Hey Reader,
I had a conversation with a client this week about runway. It’s one of the most critical decisions an early-stage founder makes, yet nearly everyone confuses the variables.
They think “My runway is 6 months” — and that’s it.
But there are two fundamentally different runways you need to track:
1/ Personal Runway (Your Savings)
This is the money that covers your living costs.
Many founders treat their startup like a Hollywood movie: they quit their job, deplete their savings, and go “all-in.” This adds unnecessary layers of risk, stress, and desperation. Launching a startup is hard enough without wondering if you can pay rent next month.
I rarely work with founders who go all-in too early. You can successfully launch, validate, and build initial traction on 15 hours a week while maintaining your main income. The unnecessary stress of a limited personal runway blinds you to good strategy.
2/ Project Runway (The Investment)
This is the money you invest into the business, outside of yourself.
It covers people, marketing experiments, tooling, and engineering costs. This is the only runway that matters for achieving Product-Market Fit.
You need a clear 6 to 12 months of this runway, because there is a 0% chance you will find PMF faster than that.
The only universal rule for any type of runway: don’t burn precious money on “nice-to-have” features or vanity marketing
Speak soon, — Dmitry
P.S. My whole job is to help you ruthlessly optimize this second runway. I focus on finding the single, fastest, cheapest path to a paying customer. Book a free 30-minute strategy call.