19 Achieving cash-flow positive: A startup’s Holy Grail

 

This chapter covers

  • What does cash-flow positive mean?
  • Why is achieving cash-flow positive like finding the Holy Grail? You like sleep, don’t you?
  • Hit cash-flow positive? How does this reset investor perspectives about your startup?

Every startup founder and CEO starts their company with their eyes on the prize: steady growth, profitability, and a great exit. There are many challenges to getting there. But along the way, there is a moment that is totally transformational for you, your employees, and your investors: the moment when cash burn becomes cash growing. It’s where the runway becomes “infinite.” This moment is called cash-flow positive, and it truly is like finding the Holy Grail. You feel like falling to your knees and howling in sheer delight.

19.1 Cash-flow positive vs. profitable

19.2 Liberation from the shackles of burn rate

19.3 The moral of this anecdote