Precursor Ventures argues that 18 months of runway is ideal for early startups before product-market fit: enough to avoid panic but not so much that founders get complacent. After hitting product-market fit, more runway funds scaling. Treat it as a limited resource, not a safety net.
Speed gives you the impetus to move quickly and get more done and to be fast. And runway gives you in some ways the comfort that you have time to plan and be patient. And I think runway is really, really useful post-product market fit because it allows you to make the kind of investments you have to make to scale. And in some ways, I've always felt like there's the optimal amount of financial tension in an early stage startup. And I think pre-product market fit, it's somewhere around 18 months is actually the optimal amount of tension. It's enough that you don't wake up every day thinking like, oh my gosh, am I gonna be able to pay my team tomorrow? But it's not so much runway that you're like, oh, we have time. And I think in startups, you never know how much time you have because the market can change.
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