Deal Comparison at a Glance
Compare PersoniFi's four investment types side by side. Each is designed for a different investor goal — pick the one that matches what you're looking for.
Overview
| Buy Shares in a Founder | Invest in an Aspiring Creator | De-Risk an Early Startup Investment | Invest in an Ambitious Person's Evolving Potential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In a nutshell | Back someone you know with founder DNA and high upside potential | Enable them to go full-time and fully monetize their talent | First-check, capital injection, or bridge to pre-seed | Financial cushion to explore ideas and talents — share in whichever paths they choose |
| Think of it as | Startup equity + capped revenue-share for individuals | Upside revenue-share for individuals with insurance | Startup equity + equity in future ideas or IP | Investing in the entire career output of an individual |
Sample Terms
| Buy Shares in a Founder | Invest in an Aspiring Creator | De-Risk an Early Startup Investment | Invest in an Ambitious Person's Evolving Potential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | % equity in their current startup, plus % equity in any other companies this person creates in the next X years | % equity in future creator earnings for X years, plus 1.5x cash repayment via a capped Income Share Agreement if person returns to fallback career | % equity in the startup, plus [2x] cash repayment via capped Income Share Agreement from person's future salary/income — whether they remain a founder or return to the workforce | % equity in any companies, IP, royalties, or career earnings (custom) generated by this person over the next X years |
| Additional perks | — | — | Every time they make a payment, they clawback equity. They can reduce the total repayment cap to 1x–1.5x by securing $X in funding, or by repaying within X years | Optional baseline Income Share Agreement regardless of career |
Why It Works
| Buy Shares in a Founder | Invest in an Aspiring Creator | De-Risk an Early Startup Investment | Invest in an Ambitious Person's Evolving Potential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investor advantage | Cash yield and downside protection regardless of startup outcome | Cash yield and equity upside in creator earnings, while protecting principal with person's fallback career earnings | 60% of founders will start another company — investor bets on the person, gets potentially more than one path to return | Invest in dynamic individuals with various career pursuits as early as desired. They use funds to live, upskill, build. Investor gets % of future value created from multiple sources |
| Structure | Startup Equity (SAFE) + Income Share Agreement (ISA) tied to the person. ISA survives regardless of business outcome | Equity in creator earnings + ISA as fallback protection | Startup Equity (SAFE) + Proprietary Instrument akin to a SAFE in a company that doesn't exist yet | Equity in future career output across all ventures and income streams |
Top Use Cases
| Buy Shares in a Founder | Invest in an Aspiring Creator | De-Risk an Early Startup Investment | Invest in an Ambitious Person's Evolving Potential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Idea-stage to seed founders · Bridge to VC from angel · Easier ask from family and friends | Employed part-time creators · Full-time creators 4x earnings · Crowdfund from people they know or angels | Idea-stage to seed · First-time founders · Incentivize lead or angel in pre-seed round | Founder/creator hybrids · Corporate engineer financial cushion to quit day job and build an idea · Grad students, med students |
Return Targets
| Metric | Buy Shares in a Founder | Invest in an Aspiring Creator | De-Risk an Early Startup Investment | Invest in an Ambitious Person's Evolving Potential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOIC | 2.8x | — | — | — |
| IRR | 20–25% | — | — | 25% median |
| Upside | 12x | 10x | 2x better returns than startup-only | 15x+ |
| Baseline | 3x | 2.9x | — | 3x |
| Downside | 1.7x | 1x | — | 1x |
What's next?
- Want the full details? See Deal Samples and Specs for in-depth breakdowns, founder/athlete/creator examples, and detailed specifications.
- New to PersoniFi deal structures? Start with Top Deal Structures for a plain-language guide to SAFE+plus, SAFEguard, and SAFEguard Flex.
- Looking for term definitions? Check the Glossary.