My Skill Lab
FinanceIntermediate

Startup Finance: Fundraising & Metrics

Runway, unit economics, cap tables and raising money.

Taught by Saroj · Founder, My Skill Lab

What you'll learn

  • Calculate net burn, gross burn and runway, and forecast when you run out of cash
  • Build and interpret unit economics including CAC, LTV, payback period and the LTV/CAC ratio
  • Separate gross margin from contribution margin and use them to judge whether a business model works
  • Read and build a cap table, and compute dilution across multiple financing rounds
  • Choose between a SAFE and a priced round, and model how caps, discounts and pre/post-money interact
  • Translate pre-money and post-money valuation, ownership and option pools into a clean term-sheet decision

About this course

Learn the financial language investors speak and the numbers that actually decide whether a startup lives or dies. This course walks you from cash-in-the-bank survival math through unit economics, gross margin, cap tables, SAFEs, priced rounds and valuation so you can model your business, run a raise, and read a term sheet without getting diluted by surprise. Every concept is taught with concrete formulas, worked numbers, and spreadsheet-ready examples a non-finance founder can use the same day.

Course content

8 lessons
  1. 1Burn and Runway: How Long Until the Money Runs OutThe single most important survival number for any startup, and how to compute it three ways.Preview
  2. 2Unit Economics: CAC, LTV and PaybackWhether you make or lose money on a single customer, and how fast you get your money back.Preview
  3. 3Gross Margin and Contribution MarginThe difference between revenue and profit, and why margin decides what kind of company you are.
  4. 4The Fundraising Ladder: Pre-seed to Series CThe stages of raising money, what each expects, and how much you should raise.
  5. 5SAFEs vs. Priced Rounds: How Early Money Comes InConvertible instruments versus selling equity directly, and how caps and discounts work.
  6. 6Dilution and Cap TablesWho owns what, and how each round and option pool shrinks your slice.
  7. 7Valuation Basics: Pre-Money, Post-Money and Price Per ShareHow a number gets put on your company and how that number translates into ownership.
  8. 8Investor Metrics: Putting It All TogetherThe dashboard investors actually read, and how the numbers connect into one story.