Default alive

The company reaches profitability on the money it already has, assuming current growth and spending. Default dead means it does not.

Example

Growing revenue 8% a month with 14 months of runway may cross into profit before the cash runs out — default alive.

Ask this question early, not three months before zero. A default-dead company that discovers it late has no options left.

Runway — How many months your company can keep operating before it runs out of money, at its current rate of spending.
Net burn — Monthly cash out minus monthly cash in. The real rate at which your bank balance falls.
Profitability — Making more than you spend over a period.

Knowing when to change direction — Persistence and stubbornness look identical from the inside. Deciding in advance what would change your mind is the only reliable defence. (12 min)
Should you raise money at all? — Raising is not an achievement, it is a transaction. The first question is whether you need it, and most founders skip it. (12 min)
Venture-backed or bootstrapped? — Two completely different ways to fund a company, with different risks, different speeds and different definitions of winning. Most founders never consciously choose. (12 min)
Should you start a company at all? — An honest look at what it costs, what it requires, and the good reasons not to. Nobody else is going to ask you this. (10 min)
Burn rate and runway — The number that decides whether your company survives. If you learn one thing from this whole Academy, learn this. (12 min)
Scenario planning — Three versions of next year — conservative, base and aggressive — so that a bad quarter is something you prepared for rather than something that happens to you. (12 min)