runway-planner

Runway Planner Skill

Runway is the number that decides everything else. This skill turns cash and burn into months of runway, a default-alive/dead verdict (à la Paul Graham), and the dated triggers for when to raise or cut — so the founder isn't surprised. Not financial advice; confirm with your finance lead.

Working from a brief

Given partial numbers, do the full calculation anyway with labelled illustrative figures where needed. Show the arithmetic. Never leave it as "[calculate runway]."

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided), else use clearly-labelled illustrative numbers:

• Cash in bank today
• Monthly net burn (gross burn minus revenue) and whether it's growing
• Revenue today and its growth rate (if any)
• Planned changes — hires, spend increases, or cuts being considered
• Context — when they last raised, what they're optimising for

Output Format

1. Runway today

• Net burn: $X/mo · Cash: $Y · Runway: Y ÷ X = N months (to ~[month/year])
• If burn is growing or revenue ramping, show a simple month-by-month projection, not just a flat divide.

2. Default-alive or default-dead?

On current growth and burn, will revenue cover costs before the money runs out? State the verdict and the gap.

3. Scenarios

| Scenario | Net burn | Runway | Effect |

|---|---|---|---|

| Current | | | |

| With planned hires | | | |

| Lean (cuts) | | | |

4. Trigger points (dated)

• Start raising by: [date] — typically when ~6 months of runway remain (raising takes 3–6 months)
• Decision/cut point: [date] — if [milestone] isn't hit, what changes
• Out of cash: [date] — the hard floor

5. The one lever

The single highest-impact move (a cut, a price change, a growth push) and what it does to the runway date.

Quality Checks

• [ ] Runway math is shown, not just stated; accounts for growing burn / ramping revenue if relevant
• [ ] Gives a clear default-alive vs default-dead verdict
• [ ] Trigger dates work back from the 3–6 months a raise actually takes
• [ ] Includes the "not financial advice" disclaimer

Anti-Patterns

• Flat cash ÷ burn when burn is clearly growing
• Ignoring that raising takes months (planning to start at 2 months left)
• Vague advice ("extend runway") instead of a quantified lever and date
• Treating gross burn as net (ignoring revenue)