Guide · 7 min read
A financial model for investors: what they look for
An investor reads your model to understand three things: what you assume, how the money will be used and when the business stands on its own. They rarely check every cell. They check whether the assumptions are believable and whether you understand your own numbers.
- Put assumptions on top, not hidden inside formulas
- Show runway and the use of the round month by month
- Have a pessimistic scenario ready before you are asked
- A one-page summary in words beats a 40-tab spreadsheet
Assumptions first
Price, conversion, churn, salaries, cost of goods. Each should be a visible input with a source: your pilot data, competitors, market research. The AI assistant in FinModel attaches sources to market figures it finds.
Unit economics
Show the contribution per customer or order, CAC, LTV and CAC payback. Investors want to see that each unit earns money and that growth does not need endless cash. See our guide to unit economics.
Runway and use of funds
Month by month: how the round is spent on hiring, marketing and product, and when cash runs out if nothing else happens. A typical seed round should give 18–24 months of runway.
Scenarios
Base, optimistic and pessimistic. The pessimistic one matters most: it shows whether you survive if sales come later than planned.
A summary in words
One page: what the business does, key numbers by year, break-even month, how much you raise and what for. FinModel creates an investor PDF report with conclusions in words, charts and yearly totals, plus an Excel export for analysts.