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Estimate startup costs: sum one-time and monthly costs to see total launch cost, runway and break-even months.
Estimate startup costs: sum one-time and monthly costs to see total launch cost, runway and break-even months.
Enter values above and click Calculate — results will appear here with the formula explained.
Total launch capital is one-time purchases (equipment, legal, branding, deposits, initial inventory) plus monthly burn (rent, salaries, software, insurance, marketing, accounting) multiplied by how many months you want funded before profitability. If revenue stays below monthly costs, burn continues and break-even is mathematically never — the '∞' this calculator shows is not a bug but a go/no-go signal that the model must change.
Break-even after launch is one-time capital divided by monthly contribution margin (revenue minus monthly costs). That simple division hides the most common planning error: optimistically low monthly costs. Founders routinely omit founder salary, taxes, benefits load (20–30% atop salary), payment-processing fees (2.9% of revenue), returns and chargebacks, software tier upgrades, and rent escalations. Each omission understates true burn by hundreds to thousands monthly.
Runway converts the same numbers into time: pre-revenue runway is total capital divided by monthly burn. With $73,000 total and $8,000 monthly burn, runway is 9.1 months. Investors expect 12–18 months post-funding; operating inside 6 months forces premature fundraising at weak leverage. Runway is also why closing speed matters — a two-month delay on a $8,000 burn costs $16,000 of buffer before the first sale.
Contingency is not optimism, it is actuarial reality. SBA and SCORE business-plan templates recommend 15–25% contingency atop base costs because permits, shipping, legal review and hiring all run long. On $73,000 that is $11,000–$18,000; without it, the first surprise (legal discovery, buildout overrun, delayed inventory) becomes a founder credit-card event. Model the contingency explicitly rather than hoping it won't be needed.
How to shrink break-even without wishful revenue: renegotiate rent (often 20–30% of burn), start with contractors before W-2 hires, choose revenue-share software tiers, pre-sell to lock revenue before build, and lease equipment. Each $1,000 cut to monthly costs at $4,000 margin drops break-even on $25,000 one-time by about 6 days — small monthly discipline compounds like interest in reverse.
This is an estimate for planning, not accounting advice. Tax treatment (CapEx depreciation vs expense), loan amortization, seasonal revenue curves and working-capital cycles (inventory must be bought before it sells) all shift true cash needs beyond this arithmetic. Validate with a CPA, a SCORE mentor and local market interviews before committing capital.
Estimate startup costs: sum one-time and monthly costs to see total launch cost, runway and break-even months. Formula: Total = once + monthly × months. Example: With $25,000 one-time, $8,000 monthly costs for 6 months, total needed is $25,000 + ($8,000 × 6) = $73,000.
Total launch capital is one-time purchases (equipment, legal, branding, deposits, initial inventory) plus monthly burn (rent, salaries, software, insurance, marketing, accounting) multiplied by how many months you want funded before profitability. If revenue stays below monthly costs, burn continues and break-even is mathematically never — the '∞' this calculator shows is not a bug but a go/no-go signal that the model must change.
Break-even after launch is one-time capital divided by monthly contribution margin (revenue minus monthly costs). That simple division hides the most common planning error: optimistically low monthly costs. Founders routinely omit founder salary, taxes, benefits load (20–30% atop salary), payment-processing fees (2.9% of revenue), returns and chargebacks, software tier upgrades, and rent escalations. Each omission understates true burn by hundreds to thousands monthly.
Runway converts the same numbers into time: pre-revenue runway is total capital divided by monthly burn. With $73,000 total and $8,000 monthly burn, runway is 9.1 months. Investors expect 12–18 months post-funding; operating inside 6 months forces premature fundraising at weak leverage. Runway is also why closing speed matters — a two-month delay on a $8,000 burn costs $16,000 of buffer before the first sale.
Contingency is not optimism, it is actuarial reality. SBA and SCORE business-plan templates recommend 15–25% contingency atop base costs because permits, shipping, legal review and hiring all run long. On $73,000 that is $11,000–$18,000; without it, the first surprise (legal discovery, buildout overrun, delayed inventory) becomes a founder credit-card event. Model the contingency explicitly rather than hoping it won't be needed.
How to shrink break-even without wishful revenue: renegotiate rent (often 20–30% of burn), start with contractors before W-2 hires, choose revenue-share software tiers, pre-sell to lock revenue before build, and lease equipment. Each $1,000 cut to monthly costs at $4,000 margin drops break-even on $25,000 one-time by about 6 days — small monthly discipline compounds like interest in reverse.
This is an estimate for planning, not accounting advice. Tax treatment (CapEx depreciation vs expense), loan amortization, seasonal revenue curves and working-capital cycles (inventory must be bought before it sells) all shift true cash needs beyond this arithmetic. Validate with a CPA, a SCORE mentor and local market interviews before committing capital.
With $25,000 one-time, $8,000 monthly costs for 6 months, total needed is $25,000 + ($8,000 × 6) = $73,000. Pre-revenue runway is $73,000 ÷ $8,000 ≈ 9.1 months. If revenue after launch is $12,000 monthly, profit is $4,000 and break-even on one-time costs is $25,000 ÷ $4,000 = 6.3 months after launch. Cut monthly costs to $7,000 and break-even falls to 5 months; miss revenue by 25% ($9,000) and break-even stretches to 25 months — the sensitivity that decides whether to launch.
Formulas are standard public references (see our methodology). External standards are cited in the text where they apply.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Report an error