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How Much Do You Need to Raise?

Enter your monthly costs, current revenue, and expected growth rate. The calculator outputs your estimated raise, monthly burn, time to break-even, and total runway needed.

Monthly costs

  • $
  • $
  • $
  • $
  • $
Total monthly costs$37K

Revenue & growth

$5K
10% / mo
3 months

Your results

Estimated raise needed

$524K

covers burn to break-even + 3-month buffer

Current monthly burn

$32K

Time to break-even

21 months

Total burn before B/E

$415K

Total runway needed

23 months

Monthly burn trending to zero

Month 1Break-even (Month 21)

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Case study - a real scenario

How a B2B SaaS founder used this framework to size their seed round.

The situation

A two-founder SaaS company selling compliance software to mid-market HR teams. They had 3 paying customers at $1,500 MRR each, closing a 4th. Monthly costs were $36,500 - mostly two senior engineering salaries and a part-time sales hire.

The inputs

  • Staff & salaries$28,000
  • Rent & office$2,500
  • Marketing$4,000
  • Software & tools$2,000
  • Current MRR$4,500
  • Monthly growth rate12%

The output

Raise needed

$415K

Break-even at

Month 19

Total runway

22 months

They raised $500K at a $3.2M pre-money valuation - slightly above the calculator figure to give room for a second sales hire. They hit break-even at month 17, two months ahead of plan.

What the founder learned

Raise to a milestone, not a time period

The $415K figure was anchored to break-even, not "18 months of runway." Investors respond better to milestone-based asks because it shows capital discipline and a clear outcome.

Growth rate is the most sensitive input

Dropping assumed monthly growth from 12% to 8% pushed break-even from month 19 to month 27 and raised the required capital by $180K. Conservative assumptions protect you in diligence.

Target investors at your check size

A $500K seed round means targeting angels and micro-VCs writing $50K - $250K checks, not Series A funds. Getting stage fit right cut their outreach list from 180 contacts to 40 - and close rate went up.

Next step: shortlist investors

Segment the dataset by investment stage, investment interest, and location, then access verified contacts and exports on subscription.