How to create and e-sign SAFE agreements?

SAFE or Simple Agreement for Future Equity is a fantastic tool for startups to collect initial company funding without giving away a lot of company ownership. Creating and e-signing SAFE on Eqvista takes only a few simple steps. 

You can know more about SAFE convertible notes and how your company can use them here. 

In this article, we will show you how you can create and e-sign SAFE agreements on Eqvista within minutes.

Step 1:

Log in to your account on the Eqvista app. On the left panel, you will see the ‘Company’ menu. Click on the third option – ‘Certificates’ and you will reach the page shown above. To create a SAFE agreement, click on the ‘CREATE SAFE AGREEMENT’ button on the blue bar and you will reach the next step.

Step 2:

There are 3 steps to create SAFE agreements as shown in the gray box on the top-right of this page and now, we are on the first step – ‘Select Note’. A list of all the ‘Convertible Note Instruments’ issued to the shareholders is available on the left.  If you can’t see some of the names, scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Next’ to go to the next page. 

To add more/new holders of convertible note instruments, follow this article. 

You can select the shareholders one by one from the left panel as shown and they will be added to the box on the right. You can also click on the ‘SELECT ALL’ button to include all the shareholders on the left to the dotted box on the right.  On the top of the page, there is a ‘Shareholder’s signature required’ box, that you can check or uncheck. By default, it is set to require the shareholder’s signature. The ‘Cancel’ button on the top right will cancel everything you have done on this page so far and take you back to the previous step.  Once you have selected the notes, click on the ‘NEXT’ button.

Step 3:

In this step, you will assign the executor to the notes you selected. On the left side of the page, you will see the list of names of ‘COMPANY USERS’. Select the user who will execute the SAFE notes and the user will be added to the ‘EXECUTOR’ field. You may change the designation of the executor from the dropdown. The executor(s) you select here will need to sign the agreement to validate it.    Click on the ‘-‘ symbol on the right of the box to remove an executor. To add more executors, click on the ‘+’ sign below the box. Once you have added the executor, click on the ‘NEXT’ button to reach the next step.

Step 4:

This page summarizes all selected information for creating the Agreements. Review the information before you click on the ‘SUBMIT’ button.  If you want to change any information, click on the ‘BACK’ button just below the ‘SUBMIT’ button and it will take you to the previous page where you can edit the information.

Step 5:

On clicking the ‘SUBMIT’ button in the previous step, the Agreement will be created, and you will be redirected to the ‘Certificates’ page as shown in Step 1. Only now, the ‘SAFE AGREEMENTS’ you just created will be displayed instead of the blank field before.  

To complete the process, each agreement should be e-signed. You will see ‘Your sign is required’/ ‘On sign’ under the ‘Signature’ column against each shareholder’s name depending on the ‘Executor’ you have selected while creating the Agreements. 

If you are the executor, ‘Your sign is required’ will be displayed and you will receive an auto-generated email in your inbox with the link to ‘View Agreement’ and sign it. If someone else is the executor, ‘On sign’ will be displayed and the executor will receive a mail in their inbox with the link to ‘View Agreement’ and sign it.  

If it needs your signature, you can also sign it directly from this page by clicking on the ‘View agreement’ button under the ‘Action’ column. If you have selected ’Shareholder’s signature required’ in Step 2, the shareholder who will receive the note will also receive a similar email with the link to view the Agreement and sign it.

Step 6:

By clicking the ‘View agreement’ button on the previous page or on the mail you have received in your inbox, you will be directed to the ‘Certificate’ that you need to sign. Read it before signing. You can download the certificate without signing from the small ‘download’ link as shown. You can also ‘Close’ or ‘Delete’ the certificate from the ‘ACTIONS’ button.

To e-sign the document, scroll down to the bottom of the page and type or draw your signature. Then finalize it by clicking on the small yellow button with a tick. 

The signature field for the ‘INVESTOR’ will remain blank until the shareholder signs the Certificate following the link sent to his/her email (mentioned in step 5). 

Once you have e-signed the certificate, you can download it from the ‘DOWNLOAD CERTIFICATE’ button at the top right of the page. Select ‘Close’ from the ‘Actions’ button to go back to the ‘Certificates’ page (Step 5).  You can read more about SAFE Notes here. Learn how to Setup and Modify SAFE notes on Eqvista from this support article.