Who This Helps
This is for founder-operators who feel stuck between growth and cash. You know you need a solid financial story for your team or investors, but building it feels heavy. The Founder Finance Basics Mission Pack turns that heavy lift into a clear, one-page action plan.
Mini Case
Ben's SaaS revenue grew 40% last quarter, but his bank account didn't budge. He was burning $45k a month with 9 months of runway, but his gut said that number was wrong. He spent a morning building the Runway Forecast mission. He found a hidden $15k monthly ops cost and realized his new hire plan would cut runway to 5 months. In one page, he had the true number: 7 months, with a clear plan to extend it.
Do This Now (5 Steps)
- Grab your last three months of bank and credit card statements. No fancy tools needed yet.
- List every single monthly cost. Be ruthless. Include subscriptions, salaries, software, everything. Categorize them as Core (must-have) or Growth (optional for now).
- Find your true monthly burn. Add all Core costs. This is your baseline survival number.
- Project your cash balance forward. Start with today's cash. Subtract your monthly burn for each future month. This shows your zero-cash date.
- Stress-test one change. What if you delayed one hire? What if you landed one more client? Adjust the numbers and see how the runway moves. That's your decision lever.
Avoid These Traps
- Mixing personal and business finances. It blurs your true burn rate. Use separate accounts.
- Forgetting irregular expenses. Annual insurance? Tax payments? Divide them by 12 and add them to monthly burn.
- Being overly optimistic on revenue. Use current, contracted revenue for the forecast. Hope is not a strategy.
- Ignoring payroll taxes. They are a real, recurring cost. Include them.
- Getting lost in detail perfection. A good, fast forecast beats a perfect, late one. Aim for 90% accuracy, not 100%.
- Not updating it. Your runway is a living number. Revisit it every month, or after any major decision.
- Hiding the bad news from yourself. If the number is scary, that's the point. It's your early warning system.
- Not sharing it with a key stakeholder. One trusted advisor should see it to pressure-test your logic.
Your Win by Friday
By Friday, you'll have a single, defensible runway number. You'll know exactly what levers pull it longer. You can walk into any conversation—with your co-founder, your team, or an investor—and say, "Here's our position, and here's our plan." No more financial fog. Just calm, clear authority. You've got this.