1.
The Financial Model Cheat Sheet
www.ibb-bet.de

2.
What we want to understand
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Scaling of revenues
Main cost drivers
Unit economics
Financing strategy
Methodology

3.
Scaling of Revenues
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Key Question
How does the top line scale?
What we want to understand
 Short-term perspective: are the revenues in the upcoming
months underpinned by the current sales pipeline?
 Big picture: Do you have growth ambitions that justify a VC
investment?
 Through which channels are you planning to generate leads
and what are the assumptions regarding lead conversion?
 Are there any up- and cross-selling potentials considered?
 Have you made plausible assumptions regarding customer
life cycles (up- and downgrades, churn, retention)?
 In line w/ top down market assumptions
(e.g. realistic market share)?
Brett Sayles / Pexels

4.
Main Cost Drivers
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Key Question
Which are the main cost drivers?
What we want to understand
 Which cost factors correlate with your top line (e.g.
CoGS, CACs) and are they derived appropriately?
 Is the value creation chain properly modeled and how do
margins evolve at scale?
 Based on degree of vertical integration: are potential
dependencies on third parties modeled?
 As we often see personnel intensive business cases:
how do you plan headcount? Are the salaries consistent
with market-standards?
Pixabay / Pexels

5.
Unit Economics
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Key Question
Are profitable unit economics at scale realistic?
What we want to understand
Based on the assumptions as stated before:
 What is the ratio of LTV to CACs. How long does it take
to recover CACs?
 How do unit economics evolve at scale?
Leio McLaren / Unsplash

6.
Financing Strategy
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Key Question
What is your financing strategy?
What we want to understand
 How much funding will be needed in total?
 How do you plan to stage further cash injections?
 Do you raise enough cash in this round to achieve
an appropriate KPI level for further financing
rounds/an exit?
 Can you outline a comprehensive equity story?
 Are typical working capital issues considered?
Jordan Benton / Pexels

7.
Methodology
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Key Question
Has the financial plan been created in a methodically
meaningful way?
What we want to understand
 Does the model leave the impression that the founders
understand their business and are able to illlustrate its
mechanisms?
 Are the assumptions clearly displayed?
 Ideally, the financial plan has been prepared in a way that
allows us to perform sensitivity analyses (at least with the
major drivers) to understand how volatile your
assumptions are!
Kamila Maciejewska / Unsplash
Scott Webb / Unsplash

8.
About IBB Bet.
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Founded in 1997, IBB Bet is one of the most active early-
stage VCs in Berlin.
Our Goal
Help founders develop successful companies that show
attractive growth and sustainable value appreciation.
206
200
1.43
Berlin-based start-ups financed
million € invested as lead-,
co-lead- and co-investor
billion € investment volume
in syndicates with strong partners
Our Portfolio (Selection)

9.
IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
Bundesallee 210
10719 Berlin
www.ibb-bet.de
venture@ibb-bet.de
VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin and VC Fonds Technologie Berlin are a joint initiative of
Investitionsbank Berlin and the Federal State of Berlin. The funds are backed by Investitionsbank Berlin
and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).
European Union
European Regional
Development Fund
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Questions?
Feel free to get in touch!