Financial · Step 1 of 5
Know your launch number and your monthly number.
Two pages, one answer: the cash it takes to open the doors, and what every customer costs you each month after. A price set without both breaks even at best.
Saves time
Start from a laid-out budget with typical figures as a guide, instead of a blank spreadsheet and an afternoon of searching for what things cost.
Saves money
Payment fees, per-user costs and a contingency buffer are on the page from the start, so they don't surprise you after you've set a price.
Solid footing
Every later number, from your price floor to your runway, is built on costs you actually entered, not a guess.
The 2 activities in this step
Each one hands its answer to the next, so you never start from a blank page.
Activity 1
Startup Budget
The one-time cash it takes to launch.
The usual way
A spreadsheet started from scratch, with lines forgotten until the invoice arrives. Contingency is usually zero.
With ViableBrand
Four ready categories (legal, product, brand, operations) with typical figures shown as hints. Your filing-fee line follows the state you chose in Formation, and a contingency slider adds a buffer.
You walk away with: A single “total cash to launch” figure, line by line, with a buffer you chose.
Activity 2
Cost to Serve
What it costs every month to run the product, per paying and free user.
The usual way
Adding up tool invoices by hand and forgetting payment fees, support time and what free users cost.
With ViableBrand
The tools you picked in Your Stack arrive as rows already. Describe the rest in plain words or import a spreadsheet and the co-pilot drafts the rows for you to check. Stripe, PayPal, Square and Paddle fee presets are built in, and unlikely numbers get flagged.
You walk away with: Fixed monthly cost, cost per paying user and cost per free user.
What comes in
Your state from Formation sets the filing fee. The tools in Your Stack become your first cost rows.
What goes forward
Cost per paying user becomes your price floor in Pricing and Tier Builder, sets gross margin in Unit Economics, and seeds burn in Runway.
Find your real launch number.
Your first Blue Ocean report is free, with no card needed. Every step of the journey, including this one, lives in the Founders Hub.
Start freeValidation · Foundation · Financial · Launch