For venture-funded startups, cash runway is leverage. It determines how much time you have to hit milestones, how optional your fundraising conversations are, and how much pressure you’re under when markets tighten or timelines slip. Even as venture funding has rebounded, capital remains selective and valuations are still under scrutiny. Founders who manage cash with discipline are the ones able to raise on stronger terms, or wait until the timing is right.
Extending runway doesn’t mean freezing growth or operating defensively. It means planning for multiple scenarios, understanding how decisions affect burn and liquidity, and using financial tools that give you visibility before problems show up in the bank balance. That’s why we’ve updated Burkland’s Cash Runway Extension Toolkit—a set of practical, founder-friendly resources designed to help you model uncertainty, forecast cash with confidence, and make smarter tradeoffs as your company scales.
Tools to Measure & Maximize Cash Flow
These tools focus on practical ways founders can improve cash flow, cut wasteful spending, and get more mileage out of every dollar.
- Cost-Saving Tips for Startups: Maximize Your Cash Runway
A cross-functional list of cost-saving tips across engineering, HR, sales and marketing, and finance to help startups optimize cash. - Need More Runway? Five Steps to Extend Cash
When looking to extend cash runway, don’t leave many stones unturned. Look critically at your spend and analyze the trade-off between a growth-at-all-costs approach and a more cash-conscious one. - Smart Strategies Fractional CFOs Use to Stretch a Startup’s Cash
From cash flow strategy to cost control, learn how Fractional CFOs help startups stay resilient and runway-efficient. - Improving Collections in a Crisis
Collections process efficiency is especially vital during a financial crisis or downturn. As a startup you need to have as much cash on hand as possible. - 14 Ways to Increase Your Cash Flow
Don’t let cash flow worries keep you up at night. Explore the top tactics to increase your cash flow and secure your financial stability, with this guide from BILL. - How to Calculate Your Startup’s Cash Burn Rate
Calculate your business’s burn rate to better understand your runway and plan accordingly. This guide from Mercury shows you how. - 10 Essential Cash Flow Metrics
Looking profitable isn’t enough. Ramp explains 10 cash flow metrics that show whether your startup can truly operate.
Scenario Planning Tools
Markets shift, timelines slip, and assumptions break. Scenario planning tools help founders model what could happen before it happens, so you can respond deliberately instead of reacting under pressure.
- Three Tools to Extend Your Startup’s Cash Runway
From scenario planning to waterfall analysis, these three tools help founders protect runway and make decisions with confidence. - The Founder’s Field Guide for Navigating a Crisis
This founder’s guide from First Round features valuable advice on extending your runway, reducing burn, and supporting your team during a crisis.
Treasury Management Tools
Idle cash can be a missed opportunity. These tools help founders manage liquidity, reduce risk, and make smarter decisions about where and how cash is held as the business scales.
- How Startups Can Make $1M Per Year Doing Nothing
With interest rates up, startups should evaluate deploying capital they won’t need for a while into interest-bearing instruments. - Dimensions of a Basic Treasury Policy for Venture-Backed Startups
An active approach to treasury management can help startups reduce financial risk while putting excess cash to work. - Sample Treasury Policy Template for Startups
This sample treasury policy template can be customized for adoption by a Board of Directors and implementation by a startup’s management team.
If you’re ready for a strategic finance partner to help you extend your cash runway, Burkland’s fractional CFO team works alongside founders to maximize runway, plan for growth, and position companies for successful raises. Get in touch to see how disciplined financial strategy can give you more leverage at every stage.