The deadline is fixed. IRS Form 15620 instructions say the election must be filed no later than 30 days after the date the property was transferred. If the 30th day falls on a weekend or legal holiday, a postmark on the next business day counts as timely. The regulations at 26 CFR 1.83-2 also require a copy to go to the company.

Filing methods, as of November 5, 2026:

Online. The IRS lists Form 15620 on its mobile-friendly forms page as requiring an IRS Online Account. After filling it in, the filer can submit it online or download a copy for mailing. Online submission returns a confirmation.
Mail. The signed form, or a written statement that meets the regulation, goes to the IRS office where the founder files a return. Certified mail with a return receipt gives proof of the postmark.

The election cannot be revoked without IRS consent, and there is no general extension for a late one. Put the deadline on the calendar the day the stock purchase agreement is signed.

Days 14 to 30: the EIN and the company’s own accounts

The IRS issues an employer identification number free and online, and the page warns against sites that charge for one. The online tool requires a US principal place of business and a responsible party with a Social Security number or ITIN. Companies that do not meet those conditions apply by phone, fax or mail.

With an EIN, the company can open accounts in its own name. Founder money and company money should never mix, because the cap table, the books and any later diligence all assume the corporation paid its own bills.

One filing that older checklists still list is no longer required. FinCEN’s beneficial ownership page states that, under its final rule, US companies are exempt from BOI reporting and are no longer required to file BOI reports.

Every March 1: Delaware franchise tax

Delaware corporations file an annual report and pay franchise tax by March 1. The Division’s tax calculation page describes two methods: the Authorized Shares method (minimum $175) and the Assumed Par Value Capital method (minimum $400). The corporation pays the lesser. The annual report filing fee is $50, and the annual report instructions list a $200 penalty plus 1.5% monthly interest for failing to file and pay.

The same page says the annual assessment is based on authorized shares, which is why the first notice a startup sees can look alarming.

Assumptions
- 10,000,000 shares authorized, par $0.00001
- 9,000,000 shares issued
- Total gross assets $500,000 (from the federal return, Form 1120 Schedule L)

Authorized Shares method
 First 10,000 shares: $250
 Remaining 9,990,000 shares / 10,000 = 999 units x $85 = $84,915
 Total: $85,165

Assumed Par Value Capital method
 Assumed par = $500,000 / 9,000,000 = $0.055556
 All authorized shares have par below assumed par:
 APVC = $0.055556 x 10,000,000 = $555,560
 Tax = $555,560 / $1,000,000 x $400 = $222.22, below the minimum
 Total: $400

Owed: $400 tax + $50 annual report fee = $450

The second method needs the issued share count and gross assets, so it only works if the company files with real numbers.

Days 30 to 60: an option pool and a 409A valuation

Early hires and advisors get equity through a stock plan approved by the board and the stockholders. The 1,000,000 unissued shares in the example above are the room for that pool.

Options must be granted at or above the fair market value of the common stock to avoid problems under Section 409A of the tax code. The regulations at 26 CFR 1.409A-1 presume a valuation is reasonable if it comes from an independent appraisal dated no more than 12 months before the grant. The same regulation includes a separate method for illiquid stock of a start-up corporation, based on a written report prepared in good faith. A company that wants the presumption buys an independent appraisal before the first option grant and refreshes it within 12 months, or sooner after a priced round.

Days 60 to 90: the first outside money

The first check usually comes in on a SAFE. Y Combinator’s SAFE page lists three post-money versions for US companies: valuation cap with no discount, discount with no cap, and an uncapped MFN version, plus an optional pro rata side letter. YC says the post-money SAFE has been its standard since 2018.

The post-money cap makes ownership simple to calculate:

Assumptions
- One SAFE, post-money valuation cap
- Investment: $500,000
- Post-money valuation cap: $8,000,000
- No other SAFEs outstanding

Ownership on conversion (before the priced round's new money and pool increase):
 $500,000 / $8,000,000 = 6.25%

The money is a securities sale, so securities law applies. A SAFE round sold privately to a handful of investors can rely on Rule 506(b) of Regulation D. The SEC’s 506(b) page says the company cannot use general solicitation, can sell to up to 35 non-accredited investors in any 90-day period (each of whom triggers disclosure duties), and must file Form D within 15 days after the first sale. States can still require notice filings and fees.

For individual investors, the SEC’s accredited investor page lists the tests: net worth over $1 million excluding a primary residence, or income over $200,000 (or $300,000 with a spouse or partner) in each of the prior two years with the same expected this year, or a Series 7, 65 or 82 license in good standing. Raising only from accredited investors keeps a first round simple.

What day 90 should look like

A founder who has done the above can answer every early diligence question with a document:

Certificate of incorporation, bylaws and the initial board consent
Signed stock purchase agreements with vesting, plus proof of each founder’s 83(b) filing
Signed IP assignments from every founder and contractor
EIN confirmation letter
A cap table that matches the share certificates or ledger
Board and stockholder approval of the stock plan, and a 409A report if options were granted
Signed SAFEs, the Form D filing and any state notice filings
A calendar entry for March 1

Questions founders ask in the first 90 days

Can the 83(b) election be filed before the stock is issued? The regulation says the election may be filed before the date of transfer. In practice, founders file once the purchase agreement is signed and the transfer date is known, because the form asks for it.

Does the company need a lawyer to incorporate? The certificate itself is a short filing. The documents around it (purchase agreements, IP assignments, the stock plan) are where errors cost money, and investors’ counsel will read every one of them.

Do founders need vesting if there is only one founder? Priced-round investors can make it a condition of closing. Starting with vesting avoids renegotiating it under term-sheet pressure.

When should the company switch from SAFEs to a priced round? When an investor wants board seats, protective provisions or other rights that come with preferred stock, or when the amount raised on SAFEs makes the eventual dilution hard to manage. That decision is the subject of later articles on this site.