The rate at which a company spends its cash reserves — a critical survival metric for funded startups.
Net burn is total expenses minus total revenue per month. Gross burn is total expenses. Runway is cash in the bank divided by net burn. AI tools reduce burn dramatically by replacing headcount — a solo founder using a full AI stack can often match the output of a 5-person team, extending runway by months without raising additional capital.
Most founders hire out of pain, not strategy. Here's the decision framework for knowing when to bring on a human versus when to build an agent instead.
The era of the bloated 500-person startup is over. How AI is enabling a new class of ultra-lean, massive-scale companies.
Free — The AI Founder Stack
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