A working resource for your next decision
A startup financial model should help you decide when to hire, how much cash you need and which assumptions matter. It should not begin with a revenue curve selected because it makes the fundraising story look attractive. This pack starts with the operating drivers you can inspect and ends with a model you can reconcile.
The download contains three focused skills, an assumptions ledger, a monthly cash template and a small Python calculator with clearly labelled illustrative inputs. Use the calculator to understand the mechanics; use the skills to adapt the structure to your actual business and review an existing workbook. There is no requirement to replace a model that already works.
The sample is a simple subscription business. A services company needs utilisation, capacity and project timing; a marketplace needs transaction volume, take rate and settlement timing. Ask Claude to adapt the driver tree before copying the sample numbers. A model becomes more useful when its structure matches the way money actually moves.
Download Claude for Startup Financial Modelling
3 skills, practical working templates and installation notes. Free, no signup.
Keep building your product. Let Tau help with your marketing
Make AI recommend you, not competitors
Go viral on every social network
Optimise your website to rank on Google
How to use the pack
Step 1
Start with the model’s purpose, currency, reporting dates and opening cash. Put actuals and forecasts in separate columns or clearly labelled periods. Document units and the owner of every material assumption.
Step 2
Build a driver tree from customer activity to recognised revenue, then model collections separately. Keep opening customers, additions, churn and closing customers connected so that an attractive revenue total cannot hide inconsistent customer arithmetic.
Step 3
Build costs from the operating plan. Separate salaries, employer costs, contractors, hosting and other spending. Record hiring start months and payment delays. Include financing only when the scenario explicitly assumes it; a target raise is not cash in the bank.
Step 4
Reconcile opening cash plus receipts minus payments plus financing to closing cash for every month. Stress the assumptions that could change a hiring or fundraising decision and show the month in which cash crosses the chosen reserve floor.
What each skill does
Start with the skill that matches the immediate job. Every skill includes its own working templates, so you can use it independently without installing the whole collection.
Startup driver model
Use when: a startup needs a forecast or review of an existing financial model
Output: An operating-driver model specification and a traceable assumptions ledger
Startup cash and runway
Use when: a founder needs monthly cash visibility or a funding deadline
Output: A reconciled cash plan with reserve breach dates and a financing bridge
Startup scenario review
Use when: a model needs downside testing before hiring or raising
Output: A base/downside/upside comparison and the assumptions that change the decision
Bring evidence, then ask a specific question
- Opening cash, historical monthly actuals and the forecast horizon
- Prices, customer cohorts or sales pipeline, collection terms and cost drivers
- Hiring plan, debt or financing events and the minimum cash reserve
The quality of the result depends on the inputs. Keep confidential or personal information out unless it is needed and you have permission to use it. If you only have a short brief, start there and let missing evidence remain visible.
A first request to try
Use startup-driver-model to review this workbook and assumptions. Keep actuals separate from forecasts, identify missing operating drivers, and reconcile monthly cash. Then use startup-scenario-review to test slower sales, delayed collections and the planned hire. Explain which assumption changes the funding deadline.
After the first run, check the output against the underlying files. Correct misunderstood definitions and assumptions, then ask for a revision. Save the evidence ledger with the result so that someone else can inspect the reasoning later.
Upload individual skills to Claude
Choose a skill below and download its ZIP. In Claude, open Customize → Skills, choose Create skill and then Upload a skill. Select the individual ZIP and enable it. Keep the complete collection for reading or local installation.
Open Claude Skills · Official upload instructions
Each download contains one skill folder with its supporting files. Upload happens in your Claude account; this page does not install anything automatically. Availability follows your account and workspace settings.
Sources and scope
Independent and unaffiliated. The methods, prompts and checklists on this page are built on publicly documented approaches. They are not created by, endorsed by, or affiliated with any product, platform or company whose name appears here, and Tau AI has no relationship with those companies beyond using their published guidance.
- The sample values are fictional teaching inputs, not recommended budgets, growth rates or forecasts.
- The calculator is a simplified cash illustration, not a full accounting model. Taxes, deferred revenue, working capital, capex and financing instruments need to be added when relevant.
Source pages and installation guidance were reviewed for this release. Facts about firms, products and financing can change; each research run should preserve its own access dates and recheck the evidence needed for its decision.
Are you visible across search, AI and social? Run a free audit
Complete free diagnostics of you and your competitors
Keep the complete resource
Download all skills and templates, then use one workflow at a time.
Andrew Persh
Founder, Tau AI