Startup Runway
Calculator
Most runway calculators divide once and stop. This one projects every month forward, including your revenue growth and any hires you're considering, so you can see whether you reach breakeven before you reach zero.
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Sign up for the dashboard →How is startup runway calculated?
The simple formula is cash ÷ net monthly burn, where net burn is your monthly expenses minus your monthly revenue. That assumes revenue never changes. If your revenue is growing, the simple formula understates your runway, because each month you burn a little less than the last. This calculator projects each month forward instead, which is why the answer above can differ from a single division by several months.
What does default alive mean?
Default alive means your revenue reaches your expenses before your cash reaches zero, so you never need to raise again to survive. Default dead means you run out first. The term comes from Paul Graham. A company can be default dead at one growth rate and default alive at a slightly higher one, which is exactly why growth belongs in the calculation rather than outside it.
How does hiring affect runway?
Each hire adds their fully loaded monthly cost to your expenses, which increases net burn and shortens runway immediately. It also pushes your breakeven month further out, because revenue now has further to climb to cover expenses. Fully loaded means salary plus payroll tax, benefits, equipment and software, typically 1.25–1.4× base salary, so a $8,000/mo salary costs roughly $10,000–$11,000/mo in reality.
How much runway should a startup have?
A common guideline is 18–24 months after a raise, and never fewer than 6 months without a plan. Fundraising typically takes 3–6 months, so runway under 6 months means raising from a position of weakness. Under 12 months is the point at which most founders start preparing materials.
Learn more
Two guides that go deeper than the numbers on this page:
- What is burn rate and how to calculate it: gross vs. net burn, the formulas, worked examples, and the five mistakes that make founders misjudge how much time they have.
- The monthly investor update template: a copy-paste format, what investors actually look for, and the right cadence by stage.