Cash Runway Model

Service Description

Most startups don't fail. They run out of cash. The pattern is almost always the same: → Strong revenue. Growing pipeline. Great product. → A board that thinks runway is "around 14 months." → A CFO running the forecast in a spreadsheet built by someone who left two years ago. → Then a customer churns, a round slips, payroll doesn't. Cash mismanagement isn't a reporting problem. It's a survival problem. And by the time most CFOs treat it like one, the only lever left is "raise on bad terms or wind down." So I built the playbook I wish I'd had. Six operating systems. Built in 30 days. Designed to make sure no founder, CFO, or board is ever surprised by their own bank balance again: 01 — The 13-Week Rolling Cash Flow Forecast (built in 60 minutes) 02 — Cash Conversion Cycle Optimization (target: 10-day DSO improvement in 60 days) 03 — Burn Rate Management Framework (with the adjusted-runway formula most CFOs miss) 04 — The Weekly Cash Meeting Protocol (30 minutes, fixed agenda, every Monday) 05 — Board-Ready Cash Reporting (one page, every month) 06 — Emergency Cash Protocols (when to pull the alarm, and what to do in the first 30 days). The full 17-page playbook — including the implementation checklist — is attached. If your stress case shows you running out of cash in 8 weeks, you are already in a cash crisis. The point of this playbook is to make sure you see it coming with enough time to actually do something about it. This is Playbook 01 of 06 in the CFO Operating Series. The next five drop across 2026. Download the editable templates that goes with it. #CFO #CashFlow #StartupFinance #FractionalCFO #FinanceLeadership