Guides
How the assessments an investor actually runs are built — valuation, market size, unit economics, competitive position — and where each one breaks.
Feasibility study: the five tests, and how to run them in a day
A feasibility study asks whether an idea can work before you spend money finding out. The five standard dimensions, what evidence each one needs, and where the classic template fails software.
11 min read
Startup valuation: the five methods, and which one your stage actually uses
Pre-revenue startups have no cash flows to discount, so valuation borrows from comparables, scorecards and the arithmetic of the round itself. What each method measures, where each breaks, and how dilution really decides the number.
12 min read
Cap table: what it tracks, and the four events that quietly change it
A cap table is not a spreadsheet of percentages — it is the record of who owns what under every future outcome. The four rows that matter, the arithmetic of a round, and why founders discover their real ownership two years late.
8 min read
TAM, SAM, SOM: how to size a market without inventing the number
The three market sizes, the two ways to calculate them, and the disagreement problem nobody handles — what to do when your sources give you estimates five years and three billion dollars apart.
9 min read
Competitive analysis: how to map a market without flattering yourself
Most competitive analyses are a feature grid where the author wins every row. The four competitor types, how to find the ones you would never think to search for, and what a defensible differentiation claim looks like.
10 min read
Unit economics: the four checks that decide whether growth helps or hurts
CAC, LTV, payback and cohort survival — the arithmetic that determines whether every new customer funds the business or drains it, and the thresholds investors apply before they read your growth chart.
9 min read
Break-even analysis: the formula, and the three versions of the answer
Break-even is one division — fixed costs over contribution margin. The reason it misleads is that there are three different break-even points, and companies routinely reach the wrong one and think they are safe.
7 min read