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Free field guides, worked examples and practical worksheets for startup fundraising, financial planning, investor conversations and portfolio support.

A luminous calendar ribbon connects available cash to future operating milestones.

Financial Planning

Cash Runway: Plan Your Startup Fundraising Timeline

Calculate startup cash runway with a worked example, then build a fundraising calendar with preparation, review, and fallback decision checkpoints.

Free field guide · Finta Editorial Team

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30 guides to explore

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Pitching

How to Write a One-Sentence Pitch

Write a clear one-sentence startup pitch. Use annotated examples and a practical exercise to explain your customer, their job, and your approach.

Small customer groups assemble into nested translucent market layers.

Financial Planning

Bottom-Up Market Sizing: A Startup TAM Worksheet

Build a bottom-up startup market estimate from customer counts and revenue assumptions. Use a source register and a copyable TAM worksheet.

Glass customer, payer, and delivery forms connect into a business-model loop.

Fundraising Foundations

Startup Business Models: Explain Yours to Investors

Explain your startup business model to investors with a worksheet covering the customer, payer, pricing, revenue, delivery costs, and evidence.

Translucent planning blocks branch into three cash scenarios.

Financial Planning

Startup Financial Model: Assumptions and Scenarios

Build a startup financial model around cash timing, explicit assumptions, and scenarios. Use a worked example and a copyable assumptions register.

A luminous resource pool divides into distinct operating milestone blocks.

Financial Planning

Use of Funds: Build a Startup Fundraising Plan

Connect your startup use-of-funds plan to work, owners, and milestones. Use a worked allocation and a copyable funding-plan worksheet.

Two funding paths balance staged customer growth and outside capital.

Fundraising Foundations

Bootstrapping a Startup vs. Venture Capital

Compare bootstrapping and venture capital through cash timing, growth goals, ownership, and team capacity. Build a practical funding-fit brief.

A central support hub connects several distinct portfolio-company work areas.

Advisors & Portfolio Support

Venture Capital Platform: Build a Portfolio Support Program

Design a venture capital portfolio-support program with a service menu, founder intake, prioritization, and clear ownership of the next action.

Two complementary work areas represent founder ownership and advisor support.

Advisors & Portfolio Support

How to Choose a Startup Fundraising Advisor

Choose a startup fundraising advisor with a scope checklist, interview questions, and reference scorecard. Match support to your actual bottleneck.

Finance planning and investor preparation connect through a shared handoff.

Advisors & Portfolio Support

Fractional CFO vs. Fundraising Advisor

Compare fractional CFO and fundraising advisor responsibilities. Map finance ownership, preparation, and follow-through in a scoped engagement brief.

A meeting conversation resolves into a clear recap and next-step card.

Investor Conversations

Follow-Up Email After a Meeting: Investor Templates

Write an investor follow-up email after a meeting with a clear recap, requested materials, and next step. Includes annotated founder templates.

A quiet message path moves toward a respectful final checkpoint.

Investor Conversations

Follow-Up Email After No Response: Founder Templates

Follow up when an investor has not replied. Use founder email templates, a decision tree, and respectful stopping points without fake urgency.

Activity signals separate from a smaller set of supported customer evidence.

Fundraising Foundations

Vanity Metrics vs. Startup Traction

Separate vanity metrics from startup traction. Build an evidence worksheet with clear definitions, cohorts, time periods, and useful next tests.

A glass customer unit reveals revenue, delivery costs, and remaining contribution.

Financial Planning

Unit Economics for Startups: A Worked Example

Understand startup unit economics through a worked per-customer example. Define revenue, direct costs, and contribution without relying on benchmarks.

Channel spending flows into clearly defined new-customer units.

Financial Planning

Customer Acquisition Cost: A Startup Calculation Guide

Calculate startup customer acquisition cost with clearly defined inputs and a worked example. Separate channels, timing, and small-cohort uncertainty.

Customer evidence tiles assemble into a product-fit assessment.

Fundraising Foundations

Product-Market Fit: Build an Evidence Checklist

Build a product-market fit evidence checklist around customer behavior, repeat use, and willingness to pay. Turn assumptions into practical tests.

Investor questions connect to an orderly archive of supporting sources.

Fundraising Operations

Startup Due Diligence Questions: Build an Investor FAQ

Prepare answers to startup due diligence questions with an investor FAQ. Track each answer, its evidence, owner, access level, and review date.

A presentation and rehearsal sequence lead to a prepared investor conversation.

Pitching

Investor Pitch Preparation Checklist

Prepare for an investor pitch with a practical checklist, rehearsal log, and meeting brief. Link claims to evidence and plan the next conversation.

Question forms connect to supporting evidence and open-question markers.

Investor Conversations

Questions Investors Ask Startups

Practice the questions investors ask startups. Use an answer worksheet to connect claims, evidence, unknowns, and the next fact to verify.

A central glass memo gathers evidence, assumptions, and distinct risk blocks.

Pitching

Investment Memo: A Startup Example and Template

Build a startup investment memo using an illustrative example and copyable template. Keep facts, assumptions, risks, and open questions distinct.

A readiness checklist connects prepared materials to the next gap to close.

Fundraising Foundations

Startup Fundraising Checklist: Are You Ready?

Use a startup fundraising readiness checklist to assess your story, operating evidence, materials, capacity, and next gap-closing actions.

Several fundraising workstreams align on an ordered calendar ribbon.

Fundraising Operations

Startup Fundraising Plan: Timeline and Weekly Actions

Create a startup fundraising plan with a round brief, timeline, workstreams, owners, and weekly decisions. Keep the plan connected to cash constraints.

A lead-investor node coordinates distinct co-investor conversation paths.

Investor Conversations

Lead Investors vs. Co-Investors

Understand lead investors and co-investors with a practical role map. Clarify decision process, coordination, and responsibilities for your round.

A glass funding-ask slide connects resources to operating milestones.

Pitching

Pitch Deck Ask Slide: Examples and Worksheet

Build a clear pitch deck ask slide with annotated examples. Connect the proposed amount, operating milestones, timing, and supporting use-of-funds plan.

A concise teaser and a larger slide set sit at separate sharing checkpoints.

Pitching

Teaser Deck vs. Pitch Deck: What to Send When

Decide when to send a teaser deck or full pitch deck. Use a materials-sharing map, permission checklist, and clear next steps for investor conversations.

A customer path connects a focused offer, channel, and test result.

Fundraising Foundations

Go-to-Market Strategy for Startups: A Practical Worksheet

Build a startup go-to-market strategy with a customer, channel, offer, and experiment worksheet. Test one useful route before scaling the plan.

Distinct alternatives sit in a layered comparison with visible trade-offs.

Fundraising Foundations

Competitive Analysis for Startups: An Investor-Ready Worksheet

Create an investor-ready startup competitive analysis. Compare real alternatives, customer trade-offs, evidence, and the next research question.

A glass pipeline connects conversation stages to human-owned next actions.

Fundraising Operations

Fundraising Pipeline: Stages and Weekly Review

Define fundraising pipeline stages and run a useful weekly review. Track evidence, blockers, owners, and next actions rather than counting activity.

An update card brings progress, consistent metrics, and useful requests together.

Fundraising Operations

Shareholder Updates: A Startup Update Template

Write a useful shareholder update with a worked startup example and template. Connect progress, consistent metrics, cash context, risks, and specific asks.

An ordered set of field-guide artifacts forms a practical learning path.

Advisors & Portfolio Support

Startup Accelerator Curriculum: A Fundraising Learning Path

Design a startup accelerator fundraising curriculum with practical artifacts, an ordered learning path, review checkpoints, and resource maintenance.

Essential guides

Keep building with our most useful fundraising resources.

Fundraising

How to Create a Pitch Deck: A Guide and Slide Template

Plan a clear startup pitch deck with a copyable slide worksheet, a worked example, and a checklist for evidence, readability, and the fundraising ask.

Fundraising

How to Find Startup Investors: A Practical Guide

Find startup investors who fit your company, then turn source-checked research into a focused shortlist and a clear next conversation.

Investor relationship map connecting a founder to investors through advisors, operators, and direct relationships.

Fundraising

How to Build an Investor Relationship Map Before You Raise

Build an investor relationship map that separates target fit from path evidence, records connector permission, and creates a next action you can defend.

Fundraising

How to Ask For Warm Investor Introductions

What Are You Using For Your Introduction Emails?

A due diligence document checklist organized into a structured fundraising data room.

Data Rooms

Startup Data Room Checklist for Investor Due Diligence

Build a fundraising data room checklist around the diligence stage, document sensitivity, responsible owner, current status, and evidence limitations.