---
title: "Financing options and runway"
course: "ENTR 242 · Start your own business"
unit: "Next-stage startup plan"
lesson: 39 of 43
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/start-your-own-business/financing-options-and-runway
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Financing options and runway

Lesson 39 of 43 in **Start your own business** (ENTR 242), unit "Next-stage startup plan". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Distinguish four or five early-stage financing options (bootstrapping, friends and family, crowdfunding, angels or accelerators) by what each costs and what evidence each expects, including what giving up equity (ownership and dilution) means compared with taking on debt.
- Calculate runway from cash and monthly burn, and size a funding ask that reaches the next evidence milestone rather than a full-scale launch, so money is committed only as fast as the evidence supports.

## Teaching notes
Open with Mailchimp, which bootstrapped for about 20 years before Intuit bought it for about $12 billion. Then use ListingLift, a gen-AI Etsy listing writer that pivoted to vintage resellers and raised its price from $12 to $15 a month: 40 paying users, 80% three-month retention, $35 CAC, an estimated $160 LTV and $8,000 of founder savings.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 39 complete: Financing options and runway."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Legal structure and IP basics" (lesson 40 of 43), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/start-your-own-business/legal-structure-and-ip-basics.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: Challenge: go-to-market test plan
Next lesson: Legal structure and IP basics