Midnight Text: "I miscalculated burn, and I need your help ASAP"

👋 Hi, it’s Dallas, and I’m here with a 🔥 edition of The Midnight Text, Forum Ventures’ bi-weekly newsletter that provides honest answers to the unspoken questions that keep founders awake at night.

I’m a Venture Builder at Forum’s Venture Studio where I help launch and scale B2B AI-first startups from zero to one. My specialty is turning ideas into companies—generating and validating B2B SaaS concepts, bringing on founding teams, and designing, building, and selling MVPs. Before joining Forum, I led early-stage programs at Co.Labs, a Canadian incubator guiding founders from idea to revenue.

Up today

It’s the middle of the night when I get this text:

“Hey Dallas, sorry to ping you so late but I’m a bit stressed. I just realized I miscalculated burn, and I need your help ASAP.”

It was from a founder in our studio, and up until this point, things were looking good. Early traction, strong customer interest, a clear problem, steady product progress, and a solid runway. He even had a promising advisor lined up who could unlock major revenue.

I got on the phone with him immediately, and we re-did the math––he would be out of cash in just a few months. We decided to move his fundraise up by 4 months—much earlier than planned. The problem? He had half a product and no meaningful traction. Raising money in this state was going to be a serious challenge.

Here’s how he navigated it, with tips for founders who might find themselves in the same position. (Psst… this happens more often than you’d think, so if you’re in this boat, take a deep breath and read on.)

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Pause. breathe. process.

The first step? Panic—just a little. We swore, paced around, blasted some metal music, processed… then switched to lo-fi beats and got back to work.

👉 What founders can do: Don’t ignore reality. The faster you shift from shock to problem-solving, the better—but that won’t happen without first processing the situation. Some founders go for runs, some meditate, some go to Burning Man 🤷‍♂️. The key is finding what helps you reset and refocus.

Get clear on the real block

If he went to VCs tomorrow, they’d say he was too early. He had signs of traction but no clear revenue or GTM—making fundraising a tough sell.

👉 What founders can do: Ask yourself, What would stop me from raising tomorrow? If you’re unsure, talk to experienced founders, mentors, or VCs who can help you find the gap between where you are and where you need to be. You can’t fix what you don’t define.

Sprint to close the gaps

With two weeks until fundraising, every move mattered. Long-term thinking was out—the focus was on getting real traction metrics. So, we sprinted:

He didn’t need revenue now, but he needed a clear path to revenue. Together, we started selling like crazy, we reached out to anyone who had previously given him the time of day and updated them on where things were.

He needed the advisor locked in, proving the company could help drive revenue. We got a bit lucky here––he presented a proposal to the potential advisor and she jumped on, immediately unlocked leads, and proved she would be a driver for the business.

He tightened the MVP, focusing on one complete feature instead of scattered, half-finished parts. It was only half the product, but in demos the value was clear, and investors saw the bigger picture.

👉 What founders can do: Brew a pot of coffee, then get to work. Identify the gaps that will scare investors. Every startup has weaknesses—offset yours. No revenue? Secure LOIs or fill your pipeline. Unfinished product? Build an MVP that sells the vision. You don’t need to fix everything—just enough to reduce investor hesitation.

Find your edge

Even in a tough spot, strengths exist. In this case, the founder had three key things going for him:

✅ The founder: A proven operator with decades of experience and unicorns under his belt. Instant credibility.
✅ The product: Not fully built, but compelling enough to demonstrate real potential.
✅ The market: A clear, validated problem with real demand—just needing proof of execution.

He wasn’t hopeless. He just needed to position his company properly.

👉 What founders can do: Early-stage fundraising is about momentum and potential. Investors need a reason to bet on you. Is it your founding team? A unique GTM motion? An unmatched product vision? Knowing what makes your startup special shapes your entire raise—your pitch, your narrative, and your vision.

Have a killer pitch

Once the founder got here, he felt solid enough to put pen to paper. This is the benefit of working with an accelerator or studio—Forum’s team has worked on hundreds of pitches, so between us and the founder we know how to showcase traction, sell the long-term vision, and highlight the killer founding team.

👉 What founders can do: Now that you’ve nailed what makes your company special and closed the biggest gaps that will put off investors, it’s time to put together your deck. This is a huge topic in and of itself, so for now we’ll just remind you to crystalize the problem, highlight your strengths, focus on the real metrics you’ve locked in during your sprint, and make it impossible for investors to ignore your vision.

Own the room

Then, we went into pitch practice mode. A killer deck is useless without a dialed-in pitch. The founder practiced his pitch with countless people at Forum, learned the tough questions, and refined it until it was airtight.

👉 What founders can do: When fundraising, confidence can be the differentiator. Founders who own the room and present like they know exactly what they’re doing win deals. The biggest key is practicing your pitch. Find a trusted founder or VC and go over your pitch again and again. But don’t stop there, also practice questions you’ll typically get. Knowing how to overcome objections is key to taking your pitch from good to great. Between pitch practices, record yourself pitching and watch it back. It might feel awkward, but you’ll quickly see which parts fall flat and which ones stand out. Fine-tune accordingly.

You only need one yes

Fundraising isn’t about getting 100 term sheets. It’s about getting one. He pitched everywhere, but he only needed one investor to say yes. And they did. He raised enough to keep going, and six months later, this company is one of our top-performing venture studio startups. Everything we stressed about worked out in the end.

👉 What founders can do: Stay balanced. Some meetings you think went amazing and investors will pass, some meetings don’t seem great but it was just an investor grilling you to see how you’d react. Most founders end up pitching close to 100 funds to get one yes, just stay positive and keep on trucking.

The takeaway

First –– stay on top of your burn rate. Hold monthly budget reviews and look for an unexpected large expense, a higher COGS than normal, a key vendor increased prices, and other yellow or red flags. Then surface it to your team of supportive investors and advisors as early as possible to problem solve it together.

Second –– When you realize your startup is running out of money and need to fundraise sooner than planned, don’t freeze. Process the situation, identify what you need and where you shine, sprint to fix gaps, and pitch with confidence. You only need one yes.

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