Is 8 Percent Equity for 125K from Accelerators Insane

Is 8 Percent Equity for 125K from Accelerators Insane

Author

Peter Walker

|

Read time: 

1 minute

Published date: 

February 22, 2026

Most accelerator deals outside top brands give K for 8%—small non-brand accelerators often offer poor terms compared to the market for early equity.

LinkedIn: Is 8 Percent Equity for 125K from Accelerators Insane

Is selling 8% of your company for $125K insane?

Yea, a bit.

Nichole set off a bit of a storm on X with this one, but we have data that says she's probably right.

Note - this is actually not about YC, whose deal is more like $500K for 8% or so once it's all said and done. This is about the wide swath of smaller, less brand-name accelerators.

Some of those deals are...well, just not amazing for founders.

Data below shows expected dilution (from SAFE fundraises) depending on the amount raised. To raise $1M, you'll sell on median ~10% of the company.

So 8% for $125K is indeed quite steep.

But hey, if you need the cash and it's the only way through, onwards 🙏

Peter Walker
Author: Peter Walker
Peter Walker runs the Insights team at Carta, focused on discovering key data and narratives across the private capital ecosystem. In a former life, he was a marketing executive for a media analytics startup and led the data visualization team at the Covid Tracking Project.

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