The Founder's Operating Model

You closed the raise.
Now do you know your
real runway?

Most post-raise founders are working from a model built for the deck — not for the next 18 months of decisions. We build the financial operating model your business actually needs.

Real Client — Live Model Snapshot
Seed-stage fintech, 9 months post-raise
Cash at engagement $1.7M
Stated runway 11 months
Modelled runway (real) 7 months
Hires unmodelled 3 senior hires
Board prep time 2 days → 2 hours
Total investment $3,500
14 Working Days Delivery from intake to model
Fully Integrated Model One model, every financial decision
£2,500–£3,500 / $3,250–$4,500 One-time. Yours to keep forever
4 Scenarios Built In Base, Aggressive, Conservative, Disaster

The model you raised on is not the model you need now

The deck was built to impress investors. What you need in the months after closing is something completely different — a model that tells you what to do next.

Runway Miscalculation

Most founders calculate runway as cash divided by last month's burn. That number ignores upcoming hires, quarterly payments, and the revenue gap between plan and reality. The real number is almost always shorter.

The Hiring Trap

A senior hire in London at £90k salary costs £125–140k all-in once employer NI, pension, equipment, and ramp time are included. Three hires like that move your runway by 4–6 months without anyone flagging it.

Actuals vs Plan Blindness

Nine months of real operating data exists — in your bank account. If it isn't flowing into your model and being compared against plan, you're flying blind. By the time problems are visible, you've lost months of response time.

No Scenario Planning

When your board asks "what if revenue is 20% below plan?" or "what does the conservative hiring scenario look like?" — you shouldn't have to rebuild the model from scratch. The answer should be one toggle away.

The Founder's Operating Model

A fully integrated Excel model built from scratch around how your business actually works — every sheet your stage requires, nothing it doesn't. Not a template. Built for you.

01
Assumptions
Seasonality, macro inputs, all controllable variables in one place
02
Sales Funnel
Full funnel model from top-of-funnel activity to closed revenue
03
Staff Plan
Headcount model with all-in costs per role including tax and benefits
04
Revenue
Monthly revenue forecast with capacity constraints modelled
05
Cash Flow
Ending cash, burn rate, and runway month by month — 5 years
06
Scenario Control
Base / Conservative / Aggressive / Disaster — one cell toggle
07
KPI Dashboard
20+ live KPIs across sales, operations, and finance
08
Actuals Input
Enter real numbers — model auto-compares to forecast
09
P&L Statement
Full pro-forma income statement, 5-year view
10
Annual Dashboard
Single-page current-year command centre for weekly use
11
Notes
Model logic, lever explanations, and funnel documentation
12
Services & Costs
Full operating cost breakdown by category and vendor

From Raise to Clarity

A seed-stage fintech founder came to us 9 months post-raise with $1.7M in the bank and a spreadsheet he didn't trust. Here's what we found.

"We have a spreadsheet. I just don't trust what it's telling me."

— Founder, B2B Fintech Startup. 9 months post-raise, $2.5M Seed round

4 Months
Runway shorter than believed — discovered before it became a crisis
2 hrs
Board update prep — down from 2 days of manual rebuilding
3 Hires
All-in cost modelled before any offer was made
$3,500
Total investment for a model used every single day
View Full Case Study →
  • Every Monday morning

    Opens the dashboard. Checks actuals vs forecast on burn, revenue, and headcount. Flags anything more than 10% off plan before the week starts.

  • Monthly board prep

    Runs actuals through the model. Generates scenario outputs. Builds board slides from the KPI tab in under 2 hours.

  • Before every hire

    Runs the all-in cost through the Staff Plan. Sees the runway impact and break-even contribution timeline before making an offer.

  • Investor questions

    "What if revenue misses by 20%?" — flips to Conservative scenario. Answer in 30 seconds.

From intake to walkthrough in 14 days

We do the work before you come to the call — so when we meet, we're reviewing your actual numbers, not starting from scratch.

1

Book the session

Five short questions about your business and finances. Takes 8 minutes. This is your intake.

2

We build your model

We build a first-pass runway and burn model on your numbers. Done within 14 working days.

3

Walkthrough call

We walk you through the model, the scenarios, and what the numbers are actually telling you.

4

Yours to keep

The model is yours. Use it every week, update it as you grow, share it with your board.

Simple, fixed pricing

No hourly rates. No scope creep. You know exactly what you're getting before you commit.

Model Build
£2,500 – £3,500
$3,250 – $4,500 USD
+VAT where applicable · One-time payment
  • Fully integrated operating model
  • 5-year forecast with monthly detail
  • 4-scenario planning module (one cell toggle)
  • KPI dashboard — 20+ live metrics
  • Actuals vs forecast tracker
  • Staff plan with all-in cost per hire
  • 45-minute walkthrough call
  • Delivered in up to 14 working days
  • Yours to keep forever
Book a Free Runway Review

Frequently Asked Questions

Founders who have raised a Seed or Series A round in the last 3–12 months and don't have a dedicated CFO or Finance Director in seat. You're probably managing finances through a combination of your bank account, a bookkeeper, and a spreadsheet you don't fully trust. You're making decisions — on hiring, spending, fundraising timing — without a clear financial picture. This is built for you.
Probably. The question isn't whether you have a model — it's whether it does three things: tracks actuals against your plan monthly, runs multiple scenarios without needing a rebuild, and models the true all-in cost of every hire. Most founder-built models do none of these. The initial walkthrough call is free — if what you have already covers all of this, we'll tell you that and there's no obligation to proceed.
Five things: your approximate cash balance, average monthly burn, average monthly revenue (or pre-revenue), current headcount, and planned hires in the next 3 months. That's it. You provide this when you book the call. We build the first-pass model from those inputs before we speak, so the call is a working session rather than a discovery conversation.
14 working days from the date you provide your inputs to the walkthrough call. If you need it faster, contact us — rush delivery is sometimes possible depending on capacity.
No. We work with founders across the UK, US, Canada, and Europe. The model is built in Excel and works in any currency. Pricing is shown in both GBP and USD. Calls are held over Zoom.
Each month we update the actuals in your model, refresh the scenario outputs, and prepare the financial section of your board update if needed. We're also available for ad hoc questions — hire decisions, burn analysis, investor queries. The retainer requires the Model Build first. It's not a standalone service.
Yes. You book through the link, answer five questions about your finances, and we show up having already done a first-pass on your numbers. If the model we've built isn't relevant or your existing setup is already strong, we'll tell you honestly. There's no sales pressure and no commitment required.

Know your real runway
before your board does

Book a free 45-minute session. We'll do a first-pass on your numbers before we meet — so the call is focused on your actual financial picture, not introductions.

Or email us at info@avvale.co.uk