Startup Burn Rate & Runway Calculator

Managing Cash Runway and Venture Milestones

Cash runway represents the number of months a venture-backed or bootstrapped enterprise can operate before exhausting available bank reserves. Because enterprise fundraising and strategic M&A cycles routinely require 4 to 6 months to execute, founders should maintain at least 12 to 18 months of validated runway.

Verify the static runway calculation

With 450,000 cash, 38,000 monthly expenses, and 12,000 monthly revenue, net burn is 26,000 per month. Dividing 450,000 by 26,000 gives about 17.3 months of static runway. Change expenses to 42,000 while keeping revenue fixed and runway falls to 15 months. This comparison helps show how sensitive the estimate is to a spending assumption.

The displayed runway assumes constant monthly revenue and expenses. The revenue-growth input does not change this static calculation. The depletion date uses a rounded month count rather than daily cash flows. If revenue covers expenses, there is no depletion under these fixed assumptions; this does not guarantee that the business will always have cash. The model excludes invoice timing, debt payments, one-off costs, and changes in revenue.