Bridge at the old cap or a down round now — which one hurts less?

Seed was $12M cap two years ago, back when our paid channels printed money. The channels died, LTV compressed, growth went from 14% monthly to 3%. We have 7 months of cash. Two options on the table and I hate both.

Option one: our existing investors bridge $900k on a SAFE at the same $12M cap, "to avoid the signal of a down round." Option two: a new fund — the only new money that engaged after 40 conversations — offered a priced round at $8M pre, real lead, real board, real reset.

The bridge math scares me: if growth doesn't reaccelerate we're having this exact conversation in 9 months with more SAFEs stacked and less credibility. The down round math also scares me: our seed docs have broad-based weighted-average anti-dilution, the early team's options reprice underwater, and I get to run an all-hands explaining why we're worth a third less. Everyone who says "valuation is vanity" has never done that all-hands. Who has actually taken the down round and can tell me what the second year after it looked like?