Capital, runway and the board

Prepared by Venture Executive Network with editorial reading paths and planning prompts. Updated October 19, 2026.

Use this guide when the leadership team and board need to decide what the company can fund, which milestone the spending supports and what changes if the plan takes longer than expected.

VEN wrote this reading path and the discussion prompts. The linked Playbooks record dated practitioner perspectives. Use current company information and appropriate finance, legal and tax advice for an actual decision.

Connect the resources to a milestone

Start with Running the raise: the fundraising milestone worksheet. The worksheet connects evidence, work, owners, cash timing, sales assumptions and a delay scenario. Its context is preparing a raise; use the relevant fields to explain the resource decision in front of your board.

Keep observed results separate from the forecast. Record what an investment must establish and which spending or hiring commitment changes if that evidence arrives later.

Reinvestment and founder dependence adds a services-business founder’s account of spending commitments that outlasted their expected return. Its editorial worksheet asks what the work earned, which costs remain and what the founder still does. The account provides questions to investigate rather than a standard payback or valuation rule.

Compare obligations under the same assumptions

Read Venture debt when debt is an option. Its comparison worksheet covers availability, fees, warrants, repayment, security, covenants and downside questions. The session’s rate and facility examples retain their historical dates.

Prepare current proposed terms and questions for your advisers. Compare the cash consequences under the same operating assumptions, including a delay. A session example is not a current offer or a recommendation to borrow.

The June debt speaker used an illustration of a business with flat performance that must start repaying principal while another equity raise remains uncertain. Treat it as a downside illustration, not a reported borrower outcome. In your own review, show when cash is available, when repayment starts and what operating work that cash must still support.

VEN editorial delay check: compare the planned milestone date with a later date using the actual proposed repayment schedule. Record the cash commitments that continue during the delay, any draw conditions that still need meeting, the next financing assumption and the spending decisions that would need review. Keep unresolved terms as questions for the finance lead, board and counsel.

Prepare the records behind the decision

Use Data rooms to check the evidence behind financial and company claims. Use Running against the plan to explain a changed target, dependency or resource request.

The readings below help organize information for a decision. They do not provide a complete board-governance process. Confirm the approvals, reporting duties and confidential materials that apply to your company.

Capital decision brief

VEN editorial worksheet. These fields help prepare a discussion with the finance lead, board and advisers.

CAPITAL DECISION BRIEF

Decision and approval required:
Company milestone and evidence of progress:
Current cash position and commitments, with date:
Work and spending required:
Revenue, collection and funding assumptions:
Base case and delay case:
Options and obligations under each:
Spending, hiring or delivery changes each option requires:
Unresolved terms or evidence:
Questions for the finance lead, board and counsel:
Owner, decision date and next review:

For a strategic sale or exit decision, continue to Exits and M&A and The exit process. Those Playbooks retain their own source context and advisers’ perspectives.

Related VEN sessions

Check each listing for the current date, status and access details.

• Board meetings and investor updates: Preparing board discussions and communicating missed targets.
• Venture debt: June 9 session listing: Past session behind the debt Playbook. Ask VEN about recording access.