I lived in this world of fictitious forecasting and could have used this article to help better understand and communicate realistic expectations to our internal team and the PE sponsor. Well written and should be required reading for any new founder or executive!
The interesting part often begins when reality stops cooperating with the spreadsheet.
That's when you find out whether the founder understood the assumptions underneath it, and whether they're willing to revise them.
A good model shows how you expect the business to work.
What you do when it doesn't says much more.
Investors buying your thinking instead of your forecast reframes the whole exercise.
The model surviving past the round is the part I had to learn the hard way. Mine only became useful when I could trace revenue back to an input.
I’ve seen spreadsheets built for the raise and never opened again once the money landed. That usually tells you what they were really for.
I lived in this world of fictitious forecasting and could have used this article to help better understand and communicate realistic expectations to our internal team and the PE sponsor. Well written and should be required reading for any new founder or executive!