fuelfinance

Our mission is to make finance cool. 

At fuelfinance we specialize at helping founders cut their burn rates and stop being hostages to their investors. We have developed a startup-focused cloud financial department  that combines the best of free software and financial consulting to provide a fantastic value.

We manage over $200M in total budgets of our clients, and helped dozens of Seed and Series-A stage companies with their financial models, pitch decks, business plans, but most importantly - helped them to reduce burn rates, achieve profitability and accelerate growth by doing one thing extremely well - finance. That’s what we’re passionate about.

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Part-time internship working as a content and community manager and contributor.  Doing market research on various B2B2C verticals in the CIS region

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Anheuser-Busch InBev Ukraine (SUN InBev)

OJS Company "Universal Bank"

CEO & Founder at Fuelfinance / make finance fun

I’m a CFO turned entrepreneur and I help startup founders making their finance function efficient. I believe that financial management is too old for a new economy, and it doesn't take pace with modern business. Monthly reports is not a solution and finance should be easy for founders in order to have a good financial result. So my mission is to make finance sexy.

At fuelfinance we helped dozens of Seed and Series-A stage companies with their financial models, pitch decks, business plans, but most importantly - helped them to reduce burn rates, achieve profitability and accelerate growth by doing one thing extremely well - finance. That’s what we’re passionate about.

Our goal is to save hundreds of thousands of SMBs from bankruptcies and unlock trillions of dollars in GDP growth.

If you can read your Profit & Loss (P&L) statement, you can understand your business.

Here's a simple guide on how you can do it using a real P&L example.

🟨 Yellow stickers on a photo are a step-by-step guide.
These steps will help you focus on important lines.

🟩 Green stickers have details on how you can go deeper with analysis.
For example, what other metrics can you look at to figure out why the change took place? 

📌 Important rule #1: 
P&L should be on an accrual basis! Revenues are recorded when earned and expenses when billed, irrespective of when payment is received or made.

📌 Important rule #2: 
To get more insights, always compare your actual P&L with:
- previous periods
- plan or budget
- the same month the previous year (in case of seasonality)
- operational metrics

📆 How often do you need to analyze your P&L?

Do this task each month, preferably by the 5th day. It can take 1 hour. 
It can be later than the 5th if your monthly closing period is longer.
However, if you wait 20-30 days after the month's end, it’s too late to make decisions for the next month.

May The Profit Be With You,
Alyona 💚

P.S.: link for a high-resolution photo in the first comment. 

Alyona Mysko

CEO & Founder at Fuelfinance / make finance easy for founders

We reached out to 1150 investors, made over 500 calls and spent 5 months closing our seed round

I believe you can’t be 100% prepared for such an experience. 
But here is my short list of tips. 

Sure, I talked to other founders and got many recommendations on how to be prepared for it. But I couldn’t imagine it could be such an emotional rollercoaster after each call or message.

I even googled how to mentally survive during fundraising. And our mission was the best motivation for me all the time, especially after the rejections.

So, here is my list with some numbers and my hints:

1️⃣ We made 35 calls with other founders to get feedback on our pitch deck. It was a huge value and the biggest preparation.

2️⃣ We had 350 warm intros to investors. And we signed 8 of them. Our conversion was 2%.

3️⃣ I used some methods from sales calls, like asking first what the investor was looking for or how they differentiated a great startup from a good one. It helps to understand what is important and build conversation around that.

4️⃣ We also did cold outreach to 800 investors. And we got a 4% response rate and 20 calls. We used Breezy HR to find and reach out to investors. We build a sequence with several follow-ups. It’s actually a hiring CRM, but I liked how easy it is to find the best match with investors by using different filters.

5️⃣ Our data room was pretty simple: deck, legal, demo, go-to-market (or sales and marketing, financials). You can see in a screenshot what we have included.

6️⃣ Financial model. We didn’t make a very detailed or complicated financial model for our data room. You may have seen such models with an endless number of sheets and hundreds of assumptions. I believe that there is no need to do it at the seed stage. You don’t know a lot about your business yet.

7️⃣ We added a small dashboard to our financial model. It included 5 graphs with actuals and plans: MRR, R&D and S&M expenses, MoM %, Net Profit/Loss, SG&A expenses. These graphs helped us see any mismatches and fix them in our planning before investors found them.

8️⃣ We had a more detailed financial model for ourselves, just to understand different what-if scenarios. That helped a lot to answer investors’ questions.

P.S.: If you need a template with the P&L and financial plan we used for our fundraising, just leave a comment. I will send it to you.

*We also help founders prepare all financials for fundraising. Our team created investor-ready reports and financial models that have helped our customers get funding from a16z, Atomico, etc. DM me if you need help with that.

Hope it helps💚

How can one stay motivated after rejections during fundraising?

What are the benefits of having a financial model for fundraising?

Alyona Mysko 🇺🇦

CEO and founder at fuelfinance

I’m a CFO turned entrepreneur and I help startup founders making their finance function efficient. I believe that financial management is too old for a new economy, and it doesn't take pace with modern business. Monthly reports is not a solution and finance should be easy for founders in order to have a good financial result. So my mission is to make finance sexy.

At fuelfinance we helped dozens of Seed and Series-A stage companies with their financial models, pitch decks, business plans, but most importantly - helped them to reduce burn rates, achieve profitability and accelerate growth by doing one thing extremely well - finance. That’s what we’re passionate about.

Our goal is to save hundreds of thousands of SMBs from bankruptcies and unlock trillions of dollars in GDP growth.

Hasan Toor ✪

What do I need in finance at pre-seed, seed stage, or for raising Series A?

You will not believe it, but this is the most popular question.

I heard it hundreds of times from founders.

And more often, I heard how founders made complicated financial models or unit economics at the pre-seed stage.

🟩 Please don’t waste your time on inappropriate financial calculations.
Instead, focus on sales or product development.

Each financial report should come at the right time.

1️⃣ At the $0-$250k revenue stage, your focus in finance is runway and burn rate. You need to give yourself enough time and runway to find a product-market fit.

2️⃣ When business, team, and revenue grow, you add more KPIs, plans, and analytics. And you do it because you have a huge value for that.

Finally, you hire the best people, and you delegate more and more staff to them.
You need to explain and show how their KPIs impact financial results.

So, you already have not just cash flow planning, but also financial modelling, KPI planning, and benchmarks.

3️⃣ Moreover, with every next stage, you have more questions about your business. 

And three reports or an easy financial plan are not enough.

That’s why you go deeper, do more calculations, and collect more data in sales and marketing, about your customers and products.

4️⃣ And before raising Series A, you already should have answers about your Unit Economics.

For example:
▫️what types of customers have a higher LTV/CAC and you want to scale?
▫️what marketing channels bring you the most results?

So, I made this Cheat Sheet to explain what you need in finance at each stage.
Hope it saves you time. 
👇🏼 P.S.: link to an HD cheat sheet is in the first comment

May The Profit Be With You,
Alyona💚

Why is collecting data in sales and marketing important for startups?

What are some examples of Unit Economics?

The story goes that a 3x LTV/CAC is the ideal benchmark for startups.
But why should you care about this ratio?

🟩 Spoiler: higher LTV/CAC → higher margins → higher valuation 

In other words, you should get 3x more from the customer than you spend to acquire them. 

With this ratio, you should aim to cover all other expenses (R&D, SG&A) and potentially be profitable.

A higher valuation is good motivation.
Also, calculating your Unit Economics (LTV/CAC) can help with many questions:

▫️ Should I increase or decrease our marketing spending?
▫️ On what type of customer should we focus for scale?
▫️ What marketing channels are more efficient?

In theory, LTV/CAC calculations look easy before you really start calculating them.

🟧 Here are the top 6 calculation errors we observed at Fuelfinance after working with hundreds of startups:

1️⃣ Not including sales and marketing tool costs in the CAC

2️⃣ Take ARPU for LTV and not multiply it by the Gross Profit Margin

3️⃣ Mistake in Gross Profit Margin Calculation. Here, you can find more: https://lnkd.in/dZC9sr_x 

4️⃣ Not take into account the average sales cycle. If it exceeds a month, include expenses accordingly.

5️⃣ Use average numbers, not median values, for churn rate or revenue in cases when you are dealing with major outliers.

6️⃣ Do only average LTV/CAC calculations without cohorts. Cohorts are groups of users with specific criteria, like sign-up month or marketing channel. It helps to choose focus.

Hope you will avoid them.

⏳ Timing: It’s reasonable to calculate LTV/CAC on a seed stage, before raising Series A. Or when you have good traction. 

On a screenshot is a dirty and fast LTV/CAC template.
👇🏼 Comment if you need this template, and I will send it to you.

It’s not a full solution.
You also need cohorts to make it right.

May The Profit Be With You💚
Alyona Mysko

What are the common LTV/CAC calculation errors?

How can LTV/CAC calculations help with marketing decisions?

Who am I going to see in Austin next week?

Alina Hura and I are getting our cowboy hats ready for SaaStock on May 14-15.

🎁 Also, we have 2 extra tickets to give away.
Simply comment with 🤠. I'll randomly choose 2 winners this week.

See you in Austin! 👋
#saastock 

What finance topics do you find most interesting? 

Or what financial challenges does your business face?

These could include runway, financial modeling, benchmarks, bootstrapping, cost cutting, fundraising, investor reports, KPIs, cash flow planning, marketing budgets, valuation...

Please share your thoughts in the comments. 

Your feedback will shape my future content. 
And it will be a HUGE help for me. 

🎁Bonus: will send this financial hoodie in the photo to one commenter.

May The Profit Be With You💚
Alyona

What are some common financial challenges businesses face?

What are some effective fundraising strategies for businesses?

What are some best practices for financial modeling?

No alternative text description for this image

Have you seen "The Wolf of Wall Street"?

If so, you know the type of salesperson we need 😎

Ambitious, quick-thinking, really want to sell, love to talk with customers, and can't wait to jump on sales calls—and, let's be honest, money-driven.

We have a fast-paced environment and want someone who can convert leads into deals with no hassle.

A passion for finance is a must. 
Our mission is to save hundreds of thousands of startups from bankruptcies and unlock trillions of dollars in GDP growth. 

If it drives you, DM me.

The good bonus - you can become a financial guru with our team.

Please share this post with any great salespeople who can be a match for us.

👇 Find details in the first comment 

What are the key traits of a successful salesperson?

How important is finance knowledge for a salesperson?

I know that sometimes all founders feel that only them have all these financial problems. But believe me, after seeing the financials of hundreds of startups, I can say that all have the same challenges. 

That's why I decided to host a closed workshop/meeting for early-stage startup founders in finance. 

We've conducted similar workshops with Techstars, Founders Network, and several VCs in the past few months. We got plenty of positive feedback from the founders. 

This workshop is also inspired by one great story that happened at Fuelfinance.
We once introduced two startup founders at different stages but with similar business models. 

One was facing financial issues that the other had already overcome. 
A single call saved this founder hundreds of thousands of dollars.

🟩 So, I plan to host a special meeting without recording. 
It will be experimental, with a small group of founders. So seats are limited. 

The goal is to discuss financial challenges live:  
- runway, 
- cost-cutting, 
- fundraising, 
- marketing budgets, 
- founder salaries, 
- financial planning

Sometimes, just talking to other founders helps. 

👇 If you are an early-stage founder and interested in joining this workshop/meeting on April 30, please leave a comment or write me. 
I will share the details with you.

May The Profit Be With You💚
Alyona

What are the best fundraising strategies for early-stage startups?

What is the best way to determine founder salaries for early-stage startups?

What are the key components of financial planning for early-stage startups?

I saw hundreds of startups.
Founders often fall into 4 financial pitfalls.
Here’s how to overcome them:

1️⃣ Not Knowing What to Look At
You have data everywhere: Hubspot, Quickbooks, Stripe, Google Ads….
And it’s overwhelming to get a piece of mind out of it.

Here is a deal:
▫️always know your Burn Rate and Runway - this is MUST
▫️choose your biggest challenge for the next quarter/month
▫️choose your top key metrics connected with your challenge (Revenue, GMV, # of new users, etc.)
▫️use plan/actual analysis to track the progress for these metrics

Ideally, consolidate all the data in one place and get one dashboard with your top metrics. At Fuelfinance, we see how it makes a founder's life much easier.

2️⃣ Not Checking Your Data Often Enough
Once you have your numbers, how often should you check them?

Here's my suggestion:
▫️ Check high-level KPIs and your weekly progress to achieve monthly plans. 
I check these top 3 metrics every week: new MRR, retention, and # of MQLs.
If you have a runway <6 months, then check it every week.

▫️ Do a deep dive once a month into your P&L, all KPIs, analyze/plan actual deviations, and update your financial plan

▫️ Lastly — do a quarterly review to analyze all long-term projects and their results.

3️⃣ Underrepresenting Expenses

Founders often feel too busy to track expenses diligently.
But be careful.
Startup expenses can be unpredictable.

📌 Be aware of how a new expense or hire will impact your RUNWAY. 
Try to play with your cash flow planning and different what-if scenarios. 

Don’t forget to plan your tax payments (usually every year) and 
additional one-time services, like a CPA.

To prevent larger mishaps, reserve about 10% of your budget for unexpected costs.

4️⃣ Overly Optimistic Revenue Forecasts

Founders overestimate their revenue by 22% on average.
Your business might end up being huge, but don’t mortgage your future on it.
You run the risk of major cash flow problems.
Always have several scenarios of your revenue forecasts for making decisions. 

And May The Profit Be With You💚
Alyona Mysko

What impact does data analysis have on financial planning?

How can cash flow planning benefit startups?

Stop trying to make decisions using only three financial reports.

Glancing at your P&L isn’t going to cut it.

Here's what you should do instead:

1️⃣ Get clear on your financial goals.
Are you trying to increase revenue? 
Decrease burn? 
Become profitable? 
What is your focus for the next quarter or year?

2️⃣ Evaluate results across every expense category.
This is where I see a lot of founders go wrong. 

You won’t figure out how to reach your goals by simply looking at your prior spend. The real answers come from understanding which expenses are efficient (and inefficient).

There are two types of additional analysis:

▫️ Plan vs. Actual: This reveals how your projected outcomes from certain actions compare to the actual results achieved. This shows you what to adjust for the next period.
▫️ Expense Efficiency Evaluation: Match spent resources (like time and money) with output. This gives you a clear picture of the efficiency of your expenditures.

📌 Example: to grow your revenue, you need to understand what your primary marketing and sales drivers were. 
Compare spend against funnel data like leads and conversions.
Without this, you’re speculating that your spending will generate the results you want.

3️⃣ Extract actionable insights.
Now you have the roadmap. 
You’re able to see that $X in paid ads generated Y leads and led to Z conversions.

You can pause the inefficient channels and double down on what’s proven to work. That’s how, even with the same resources, you can achieve better results.

🟢 You maintain financial data not to look at a dashboard, but to improve your outcomes.

To make the right calls, you need to have a full picture of your financial data. 

Don't guess what happens down the funnel. Know it.

And May The Profit Be With You,
Alyona Mysko 💚

How can founders set clear financial goals?

How can founders identify their primary marketing and sales drivers?

Somehow, I always forget to share what we do at Fuel. Thanks Bill Kerr that you did that 😅

What are some common headaches for startup founders?

🌎 Helping companies hire global talent at Athyna 📚 30k founders, investor and leaders in tech read my newsletter Open Source CEO 🦄 Investor in interesting & important things

I met the founder of a startup solving one of the biggest founder headaches in the world the other day—chaotic financials. 
 
If you are like me you probably have headaches with this stuff. 
 
Switching between countless tools to find your P&L, runway, burn. Well—headaches begone!! They built the tool for you. 
 
Anyway, check them out for yourself: https://lnkd.in/e-Gm24x6

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