ENT106 · Finance, Legal Basics and Funding Options
About Course
Build a cash-flow forecast and runway model, understand the legal foundations every US tech venture needs, and compare funding paths from bootstrapping and grants to angel investment and SAFEs, including how dilution works.
Who it is for
Founders preparing to formalize, forecast and finance an early-stage technology venture who want to talk confidently with accountants, attorneys and potential investors.
Prerequisites
ENT103 is required for the unit-economics inputs; ENT105 is recommended.
What you will be able to do
- Build an 18-month cash-flow forecast that calculates burn rate, runway and break-even month
- Compare US entity types and list the core legal documents a tech startup needs
- Evaluate at least four funding options against stage, control and risk criteria
- Model ownership dilution across a SAFE and a priced round in a simple cap table
Lessons
- Lesson 1 · Cash flow, burn and runway
- Lesson 2 · Legal foundations for US tech ventures
- Lesson 3 · Funding options and dilution
- Lesson 4 · Lab and assignment
Lab: Runway model and simple cap table
You build a monthly cash-flow forecast driven by your unit-economics assumptions, with a scenario switch for slow, base and fast growth. You then create a cap table that models founder shares, an option pool, a post-money SAFE and a seed round to see each holder's ownership after conversion.
Free tools: Google Sheets (free)
Assessed assignment
Submit your forecast and cap table plus a three-page memo. The memo explains your runway and break-even under each scenario, recommends an entity type with reasons and lists the legal documents you need with their status. It then compares at least four funding options for your venture and states which path you would explore first and what milestones you would reach before raising, if at all. Add a list of the questions you would take to a licensed attorney and a CPA, because this course is educational and not legal, tax or investment advice.
| Criterion | Weight | What excellent work looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Financial model | 30% | The forecast is driven by labeled assumptions, formulas are correct and burn, runway and break-even are calculated for all scenarios. |
| Legal foundations | 20% | Entity choice is justified and the document checklist covers founder agreement, IP assignment, terms, privacy policy and tax registrations. |
| Funding analysis | 30% | Options are compared on stage fit, cost of capital, control and risk, and the chosen path is linked to concrete milestones. |
| Cap table and professional questions | 20% | Dilution math is correct and the questions for professionals are specific to the venture's real decisions. |
Portfolio piece
An 18-month runway model, a cap table and a funding strategy memo that you can update as the venture evolves.
Next step
Continue with ENT107 · Final Project: Pitch and Launch Plan for a Tech Venture · 8 hours · $56.00
Course Content
ENT106 · Finance, Legal Basics and Funding Options (8 h)
-
Lesson 1 · Cash flow, burn and runway
-
Lesson 2 · Legal foundations for US tech ventures
-
Lesson 3 · Funding options and dilution
-
Lesson 4 · Lab and assignment
-
ENT106 Assessment · Finance, Legal Basics and Funding Options