How To Manage Your Company’s Runway

This is something I’ve had to think about for years. It’s not very fun. You live between the rush of excitement and tension to perform and the knowledge that you definitely can fail and hurt yourself in the process. 

One thing I recommend I wish I knew earlier: if you can, avoid taking money that you are personally liable for. It’s tough to put yourself at such risk. We don’t all have that privilege. I know I didn’t. But, if you do, be happy. You can build and try your hardest without ending up in personal debt. 

I’m navigating through this right now through the effects of COVID-19 on my business. It’s more then that though: it’s hiring to develop technology, focusing on software-as-a-service, and the struggle to focus and find product-market fit.

That leaves me with little room to wiggle in the months ahead. 

A few quick thoughts on the options:

1. You can make more money

2. You can spend less (sadly this means laying off people)

3. You can take on more money (investments or loans)

4. You can quit

Some early resources:

Startup survey: More than 50% of companies have less than 6 months of cash runway to survive – GeekWire
6 Months of Cash – David Lee
Advice for Companies With Less Than 1 Year of Runway: Cash Burn, Decision Making, Staying Alive | Y Combinator
The Fatal Pinch
Do Things that Don’t Scale
How to Get Startup Ideas
Default Alive or Default Dead?
Startup Growth Calculator
How Long is Your Startup Runway?. Being able to calculate runway… | by Corl | Corl | Medium
How Much Runway Should You Raise? · Coding VC
How long before you run out of cash? Your capital runway is the answer