🎯 Funding Needs Calculator
The two ways to fail at raising money: ask for too little (you run dry and go back embarrassed) or ask for a round number you cannot explain ('$50,000' with no breakdown reads as a guess). A fundable ask is built from four parts: operating costs until revenue, your own survival during the launch, a contingency, and growth capital. Here is yours, itemized.
Rent, tools, marketing, contractors: everything the business burns monthly.
Be pessimistic. Founders guess 3; reality is usually 6 to 12.
If savings or a spouse's income covers you, enter 0. Otherwise the raise must, or the business dies when you do.
15 to 25 percent is standard. Lenders read a contingency line as experience, not padding.
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Estimates for planning, not financial advice. Your real numbers will vary; that is exactly why you track them.
Does this resonate?
A defensible ask needs a defensible plan
The number opens the conversation; the plan behind it closes it. Dee works directly with founders preparing to fund and launch.
Get Dee in your corner →Good questions about this math
Should I really include my personal living costs?
If nothing else covers them, yes, and every experienced lender expects to see it. The most common cause of early failure is not the business running out of money; it is the FOUNDER running out and taking desperate revenue or quitting. SBA lenders in particular look for a realistic owner survival plan.
Does asking for a contingency look weak?
The opposite. A 15 to 25 percent contingency line signals you have done this math before and know launches surprise. What looks weak is coming back 6 months later asking for a top-up, which is exactly what the contingency prevents.
Should I ask for more than I need, just in case?
Ask for what the model defends, including the contingency, and not more. Debt beyond need costs interest for nothing; equity beyond need costs ownership forever. If the plan changes, a well-documented first raise is the best argument for a second one.
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