What will the funding let you prove?
Connect your funding request to a test and revise it when a cost changes.
The question
Your team makes industrial condition monitors. You ask for $480,000. The plan covers ten months and a 90-day validation at two sites. Start with zero cash and no revenue.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Fixed cash cost per month | 36000 |
| Planned months | 10 |
| Two-site deployment | 60000 |
| Untouched reserve | 60000 |
| Funding request | 480000 |
Amounts are in US dollars. Agree on the reliability test with both sites before deployment and obtain signed results after the test.
“What will the funding let you prove?”
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A strong answer, step by step
Open each step in turn. This is one strong answer, not the only one.
Step 1: What is the milestone?
What would you do here? Open the move you’d make.
Say the milestone is raising the $480,000.
Tempting, but it misses something. The raise funds the test. It gives no evidence that the monitors meet site requirements.
Name the agreed reliability test and signed results at both sites.
The strong move. The result can guide the decision to expand or fix the product.
Set a goal to install monitors at both sites.
Tempting, but it misses something. Installation is a step. It does not show whether the monitors meet the reliability criteria.
See how a strong candidate says it
“Complete the 90-day test at both sites against agreed reliability criteria, then get signed results that show whether the monitors met those criteria.”
Why it works: This tells the investor which uncertainty the money will help resolve.
Step 2: How does the opening ask add up?
What would you do here? Open the move you’d make.
Show fixed costs, deployment and the untouched reserve.
The strong move. The three amounts reconcile to the stated request.
Show $420,000 and say it includes the reserve.
Tempting, but it misses something. That amount covers fixed costs and deployment only.
Divide $480,000 by $36,000 to state the funded months.
Tempting, but it misses something. This would spend the money set aside for deployment and reserve on monthly costs.
See how a strong candidate says it
“Ten months at $36,000 costs $360,000. Add $60,000 for deployment and a separate $60,000 reserve. The ask is $480,000.”
Why it works: The ask includes a reserve. Planned spend leaves it untouched.
Step 3: What changes in the funding request?
The second site sends a verified $72,000 quote for an additional test rig. The ten-month plan, deployment cost, fixed monthly cost and reserve stay the same.
What would you do here? Open the move you’d make.
Keep the original ask and ten months by drawing the reserve.
Tempting, but it misses something. The reserve is smaller than the new charge and is part of the stated plan.
Increase the ask to $552,000 for the same plan, or verify a revised plan at $480,000.
The strong move. This makes the trade-off clear and preserves the reserve assumption.
Drop the second site and still claim a two-site validation.
Tempting, but it misses something. One site cannot supply the second site’s result.
See how a strong candidate says it
“The same plan needs $552,000. Keeping the ask at $480,000 leaves $288,000 for fixed costs after deployment, the rig and reserve. That covers eight months.”
Why it works: The new charge changes what the original ask can fund. Eight months do not preserve a ten-month plan.
Step 4: How would you defend the revised ask?
What would you do here? Open the move you’d make.
Explain the rig cost and connect the revised ask to the signed results and the decision after the test.
The strong move. The investor can evaluate what the additional spend buys.
Say the larger ask proves the product can meet the reliability criteria.
Tempting, but it misses something. Additional capital pays for a test. The results provide the evidence.
Promise rollout at both sites before either test result is available.
Tempting, but it misses something. The plan uses the test to decide whether wider deployment is justified.
See how a strong candidate says it
“We need $552,000 for the same ten-month, two-site plan, including the new rig and untouched reserve. If the test misses the agreed reliability criteria, we will fix the measured gap before wider deployment.”
Why it works: The answer explains the cost change, the evidence the money will buy and what the team will do with the result.
The answer, in short
- Decision
- Tie the revised ask to a verifiable two-site result.
- Because
- The new rig raises the same plan to $552,000. The opening request covers eight months with the reserve intact.
- What would change it
- A lower verified rig cost or a revised plan that can support the same decision.
Common traps
- Spending the reserve twice.
- Confusing installation with a test result.
Check your answer
- What will the test show?
- How is the reserve treated?
- How does the rig change the ask?
- What would a failed result change?
Last reviewed Nov 11, 2026