Blog

Practical finance playbooks for people building businesses.

Essays from the Startup Suite team on runway, board meetings, investor updates, finance hiring and the design choices behind the product. For step-by-step how-tos, see the founder guides.

Featured

Board Decks: Shorter, Sharper, Less Theatre

A board deck rarely needs 60 slides. Here is what to cut, and what directors look for.

Startup Suite TeamFeb 14, 20263 min read

The Founder Finance Stack: What Actually Belongs In It

The model, system of record and reporting cadence to set up in your first year.

May 14, 20263 min read

Runway Maths for 2026: New Rules, Same Discipline

AI usage costs and longer sales cycles change how runway behaves. Here is how to model yours as three scenarios with clear triggers.

Apr 28, 20263 min read

Investor Updates That Do Not Waste Anyone's Time

A short template for monthly investor updates that can be read in a couple of minutes.

Apr 10, 20262 min read

Hiring Your First Finance Lead: Timing, Trade-Offs, Profile

When to make your first finance hire, the trade-offs, and the profile to look for.

Mar 22, 20263 min read

Why We Designed Our Data Pipeline Around Cohorts

Why Startup Suite is designed to store each customer's cohort with the data from the start, and what that changes for forecasting retention, CAC payback and contribution margin.

Mar 03, 20263 min read

From Idea to Financial Model: Build Your First One

Turn pricing, customer, churn, and cost assumptions into a simple startup financial model you can explain and improve, even without a finance background.

5 min read

How Long Will Your Money Last?

Use a simple runway formula, understand net burn, and model the decisions that extend the time your business can keep operating.

5 min read

A Business Plan Lenders Trust, Without Finance Experience

Learn the sections, projections, and funding logic that make a business plan easier for lenders to trust, even if you do not have a finance background.

4 min read

The 4 Forecasts Investors Expect

Learn the forecast views investors commonly expect and how to connect revenue, profit and loss, cash, and scenario planning to answer real funding questions.

4 min read

Can Your Idea Actually Make Money?

Test whether your startup idea is viable: work out how many customers you need to break even, how long it takes to reach them, and how much cash you need on the way.

4 min read

Idea to Investor-Ready: The Planning Steps in Order

See how founders move from idea validation to forecasting, runway planning, business planning, and investor readiness as one connected process.

4 min read

Stop Guessing: Validate With Real Numbers

Validate a startup idea with numbers: map the funnel from prospects you can reach to paying customers, then test the weakest conversion rate before you build.

4 min read

Best, Base, Worst: Scenario Planning for Founders

Use best, base, and worst case scenarios to plan a startup under uncertainty, and see how a few assumptions change your runway and your decisions.

4 min read

Pricing You Can Defend in the Room

Set prices from customer value, market evidence and margin maths, and test how a price change affects demand, contribution and runway.

3 min read

Unit Economics, Explained for Founders

Understand unit economics: CAC, LTV, the LTV to CAC ratio, and payback period, with a worked founder example you can follow step by step.

4 min read

How Much Should You Actually Raise?

Build a fundraising target from runway needs, operating milestones and a realistic cushion, with a worked use-of-funds example.

3 min read

Profitable but Broke: Cash Flow vs Profit

Profit and cash are not the same. Learn why a profitable business can still run short of cash, and how to track cash timing alongside profit.

3 min read

7 Financial Model Mistakes First-Time Founders Make

Seven financial modelling mistakes first-time founders make, what each one looks like in a model, and a worked MRR example.

3 min read

The Assumptions Investors Test First

The assumptions investors test first: pricing, growth, churn, margin, hiring, burn, and use of funds, with the question they ask about each and the evidence that answers it.

3 min read

Build a 3-Year P&L Forecast

Build a three-year profit and loss forecast around a few core drivers, with revenue, margin, costs, and operating profit you can explain.

3 min read

Burn Rate: What You Really Spend Each Month

Burn rate measures how fast a company uses cash. Learn gross burn versus net burn, and how burn connects directly to your runway.

3 min read

Fixed vs Variable Cost Planning

Separate fixed and variable costs to see operating leverage and break-even clearly, with a simple worked founder example.

3 min read

Forecast Growth Without Guessing

Forecast growth from real acquisition drivers like leads, conversion, and retention, instead of drawing a hopeful top-line curve.

3 min read

When Will You Break Even?

Calculate your break-even point with fixed costs and contribution margin, and learn when revenue finally covers total cost.

3 min read

MRR, Churn, and NRR: Model a SaaS Business

Build a SaaS financial model from MRR, churn, expansion, and net revenue retention, with a worked NRR example you can follow.

3 min read

The Founder's Finance Cheat Sheet

A plain-English finance cheat sheet for founders: MRR, CAC, LTV, burn, runway, and break-even, defined without the jargon.

3 min read

The Financials Slide in Your Pitch Deck

What goes on the finance slide of a pitch deck: growth, margin, burn, runway, the raise and the milestone it funds, all from one model so the numbers agree.

3 min read

Go from idea to investor-ready.

Put these playbooks to work on your own plan, with actuals from your accounting software feeding the model.

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