Defining Runway

I had an interesting conversation over lunch today with my friend Chang She.

He had an interesting reflection on startups and the discussion of a startup’s “runway.”

Usually this is discussed in terms of time.

It’s usually discussed in arithmetic terms:

budget / (cost/month) = # of months in “runway”

Chang suggested that it’s better measured as the number of experiments you can perform:

budget / (cost/experiment) = # of experiments in “runway”

Every product feature you put before customers or conversation you hold with a prospective customer is an experiment (albeit some experiments are more or less rigorous than others).

I found this a helpful insight, and a healthy way to look at your “runway.”

Thanks Chang 😊