Pull last three to six months of board materials, revenue and churn by cohort, customer interviews, hiring plans, payroll, cash movements, commitments, cap table, contracts and decision records. Use a redacted evidence register: ID, claim, source, date, reliability, owner and what contradicts it. Have finance verify the cash starting point. A separate runway model is useful because even sensible strategic options can be infeasible. Burkland's description of strategic-finance work gives examples of relevant inputs. Burkland: Strategic Finance for Startups
Deliverables: one spreadsheet with a cash base case, downside case and option-specific cost; evidence register. Costs: internal analyst/finance hours; external modelling fees only after a scoped quote. Pitfall: confusing bookings or an optimistic pipeline with available cash.