Three weeks before your fundraise, everything feels ready. Your deck is crisp, your demo flows, and the story lands.
But then comes the diligence request. They ask for your financials, and everything falls apart.
The P&L is buried in someone’s desktop folder. The balance sheet’s outdated. The cash flow model hasn’t been touched in months. You’re chasing spreadsheets while trying to prep for the most important meeting of the year.
You’re not alone. Most early-stage teams run into the same wall.
Startup fundraising preparation isn’t just about the pitch. It’s about the plan behind the pitch. And in this market, investors are looking deeper than ever.
Global venture funding hit $91B in Q2 2025. Investors dig deep before they write checks. Startups on Carta raised 18.4% more in 2024 over the last year. However, 90% of startups don’t make it. Often, it comes down to a simple thing: founders can’t clearly show their financial story.
There is an upside, however, companies with professional financial guidance raise capital successfully 78% more often. Solid startup fundraising preparation is a game-changer for your next round.
This guide breaks down the four reports every investor expects—and how to deliver them fast, clean, and confidently.
What startup fundraising preparation actually looks like
Investors don’t just look at your numbers. They see your story through your financials. Strong, clear reports tell them you know your unit economics, manage your resources, and have a real plan to reach profitability. Most VCs now spend 6–9 months on due diligence.
When your financial reports are complete and accurate, you build trust fast. Investors see a team committed to financial discipline and responsible scaling. That confidence helps you win their backing.
Here are the four reports VCs will ask for during due diligence:
- Profit & Loss (P&L) statement
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow statement
- Revenue projections
Let’s break down what each one needs, what questions you’ll get, and how Runway helps you prep in days—not weeks.
1. Profit and loss (P&L): Show how you earn and spend
Your P&L is the first thing investors look at. It tells the story of how you bring in revenue and how you deploy it.
Make sure it includes:
- Revenue breakdown by product or customer type
- COGS with clear gross margin tracking
- OPEX segmented by team or category
- EBITDA and other operating metrics
- Recurring vs one-time revenue split
- Benchmarks to contextualize your margins
Be ready for questions like:
- How will gross margin shift as you scale?
- What drives your biggest expenses?
- Can you sustain pricing in a downturn?
Pro tip: Share 12+ months of historicals and at least 18 months of projections. Investors want to see both performance and planning logic. Flag any one-time events. Keep your accounting structure consistent.
2. Balance sheet: Show financial strength and flexibility
The balance sheet gives investors a snapshot of how stable your business is.
Make sure it’s clean and current. Include:
- Assets: cash, receivables, inventory, equipment
- Liabilities: payables, loans, accrued expenses
- Equity: retained earnings, cap table investments
Investors want to see:
- Liquidity: Can you meet short-term obligations?
- Leverage: Are you over-reliant on debt?
- Runway: How much capital do you really have?
Highlight your current and quick ratios. Add simple annotations where things might raise questions. Don’t hide red flags—context builds trust.
3. Cash flow: Show how money moves
Cash is reality. Everything else is a model.
Your cash flow statement shows how money actually flows in and out of your business—from operations, investing, and financing.
Structure it into:
- Operating activities: burn, collections, expenses
- Investing activities: equipment, acquisitions, capex
- Financing activities: equity raised, debt repaid
Expect these questions:
- What’s your monthly burn?
- How many months of runway do you have?
- What milestones will you hit before you raise again?
Build a forecast that extends 18–24 months beyond the raise. Include different burn and revenue scenarios. Investors want to see not just survival—but strategic allocation.
4. Revenue projections: Show your growth story
Revenue projections are where optimism meets logic. You need to show ambition, grounded in believable assumptions.
Build from real inputs:
- Market size and penetration
- Customer acquisition data
- Churn and expansion metrics
- Conversion rates and CAC
Tailor metrics to your model:
- SaaS: ACV, retention, expansion
- Marketplace: GMV, take rate
- Consumer: cohort LTV, MAU/DAU
Run multiple revenue scenarios—base case, aggressive, conservative—and be explicit about the assumptions behind each. Transparency here builds credibility fast.
Here’s how to build and share revenue scenarios in Runway.
How Runway helps with startup fundraising prep
Runway is built for this moment.
Manual spreadsheets slow you down—and introduce risk when pressure is high. Runway helps you prep faster, with cleaner reports and fewer surprises.
- Live-updating financials: P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow reports update automatically with your source systems.
- Scenario planning: Model different hiring plans, funding rounds, or pricing changes in seconds.
- Collaborative forecasting: Bring in GTM, HR, and Ops to build bottoms-up forecasts that align across the company.
- Investor-ready reports: Build and share clean dashboards they can actually interact with. Embed text and videos to tell your story. Everything stays connected to your live data, and current. Which means no formatting nightmares, and no last-minute updates.
Startup fundraising prep doesn’t have to be painful. Runway makes it fast, collaborative, and accurate—so you can walk into any investor conversation ready.
Walk in with confidence
You don’t win rounds by having the most polished pitch.
You win by showing command of your numbers. By owning your assumptions. By thinking in scenarios, not just snapshots.
Startup fundraising preparation is how you build belief.
With the right financials, you show investors what you’ll achieve, when, and how this round gets you there. And when you can switch between scenarios mid-call, respond to questions without scrambling, and defend your logic with confidence—that’s what gets the yes.