Startup Finance II Burn · Runway · Fundraising 101
On July 11 you guessed your CAC. On July 21 your funnel derived it. Today that number decides how long you live — and how much you raise.
Deliverables today
FS Part 2 + Fundraising Planner
TEAM · due 3:00 PM via ALICE · same FS file, three new tabs
Pre-flight check
Your FS file is open and your CAC cell holds the derived number from your GTM homework — not the July 11 guess.
No derived CAC = you build on fiction today, and I'll say so.
Keys
← → chapters · T timer · R reset chapter · F fullscreen · N notes Phones: ‹ › to move · Team button = storyboard canvas (Session 6)
The hook · your date of death
Every startup has a clock. What does yours say?
☕ Kape Kalye (fictional)
Cash in the bank ₱800,000
Net burn ₱95,000 / month
₱800,000 ÷ ₱95,000 = 8.4 months
One division. That's all a death date is.
❓ So — what month do they start raising?
Post a month number in chat. Commit before I reveal.
A raise takes 4–6 months from first meeting to money in the bank. So you count backwards from zero, not forwards from today.
8.4 − 6 = month 2.4
You start now. Wait until the account looks thin and the money arrives at a funeral.
Running out of cash is the most common way a startup dies — and the only cause of death you can see coming with one division.
⏰ THE DEATH CLOCK BOARD — commit your guess
Each team, post in chat: "assume ₱500,000 in the bank — how many months does OUR startup survive on current assumptions?" A number, or ? for no idea. I type it on your card.
Everyone starts from the same ₱500,000, so at the checkpoint your computed number sits next to your guess on the same basis — the gap is real, not a currency trick.
"No idea" is honest — type ? — but it goes on the board too.
Live build · same milk-tea shop, one new question
The Burn & Runway Simulator
cold-call the guess, THEN reveal — the math builds on screen
Month 1 — money OUT vs money IN
₱81,700 out − ₱36,000 in = ₱45,700
NET BURN — the number investors ask for. You met it July 11: it's the month-1 loss.
War chest
–
standardized ₱500k for every team — real capital goes in the comment cell
Static runway
–
cash ÷ month-1 net burn
Verdict
–
Lowest point
–
Start fundraising by
–
death month − 6 · raising takes 4–6 months
Cash left at the end of each month — watch for the turn
The levers (live after the build)
The stress test · find your killer
Three punches. Which one knocks the shop out?
Base case first (green bars: the shop survives). Then press ONE punch at a time — the bars take the hit, and the verdict card tells you if it lived. Your FS Stress Test tab does exactly this with YOUR numbers.
Cash left each month — BASE CASE
What this teaches
The punch that hurts most is your KILLER ASSUMPTION — the number the panel will attack on Aug 8.
–
Why isn't it CAC? Because the punches aren't the same size.
Ch.3's play moved CAC ₱160 → ₱500 — that is ×3.1.
Punch 2 moves CAC ₱160 → ₱240 — that is ×1.5.
So the shock size is itself an assumption — and a panelist can attack it. "Why is 1.5× the right stress on CAC and not 3×?" Have an answer: your own funnel data, a competitor's numbers, or a named worst month.
Your killer depends on YOUR model and on how hard the world can plausibly hit each number. The Stress Test tab finds it. The panel will look. Find it first.
…throw all three punches to reveal the killer.
Work time 1 · team · FS Part 2
Find your date of death — FS Tabs 4 & 5
Open your TEAM copy of Startup_FS_Part2.xlsx (link in chat / ALICE) — your Tabs 1–3 carry over.
Tab 4: cash is standardized at ₱500,000 for every team (comparability — note real capital in a comment). Read your net burn, static runway, death month, and the ALIVE/DEAD flag.
Stress Test tab: your three punches are pre-loaded — read the three verdicts and your KILLER ASSUMPTION, then fill "the experiment protecting us".
Post your base-case runway in chat — it goes on the checkpoint board below, next to your blind guess. The delta badge does the talking.
Flag broken numbers early — if Tab 4 looks wrong, the bug is usually a Tab 1–2 cell you overwrote.
⏰ THE CHECKPOINT — guesses meet reality (minute 12)
As runways land in chat, type each team's COMPUTED number here. The delta badge does the talking.
Timer 20:00 — press Start, music on. I'm circulating: institutional teams first (long sales cycles make ugly cash curves — that's information, not failure).
Fundraising 101 · what does evidence buy?
The Stage Ladder — what does your evidence actually buy?
Eight pieces of evidence, straight from ventures like yours. For each: which rung does it actually buy? Argue it out — the criteria are hidden on purpose. Then we reveal both at once.
Ranges are in US dollars — that is how every pitch you will ever give is denominated. Philippine context, 2025: $120M of startup equity funding across the whole year, and zero late-stage rounds. Investors here have moved to governance, unit economics, and a credible path to profit.
EVIDENCE — drag each card to a rung (or tap to move up)
📝 500-person waitlist🤝 signed MOU💳 2 paying clinics💰 ₱30k revenue in 3 weeks⭐ 4.8★ app rating📄 LOI from a division office🧪 signed pilot with success criteria📲 1,000 downloads
SEED · $250k – $1.5M+ — repeatable traction · working funnel · unit economics that survive an audit
PRE-SEED · $50k – $250k — problem/solution proven · early PAYING signal · credible team
VALIDATION · under $50k(grants / FFF) — live beta · learning velocity · demand signals
My read: every team in this room is validation → pre-seed. Not an insult — a coordinate. The honest sentence: "We are at [stage]. The evidence is [X]. The milestone that moves us up is [Y]." Say that to an investor and you sound like a founder, not a student.
Fundraising 101 · who funds this cohort
The Pathway Map — not everyone should raise VC
Half this room's right first money is a grant or a pilot contract, not equity. Click a card to zoom — then drag your own team chip onto the pathway you think is yours.
Grants — equity-free
DOST-TAPI YET: ₱250,000 (college students) · ₱350,000 (young professionals). DTI and LGU innovation funds sit in the same band.
You belong here if…
your venture has a research or deep-tech core
you need ₱200k–₱400k, not millions
you can survive a reporting burden and a disbursement lag
Not free: reporting burden, disbursement lag, scope-lock. Still often the RIGHT first money.
Incubators / accelerators
QBO Innovation Hub · IdeaSpace (~$20k–$50k per startup, for a small equity slice) · Villgro PH (impact)
You belong here if…
your gap is structure, mentors and network more than cash
you can commit real hours to a cohort programme
a few percent of equity for that is a trade you'd make
Cheap equity if the programme is real. Check who their last three alumni actually raised from.
Angels
Manila Angel Investors Network and individual operator-angels — pre-seed cheques, fast decisions relative to funds.
You belong here if…
you have an early PAYING signal, not just interest
your team is the strongest part of the story
you can name the milestone the cheque buys
They're buying belief in the TEAM at this stage. Your stage sentence from the ladder is the pitch.
SAFE — ownership promise at a cap. No maturity, no interest. Fast. Stacks quietly: 3 × $100k on a $1M cap = 30% gone.
Convertible note — a SAFE with a fuse: maturity date + interest. Stall too long and it's DEBT.
Priced round — shares sold at a negotiated valuation, now. Lawyers, board talk: seed and up.
The month-3 co-founder
No vesting: they leave in month 3 and keep 25% forever — dead weight every future investor will price in. The fix costs nothing today: 4-year vesting, 1-year cliff, agreed among yourselves BEFORE anyone asks.
None of this is on the Aug 8 rubric. All of it is on the exam that starts the day after Demo Day.
Work time 2 · team · graded
The Fundraising Planner — your ask, from arithmetic
Two fundable milestones, 18-month horizon — each with the metric that proves it.
THE ASK = avg monthly net burn × months-to-milestone × 1.25. Tab 6 auto-checks it — red flag means justify or fix.
Use of funds — 3–5 lines, sums to the ask.
Pathway + 3 named funders and why each fits (menu on the reference sheet / previous chapter).
Dilution sanity — "raising $__ on a $__ cap → founders keep __%". The ask in dollars, the burn in pesos. Use the Theater's math.
Timer 15:00. Both deliverables submit at 3:00 — FS Part 2 (Tabs 4–6 filled) + this Planner. My table question everywhere: "Why that number? Show me the burn math." FX for the ask: ₱61.65 / US$1(rate as of 17 Jul 2026 — update it the week you pitch).
Wrap · Session 5
Submit — then tell me what kills you
SUBMIT NOW: FS Part 2 + Fundraising Planner → ALICE. TEAM submission — venture name only.
EXIT TICKET (chat / card): "Our killer assumption is ___; if it turns against us our runway is ___ months."
I predict most tickets name growth or CAC — the two cells your funnel homework was built to harden. Whatever yours says: that sentence is your downside talking point on August 8. The panel asks "what if you're wrong?" — you now answer with a month number, not a shrug. Back at 3:30 — Pitching 101: turning eight weeks of evidence into fifteen minutes a panel believes.
Session 6 · 3:30–5:00 PM · Pitching 101
Same venture, two rooms
LigtasPay, an MSME payments startup. Two openings — both GOOD. Vote: which one survives OUR rubric on August 8?
Opening A — built for a panel
"Sari-sari stores lose ~7% of revenue to cash handling — we validated this across 43 store interviews and an 8-week beta with 21 stores. Our pilot data shows ₱180 CAC against ₱740 LTV, tagged and reproducible. Two assumptions remain unproven — repeat-rate beyond 8 weeks, and BSP registration cost — and here is our plan for both."
0
Opening B — built for investors
"1.3 million sari-sari stores move ₱2.4 trillion a year — almost entirely in cash. Every one of them is a future LigtasPay merchant. We grew 40% month-on-month in our beta, and with this round we take the playbook from 21 stores to 2,000. The rails for micro-retail in this country are being built right now — by us."
0
A survives the rubric — it leads with evidence, tags its numbers, and names its own weaknesses before the panel does (that's Communication AND Risk points). B in front of a panel gets shredded — "1.3 million stores" invites the beachhead question and "40% MoM" from a 21-store base invites the sample-size knife. But B is the better investor opening. Neither is wrong — they answer different questions. Aug 8 asks question A. Build for the panel. Cut for investors later. Build once, cut twice.
The frame · Pain Points Gap 11
Defense deck ≠ investor deck — know which room you're in
ask the room to fill each cell before revealing it
THE DEFENSE (Aug 8 — the deck you're building)
THE INVESTOR PITCH (Demo Day — the 10-slide cut)
The question
"Is this feasible, defensible, and honestly evidenced?"
"Could this be huge — and is this the team?"
What counts as evidence
Tagged data, limitations named, method shown
Traction, momentum, market size, speed
Tone
Sober, precise, self-aware
Compelling, urgent, inevitable
Depth
14 slides + 10 appendix slides you hope they open
10 slides, one narrative arc, no appendix needed
What kills you
Bluffing a panelist. Once. That's all it takes.
Being boring. Accuracy without a story.
Cold call — Hope-N-Cope: the panel asks your DepEd compliance cost; an investor asks your school acquisition cost. Which slide answers both? The same FS, framed twice — that's the whole course in one answer. The defense deck is the MASTER. The Demo Day deck is a cut of it. Never build the investor deck first.
Deck anatomy · every slide earns rubric points
The 14-slide backbone — click any slide
≈15-min slot (to confirm) → about a minute a slide. Time Management is a third of your presentation score.
Example headline (a full sentence, not a topic):
How you lose points here:
The 3-year BizPlan · due Aug 5 with the deck
Relax: ~70% of your BizPlan already exists
ask: "who was planning to write this from scratch on August 4th?"
BizPlan section (10)
It's built from…
1 · Executive summary
last — one page distilling everything below
2 · Venture overview + beta traction
Beta Launch Plan + ISJ1/2 validation evidence
3 · Business model & unit economics
FS Tab 1 — updated with post-July-21 beta data
4 · GTM plan
GTM Funnel/Loop homework + derived CAC
5 · Financial plan (Y1 monthly, Y2–3 quarterly)
FS Tabs 2/4/5/6 — plus capital requirements & financing plan (the Planner!)
6 · Implementation roadmap (18 mo)
NEW — milestones/tasks/owners · scores Project Planning & Execution
Session 4 buyer map → resistance, comms, training plan · scores Change Management
9 · KPI dashboard
Session 4 North Star + supporting metrics, with targets & cadence · scores Measurement & Evaluation
10 · Funding plan
Today's Fundraising Planner, verbatim
The 30% that's new — sections 6, 7, 8 — carries 6 of the panel's 12 technical points (Risk Management + Change Management + half of Project Planning). Nobody else teaches them. Template with pre-built tables is in the homework pack. Honesty grading applies: a [G]-tagged Year-3 bounded by a downside beats a confident hockey stick; a risk register that names founder departure beats "competition may increase."
Team sprint · storyboard
Storyboard your deck — 14 frames, full sentences
One canvas per team (paper A3 on tables · remote scribe runs Team mode — top-left button — and screen-shares).
Per frame: the HEADLINE MESSAGE as a full sentence ("CAC of ₱180 is 4.1× covered by LTV", not "Unit Economics") + the evidence going on that slide.
Mark ★ your strongest slide, ⚠ your weakest, ∅ the one you can't fill yet. ⚠ and ∅ are your homework, not your shame.
Use the full 32 minutes — then THE SWAP (next chapter, 5:00): canvases change hands.
Screenshot / photograph your canvas before you leave — your safety copy for tonight's deck work.
Timer 32:00 — Start, music on. QR button releases the student URL now. I'm circulating with one question per table: "read me your slide-9 headline — is that a sentence or a topic?"
The swap · panel practice
Trade storyboards. Attack the ⚠.
Pass your canvas to your paired team. Write ONE panel-style attack question on their ⚠ slide — the form is: "I don't believe ___ because ___." Sign it with your team name — it's a logged participation artifact, and it's a free preview of August 8.
Timer 5:00. The attack you receive is a gift — it's the question you'll now prepare for.
Q&A gauntlet · answer → evidence → implication
The panel simulator
Press FIRE — 60 seconds on the clock
Every question in this machine is real — built from the rubric and from where ISJ2 defenses actually died. One volunteer team takes it live — a second if we're ahead of time.
1:00
AllFeasibilityRiskAdoptionMetricsFinancials
Score the answer — thumbs from the room
Answered first?
0
Evidence cited?
0
Implication drawn?
0
The cadence: Answer → Evidence → Implication, ≤60s. Don't know? Three legal moves: bound it ("between X and Y because…") · bridge to evidence you have · own it ("untested — it's experiment #1 post-defense"). Never bluff. Bluffing is where ISJ2 defenses died.
Homework · the last brief of the course
August 5, via ALICE — then we defend
Final Pitch Deck (team) — the 14-slide backbone ±2, every projected number tagged, ≤10 appendix slides for Q&A.
3-Year Business Plan (team) — the 10-section template; sections 6–8 are where the orphan rubric points live.
Self-Reflection (individual, no identifiers — anonymous marking) + Peer Evaluation.
Rehearse twice, timed, before Aug 5 — one run recorded. Time Management is the cheapest 3 points you can win or lose.
Self-reflection prompts
① The assumption you were most wrong about across ISJ1–3 — and the evidence that changed your mind. ② What you would do differently restarting this venture today. ③ Your honest next step after Aug 8 — continue, pivot, park, or close — and what the decision rests on. 800–1,200 words. Honesty outscores polish here too.
June 27 you audited a pitch. July 11 you guessed a number. July 21 your funnel derived it. Today it became an ask with burn math behind it. August 8 you defend the machine — the deck is just the receipt. Exit ticket: your ⚠ weakest slide + the one fix before Aug 5. It becomes my coaching list for defense week.
Team mode · storyboard canvas (scribe: screen-share this)
Your 14 frames — full sentences, named evidence
Type the headline + evidence per frame. Tap ★ / ⚠ / ∅ to mark. Auto-saves in this browser — still screenshot before you leave (a different device won't have your text). "Copy summary" gives you text to paste into your deck file tonight.
PRESENTER NOTES (N toggles · Popout for a private window)