18 How To Master Startup and Venture Models

Eighteen startup and venture models, each taught end to end — with the worked models to run them.

Building a venture is the discipline of turning an idea into a fundable, scalable company — and knowing the numbers that decide whether it survives. This handbook teaches all eighteen models in the Startup and Venture category — one chapter each — from sizing the market and building the cap table, through burn, runway and product-market fit, to the venture-capital, exit and financing-term models that shape every round. From TAM-SAM-SOM and the Cap Table to the Venture Capital Method, the Liquidation Preference Waterfall and the North Star Metric.

What you get

The complete PDF handbook plus eighteen worked Excel models — one for every model in the book. Blue input cells you change, formula cells that respond, and a Read-me tab on each, so you can run the numbers on your own assumptions.

How every chapter is built

Read one and you can build any. Each model follows the same thirteen-section rhythm: the question it answers, what it is, who uses it, its anatomy, inputs and outputs, how to build it step by step, a worked example, strengths, limits and pitfalls, industry notes, how it connects to the other models, modern relevance, using AI on it, and a practitioner’s checklist.

The eighteen models

TAM-SAM-SOM, the Cap Table, the Option Pool Model, the Funding Round Model, the Dilution Model, Burn Rate, the Runway Model, Product-Market Fit, the Minimum Viable Product, Cohort Economics, CAC:LTV, Growth Loops, the Venture Capital Method, the Exit Scenario Model, the SAFE and Convertible Note, the Liquidation Preference Waterfall, Down-Round Anti-Dilution and the North Star Metric.

The learning path

The chapters are ordered as a single connected build, not an alphabetical list — from sizing the market and building the cap table, through burn, runway and product-market fit, to the venture-capital, exit and financing-term models that shape every round.

Who it’s for

Founders, operators, angel and venture investors and startup advisers who must raise, allocate and defend capital — and read a term sheet with clear eyes.

How to use it

Work straight through to master the category, or jump to a single model when you need it for live work.

Book 18 of the Business Framework Library, part of The Investment Banking Practitioner’s Handbook Series. Master this category on its own, or reach for the Business Framework Compendium when you want the one-page reference to all 467 frameworks.

By John Colley — Cambridge University MA · MBA with Distinction, Bayes Business School · 30+ years in investment banking, M&A and private equity.