Free calculator · Venture & Startup Finance
Financing Need, Sizing the Raise
Calculates how much a startup needs to raise, the cumulative net burn to the next milestone plus a minimum cash floor minus cash on hand. Inputs are monthly net burn, months to the milestone, the minimum cash floor, and current cash on hand.
By Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA · Teaching Professor of Finance, Santa Clara University · Reviewed August 2026
From the author: Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA teaches finance at Santa Clara University and works with corporate teams on practical AI.
AI training for finance teams · Consulting · The 10 Laws of Finance
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Financing Need, Sizing the Raise
Financing need
$1.45M
amount to raise
Runway today
5.3
months at current burn
Cumulative burn
$1.80M
burn × months
+ Minimum cash
$0.45M
safety floor
− Cash on hand
$0.80M
already in bank
Financing need = cumulative net burn to the milestone + minimum cash − cash on hand. Raise for 18–24 months of runway, because the next round itself takes 3–6 months to close.
Learn the concept
This calculator comes from the free Entrepreneurial Finance course, where the concept is taught with readings, worked examples, and practice questions.
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Built by Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA, Teaching Professor of Finance at Santa Clara University.