On Round Funded the runway calculator turns cash in the bank and monthly burn into months left, so the number is not a guess from last month's bank login.

Runway is cash divided by burn. Most founders get the burn wrong.

1. Cash is what is in the bank today, not the raise you hope closes

Cash, burn, months. That is the whole formula. Spreadsheets hide the date.

How I have seen it work:

1. Cash is the bank balance today. Not the round that is almost closed

No ARR, no multiple. You are pricing team, market, and deal heat.

How I have seen it work:

1. Pull 3 to 5 funded rounds at this stage and sector from the last year. Note pre-money, not TAM

On Round Funded the startup valuation calculator turns ARR, growth, sector, and stage into a low / mid / high range, so the number is not a TAM slide.

A pre-seed valuation is a range, not a story.

1. Pull 3 to 5 funded rounds at this stage and sector from the last year

2. If there is no revenue yet, price team, market, and deal heat, not a multiple

Round Funded does not invent the first-call questions. It maps them from what investors actually ask: stage, traction, use of funds, why now, and why you.

The map is a filter, not a script:

1. Pull the questions that show up on a first call at this stage

Most founders prep a pitch. They should prep answers. The first call is five questions, not a 12-minute monologue.

How I have seen it work:

1. Write the five answers the night before, in plain English, with numbers

On Round Funded the first-call question list is what we prep against before a founder walks into the room.

The first investor call is not a pitch. It is a filter. They already skimmed the deck. Now they want to see if you break under a few questions.

On Round Funded the investor CRM is where replies go so they do not die in a Gmail tab.

A raise dies in the inbox. Someone says send the deck. You send it. Then the thread sits under a newsletter, you forget the follow-up, and two weeks later you are reconstructing the raise from memory.

What I do instead:

1. One row per investor, not one email thread

Most decks fail in the first 90 seconds. Not because the company is bad. Because the reader cannot tell what you do, why now, and whether this is their check.

Round Funded reviews a pre-seed deck in one pass against that bar:

1. Can a stranger repeat the problem in one sentence

2. Is there a real product shot, not a metaphor

A first email that sounds like a blast dies in the archive. Angels can smell a 400-person send. The email has to prove you know why them, not why you.

What I send:

1. One line on why this angel: a recent check in your sector, not "I admire your portfolio"