Writing the Use of Funds Slide

The use of funds slide is where investors stop listening to your vision and start checking your judgment. It answers one plain question: if they wire you the money, what exactly happens next? This guide shows you how to build that slide around milestones instead of a vague pie chart, so the number you ask for feels earned rather than guessed.

Most founders write the use of funds slide last, late at night, by splitting the raise into four tidy slices: product, sales, marketing and operations. The result looks neat and says almost nothing. An investor cannot tell from "40% product" whether you plan to hire two engineers or ten, whether you will ship in three months or twelve, or what the company will look like when the money runs out.

The good news is that a useful slide is not harder to make. It just starts from a different place. Instead of dividing a number you picked, you start from the milestones that make your next raise possible and work backward to the money you need. This guide walks you through that process, gives you a template and covers the questions investors usually ask when they reach this slide.

A quick note: this article is general information about fundraising, not legal, tax or investment advice. Talk to a qualified lawyer or accountant about anything specific to your company.

What the use of funds slide is really for

On the surface, the slide tells investors where their money goes. Underneath, it does three more important jobs.

• It justifies the size of the raise. If you ask for a number without showing how you reached it, investors assume you guessed or simply asked for as much as you thought you could get.
• It shows how you think about risk. The milestones you choose reveal which risks you believe matter most: whether the product works, whether customers will pay, or whether you can sell at scale.
• It sets up the next round. Investors want to know what the company will be able to prove when the money is spent, because that proof is what lets you raise again on better terms.

Seen this way, the slide is less about accounting and more about a plan. The money is the fuel. The milestones are the destination. Your job is to show that the fuel is enough to reach the destination with a little left in the tank.

Start with milestones, not percentages

Before you open your slide software, answer one question on paper: what must be true about this company for the next round to be easy to raise? Write down three to five concrete milestones. They should be things an outsider could verify.

Good milestones tend to fall into a few groups:

• Product milestones. Launching a core feature, moving from pilot to general release, or reaching a level of reliability that larger customers require.
• Customer milestones. A number of paying customers, a revenue run rate, or a renewal pattern that shows people stay.
• Go-to-market milestones. A sales process that new reps can follow, a marketing channel with predictable results, or a first partner that brings in deals.
• Team milestones. Hiring the leaders who will run key functions so the founders are no longer doing everything.

Avoid milestones that sound impressive but cannot be checked, such as "become the leading platform" or "build brand awareness". Investors read these as filler. If a milestone has no number, date or clear yes or no test, rewrite it until it does.

How to build the number from the bottom up

Once your milestones are clear, work out what it costs to reach them. This is where most of the real work happens, and it is worth doing carefully.

1. List the hires. For each milestone, write down the people you need and roughly when they start. Use realistic salary ranges for your location and include employer costs such as payroll taxes, benefits and equipment. Ask a recruiter or peers for local figures rather than guessing.
2. Add product and technical costs. Include cloud hosting, software subscriptions, contractors, testing devices and any security or compliance work your customers will ask for.
3. Add go-to-market costs. Paid acquisition tests, events, sales tools, content and any agency or freelance help. Tie each line to a milestone, such as "test three channels before choosing one".
4. Add operating costs. Rent or coworking, legal and accounting fees, insurance, travel and the small items that add up over a year.
5. Map it month by month. Put every cost into a monthly spreadsheet so you can see the burn rise as people join. A total for the year hides the timing that matters.
6. Add a buffer. Things take longer than planned. Many founders add a few extra months of runway as a cushion; the exact amount is a judgment call based on how uncertain your plan is.
7. Subtract expected revenue carefully. If you count on revenue to extend runway, use a cautious estimate and show the plan still works if sales arrive late.

When you add it all up, you have a raise amount that comes from your plan rather than from a round number you liked. If the total looks too big for your stage, go back to the milestones and trim. If it looks small, check whether you have left anything out before adding more.

A use of funds template you can copy

Keep the slide simple and put the detail in a supporting spreadsheet. This table shows a helpful middle ground: each spending area is tied to a milestone and a timeline. All amounts are made-up examples for illustration only.

On the slide itself, you can show a simple bar or donut chart of the four areas, the total raise, the runway in months and the three milestones in large text. Investors who want more will ask, and you will have the spreadsheet ready.

What to put on the slide

• The total amount you are raising.
• The expected runway, for example "about 20 months".
• Three to five milestones, each with a target date.
• A simple breakdown by spending area.
• One line on what you expect to raise next and why the milestones make it possible.

What to leave off

• Individual salaries or names of future hires.
• Long lists of software tools.
• Percentages that do not add up to 100.
• Milestones you cannot measure.

Runway, burn and the story behind the numbers

Investors read the use of funds slide alongside your financial model, so the two must agree. If your model shows burn rising sharply in month six, the slide should explain why, usually because hiring speeds up. If the slide promises 20 months of runway but the model shows 14, you will lose credibility fast.

A few habits keep the numbers and the story aligned:

• Use one source of truth. Build the slide from the same spreadsheet as your financial model, and update both together.
• Show the hiring plan. People are usually the biggest cost. A simple hiring timeline makes the burn curve easy to understand.
• Explain the order. If you hire engineers before salespeople, say why. If you test marketing channels before scaling, show when the decision point comes.
• Plan for a slower raise. Raising the next round can take months. Leave enough runway to start that process while you still have time to be choosy.

Answering investor questions about this slide

The use of funds slide often triggers the sharpest questions in a pitch meeting. Prepare short, honest answers to these before you present.

• "What happens if you raise less?" Have a reduced plan ready. Explain which milestones you would keep and which you would delay.
• "What happens if you raise more?" Say what you would speed up, not just that you would have more runway.
• "Why this hire before that one?" Link each early hire to the biggest risk in the business right now.
• "How confident are you in the revenue assumption?" Show your cautious case and explain what you are basing it on.
• "When will you raise again?" Name the milestone that triggers the next raise, rather than a date alone.

It also helps to know that investors at different stages focus on different things. Early investors often care most about whether you are tackling the right risks first. Later investors look more closely at efficiency, such as how much it costs to win a customer and how fast new hires become productive.

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

A good use of funds slide is a promise in miniature: give us this much, and here is what we will prove by when. Start from milestones, build the cost from the bottom up, add a sensible buffer and make sure the slide matches your model. Then the number you ask for stops being a guess and becomes the natural result of your plan.

Set aside an afternoon this week, write your milestones on one page and rebuild your slide from there. It is one of the quickest ways to make your whole pitch feel more grounded.