The document outlines a financial model cheat sheet for startups, focusing on scaling revenues, cost drivers, unit economics, financing strategy, and methodology. It emphasizes understanding revenue generation, cost factors, profitability of unit economics at scale, and creating a comprehensive financing plan. The methodology section stresses the importance of clearly displayed assumptions and the ability to perform sensitivity analyses on major drivers.

1. The Financial Model
Cheat Sheet

2. Startups – Made in Berlin ● 2
What we want to understand
Scaling of revenues Main cost drivers
1 2 3
Unit economics
4 5
Financing strategy Methodology

3. Scaling of Revenues
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
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
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
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
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

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