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Beginner 13 lessons

Ops & Finance for Seed Stage

Build the financial and operational foundation that lets you focus on growth instead of firefighting.

DC
Dave Cotter
Founder, Kelsor Ventures

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"Setting Up Your Financial Stack" is free to read.

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Course Curriculum

1
Setting Up Your Financial Stack
The exact tools, accounts, and processes you need from day one.
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2
Cash Flow Management
How to forecast runway, manage burn rate, and never be surprised by your bank balance.
3
Burn Rate vs Growth Trade-offs
How to manage burn without killing your optionality — and why aggressive spending often manufactures the urgency that kills you.
4
Founder Compensation & Personal Runway
What to pay yourself, how to avoid decision-making fog from financial stress, and building a compensation philosophy that holds.
5
Building a Finance Function (Before You "Need" One)
The bookkeeper → controller → CFO progression and exactly when to hire each tier — before the chaos forces your hand.
6
Unit Economics That Matter
CAC, LTV, payback period — the numbers that determine if your business is viable.
7
Operational KPIs by Business Model
The metrics that actually matter for your business model — and the vanity metrics that will optimize you toward failure.
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8
Pricing & Packaging Strategy
The three phases of pricing strategy — and how to avoid the early mistakes that lock you into pricing that cannot scale.
9
Pricing in an AI-First World
AI query costs are real and variable — unlike traditional SaaS, marginal cost doesn’t approach zero with scale. Learn how AI reshapes your pricing strategy and what the three-layer AI pricing stack means for your unit economics.
10
Forecasting That Actually Drives Decisions
A forecast isn't a prediction — it's a decision-making tool. How to model scenarios and use them to make better calls.
11
Hiring Your First Employees
When to hire, who to hire first, equity compensation, and common early-stage mistakes.
12
Board Meetings & Reporting
Run board meetings that build confidence, not anxiety. Templates and frameworks included.
13
Cleaning Up Early Messes
Cap table, founder agreements, IP assignment, equity grants — fix the early-stage chaos before it costs you $30k in due diligence.
$249

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13 in-depth lessons
Self-paced, learn on your schedule
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About This Course

Most seed-stage founders spend zero time on operations and finance — until it blows up in their face. Runway miscalculation, tax surprises, hiring without a plan, board meetings without data.

This course gives you the operational playbook that PwC-trained consultants charge $500/hr for. You'll learn how to set up your financial stack, manage cash flow, understand the unit economics that matter, hire your first employees properly, and run board meetings that build investor confidence.

It's not glamorous work, but it's what separates funded startups from successful ones.

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