A CONNECTED LEARNING PATH / 18 GUIDES
Funding readiness.
Follow a question, explore a worked example and choose one useful action. Read in order or start with the challenge in front of you.
Explore every topicEstimate cash runway with visible assumptions
Build a transparent cash-runway planning scenario, distinguish cash from revenue and inspect the timing assumptions behind the result.
Separate gross burn from net burn
Define gross and net cash burn consistently, reconcile both to the same period and show the operating changes hidden by a single headline.
Explain gross margin without hiding scope
Explain gross margin through a consistent cost-of-sales definition, comparable periods and an honest account of costs outside the calculation.
Use contribution margin to examine a small offer
Use a clearly defined unit and variable-cost boundary to examine an offer’s contribution while preserving fixed costs, capacity and cash questions.
Build a break-even scenario you can explain
Build a simple break-even scenario with explicit fixed costs and unit contribution, then inspect whether demand, capacity and timing support its assumptions.
Create a scenario forecast instead of one precise promise
Build a forecast around coherent operating scenarios, explicit assumptions and response signals instead of presenting spreadsheet detail as certainty.
Understand working-capital timing
Trace the dates of supplier payments, delivery commitments and customer collections to expose cash gaps that revenue totals can conceal.
Connect a use-of-funds plan to a milestone
Explain how proposed capital enables a bounded milestone, which commitments it creates and what evidence would support a later decision.
Budget for a milestone with a decision gate
Stage a milestone budget around an observable review, with clear spending boundaries and continuation choices that allow honest learning.
Make traction claims reproducible
Present traction with definitions, dates, denominators and traceable calculations so observed behaviour stays distinct from pipeline and projections.
Create a claim register before a pitch
Connect each consequential pitch statement to a dated observation, calculation or explicit assumption, then revise wording that exceeds its support.
Organise a data room around real questions
Prepare a controlled review folder with a question-led index, clear current versions and an update process that limits unnecessary disclosure.
Compare capital options using the business need
Compare possible funding routes through purpose, timing, obligations and constraints before asking qualified advisers to assess actual terms and suitability.
Prepare an investor-fit research brief
Prepare a dated investor-fit brief that connects the business’s stage and needs with public evidence while keeping unknowns and outreach questions explicit.
Understand dilution with a clearly limited example
Use a simple share-count example to understand changing ownership percentages while identifying the terms that basic dilution arithmetic cannot resolve.
Plan for the timing of a fundraising process
Map fundraising preparation, review and completion as uncertain dependencies, then connect delays to operational choices before cash pressure narrows alternatives.
Discuss customer concentration without a misleading headline
Explain customer concentration with a clear denominator, group definition and timing context so a percentage reveals dependency rather than obscuring it.
Write a board or investor update with decision value
Write an update that connects operating evidence and cash assumptions with the decisions, risks and support an authorised board or investor audience needs.