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If you took venture capital, your burn rate is no longer just your number. It is also your investors' number, and they have very specific opinions about what "good" looks like. Here is what they actually evaluate when they look at your monthly update.
When a VC reads your monthly investor update, their eyes go to three numbers in roughly this order:
That is the survival math. If runway is under 12 months and you have not mentioned fundraising plans, you have just made their week harder. They are now wondering when to flag this to their partnership.
Calculate your burn rate, runway, and zero date in 30 seconds.
Open Burn Rate Calculator →Is the dollar amount reasonable for your stage and sector? A $300K monthly burn at Series A in B2B SaaS is normal. The same burn at seed stage is alarming. The same burn at Series B in biotech is low.
Net burn divided by net new ARR added in the same period. This is the efficiency metric.
| Burn multiple | VC interpretation |
|---|---|
| Under 1 | Top decile — likely fundable on demand |
| 1 to 1.5 | Strong — premium pricing |
| 1.5 to 2 | OK for early stages |
| 2 to 3 | Concerning — needs explanation |
| Over 3 | Alarm — fix or face hard markdown |
Months for a new customer's gross profit to equal the cost of acquiring them. A 12-month payback is healthy for most B2B SaaS. Above 24 months is concerning. Above 36 is broken.
Revenue from existing customers, year over year (including expansions and excluding new logos). Above 100% means existing customers grow faster than you lose. Above 120% is exceptional and signals burn is justifiable because the customer base compounds.
Calculate your burn rate, runway, and zero date in 30 seconds.
Open Burn Rate Calculator →Most VCs want to see this format every month, in 5 minutes or less of reading time:
| Section | What to include |
|---|---|
| Headline metric | Net new ARR this month, or runway extended |
| Cash + runway | Bank balance, net burn, runway months, zero date |
| Revenue | MRR, net new ARR, churn, NDR |
| Wins | 3-5 bullets on what shipped or closed |
| Asks | What you need from the investor (intros, hires, advice) |
| Concerns | What is keeping you up at night (be honest) |
The "concerns" section is the part most founders skip. It is the most valuable part. VCs trust founders who name problems early, not founders who pretend everything is fine until the runway alarm goes off.
Sometimes burn legitimately needs to grow. New hires, a product launch, a big marketing test. Frame it like this:
"Burn increased from $180K to $240K this month. Two new engineering hires ($40K) and the launch sprint for [product] ($20K) account for the change. We expect this level through Q3, then expect burn to normalize to $200K once launch costs end. New runway with current cash: 14 months. Fundraise discussions are scheduled for August."
Numbers, attribution, future expectation, plan. Investors love this. They hate surprises.
The discipline of running the burn calculation every month — and being able to explain every line — is what separates founders investors trust from founders they second-guess. The burn rate calculator does the math instantly. The harder work is being honest about what the numbers mean and walking your investors through them with confidence.