b2KIT

Startup Runway Planner

Plan startup cash runway with hiring timeline, revenue ramp, and funding milestones on an interactive Gantt-like timeline.

Tested tool guide Tested browser tools Checked August 16, 2026

What Startup Runway Planner does, with a checked example

Runway is how many months your cash survives your burn rate, and the planner exists so you know that number before a hire or a round changes it. You enter starting cash, monthly operating costs, planned hires with start months, a revenue ramp, and funding rounds; the tool lays them on a month-by-month Gantt-style timeline and carries the cash balance forward month by month to the cash-out month. Most people get it wrong: runway is not one number. Every hire start date and funding date moves the cash-out month, and the timeline exists to make those shifts visible. The plan runs entirely in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Worked example

A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.

Input

Starting cash: $100,000. Operating costs: $15,000/month. Revenue: $5,000/month from month 1. Hire: 1 engineer, month 3, +$6,000/month. Funding: none.

Expected output

Runway: 7 months. Cash reaches $0 at the end of month 7. Net burn is $10,000/month for months 1-2 (costs minus revenue) and $16,000/month from month 3 once the hire adds $6,000 to monthly costs.

Each month nets costs against revenue: $15,000 - $5,000 = $10,000 for months 1-2, then $21,000 - $5,000 = $16,000 after the hire. The $80,000 left after two months of $10,000 burn is exhausted by $16,000 per month in exactly five months, so the hire shortens runway from 10 months to 7.

How the result is produced

1

Monthly cash carry-forward

The model starts from your opening balance and walks the timeline month by month. Each month adds revenue and funding receipts and subtracts operating costs plus the salaries of any hires whose start month has arrived. Cash-out is the first month the running balance hits zero. Each input takes effect in its start month rather than being spread evenly across the year.

2

Linked timeline view

Hires, funding rounds, and revenue milestones are drawn as bars or markers along a monthly grid, with the projected cash line and the cash-out month beneath. Because the chart and the cash projection are two views of the same inputs, changing a hire's start month or a round's amount redraws both and moves the cash-out month accordingly. The timeline is the model, not an illustration.

Good uses

  • Deciding how many of the planned hires the current cash can carry before the next round: add hires one at a time and read the cash-out month, and see exactly which hire pushes the plan past the funding date.
  • Stress-testing the revenue ramp: enter a slower ramp, for example revenue reaching $5,000 in month 4 instead of month 1, and watch the cash-out month move earlier, which shows how much of the runway depends on that assumption.
  • Preparing the cash story for investors: funding rounds appear as milestones on the same timeline as the cash-out month, so the plan shows whether the raise lands before the company runs out of money.

Limits and checks

  • Garbage in, garbage out: the runway figure is exact arithmetic, but the inputs are estimates. Salaries quoted without employer overhead (taxes, benefits, payroll fees) or a hire that starts a month late both lengthen the computed runway. Treat the result as an estimate, not a prediction.
  • The revenue ramp and funding dates are assumptions, not commitments. If revenue arrives slower or the round closes late, the real cash-out month comes earlier than the chart shows. The planner computes what you typed; it does not validate your plan against reality.
  • When net burn turns negative - revenue above costs - the balance stops declining and there is no cash-out month to report. A plan with no cash-out month is self-funding under its assumptions, which is not the same as being profitable; a stalled ramp can reintroduce the cash-out month.

Common questions

I already included salaries in my operating costs, so why does the hiring timeline change my runway?

Because each salary starts when the hire starts, not on day one. A yearly budget spreads salary cost evenly across 12 months, which spends the money earlier than it actually leaves the account. The planner charges each hire only from its start month, so the cash-out month depends on when hires begin, not on how many salaries the budget contains.

Can I plan with no revenue at all?

Yes - that is the plainest configuration. With the revenue ramp left at zero, each month subtracts only costs from the balance, and runway reduces to starting cash divided by monthly burn. Most pre-revenue plans are exactly this shape, and adding a ramp later shows how much of the runway the revenue buys back.

References and verification

The example and behavioral notes were checked against the browser implementation. Standards and primary references below define the relevant format, formula, or platform behavior.

Related Tools