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Film-style poster for the Cash Runway for Mentors presentation

A guide for mentors: Cash Runway for Mentors

How to send Cash Runway, read the projection and talk it through.

English

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What this guide covers

What it is

How long the money lasts

Your mentee enters cash, costs and growth, and sees how many months the money lasts.

When to send it

Send it before a big cost

It helps most while there is still time to change course.

  • Before a new hire every new cost moves the date
  • Before raising money to know how long there is
  • When growth changes try the new rate

An honest frame

A projection, not a forecast

It carries today’s rates forward for three years and cannot see what will change.

  • Their own rates growth is their best guess
  • Scenarios are cheap change a rate, watch the date move
  • Paul Graham’s question profit before the money runs out?

Sending it

Send it from your pairing

It takes a minute, and your mentee gets an email.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find Cash Runway.

Try it as your mentee

Enter made-up numbers and watch the chart; nothing is saved.

Add a short message

Ask for this month’s bank balance and real costs.

Open your pairing

Choose Assign a tool and find Cash Runway.

Try it as your mentee

Enter made-up numbers and watch the chart; nothing is saved.

Add a short message

Ask for this month’s bank balance and real costs.

Reading the answers

Read the date, then the rates

The month the line drops below zero matters more than the starting cash.

  • Cash lasts months until the balance goes below zero
  • Outlook does revenue overtake costs before that month?
  • The plan they chose cut, grow, raise or a mix; ask why

Questions to ask

Ask about the guesses first

Each rate is a guess, so ask where it comes from before you talk plans.

  • Which assumption moves the answer most? then: how sure are you of it?
  • What would you do if growth halved? then: try it and read the new date
  • When do you need to decide about raising money? then: how long would raising take?

Feedback that helps

Talk about options, not alarm

A short runway is a fact to plan around, so keep the talk on choices.

1 in 3 Over a third of feedback effects lowered performance in one large review Kluger and DeNisi, 1996

One step

One decision with a date

The tool asks what exactly and by when, so agree that date together.

94 Tests found that if-then plans help people reach their goals Gollwitzer and Sheeran, 2006

After the meeting

Keep it all on Mentornity

The numbers, your comments and the next steps stay in one place.

Read it at a glance

How long the cash lasts and the outlook are summed up.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Earlier answers are kept, so you can compare the dates.

Read it at a glance

How long the cash lasts and the outlook are summed up.

Add next steps

Write what will be done, by whom and by when.

Ask to fill it again

Earlier answers are kept, so you can compare the dates.

Check the runway before the next hire

Send it to a mentee who is about to take on a new cost.

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