The only financial metrics that matter before your seed round
Burning cash is not a bug, but confusing it with growth is. The four numbers that matter at pre-seed: revenue, burn, runway, and retention. How to measure them weekly, and which vanity metrics to ignore.
TL;DR: One dashboard, four numbers: revenue, net burn, runway, and revenue again. Update Friday. Whatever else you track is fine, but the pitch, the hiring, and the round all move on those four.
Why metrics matter more than the round
The seed investor asks for metrics because the metrics outnumber the story. A founder who knows their own weekly numbers answers instantly; a founder who guesses stares at the ceiling. It shows in two minutes.
The four numbers
1. Revenue. Money in, from paying customers. Not signups. Not a letter of intent. Cash received, recorded the week it arrives. When revenue is flat, that is data — the whole point of tracking it weekly is that the flat weeks are as visible as the good ones.
2. Net burn. Cash out minus revenue in, per month. The one number investors model the whole timeline around. The cost side: payroll, tools, hosting. Run it at the company level and per month.
3. Runway. Cash in the bank divided by net burn. When runway is six months, negotiations happen with patience. At two months, the story becomes the round. Knowing it weekly means never learning it by crisis.
4. Churn. The share of paying customers who cancel in a month. If churn grows, the revenue line is a lagging indicator of the trend churn set three months ago. Churn is the only metric that explains why revenue behaves the way it does.
The dashboard
A table, weekly, with the number and the week-over-week delta, sent to the co-founders (or to yourself). Update it Friday, with the month behind briefly explained. This does not require a tool; a sheet is enough. The discipline is the part that matters.
The bad news rule
A metric that surprises the team once a quarter becomes a meeting. A metric that never surprises you every Friday becomes a compass. The investor updates are built from the same sheet: the three numbers you email monthly are these numbers, and the financial slides are the same, six months later.
Where runway and the fund fit
The round you raise pays for the runway your story needs. The deck's financials are this sheet, projected 18 months, but the credibility is the history: the only proof the projection wants is the four numbers tracked weekly for the last twelve Fridays. That is exactly what the pitch makes public.
Frequently asked questions
What is runway and how do I calculate it?
Runway is the number of months your current cash will carry you at your current burn rate. Divide the cash in the bank by the monthly net burn. That single number decides most deadlines in an early startup.
What is burn rate?
Burn is money leaving the company each month. Gross burn is everything you spend; net burn is that minus any revenue coming in. At pre-seed, net burn is the number everyone looks at.
Which metrics should I track weekly?
Revenue, runway, and churn if you have paying customers. Update them every Friday, in the same place, every week. Weekly hygiene beats monthly polish, because surprises surface before they become crises.
What vanity metrics should founders ignore?
Download counts, signup totals, and page views when unpaired with retention and revenue. The one number that never lies at seed stage is the rate of people voluntarily giving the company money.