"How many dollars do you need before you don't need any more dollars?"

That's one of the first questions Steven Finn at Siddhi Capital asks every founder he's considering backing. He calls it "financing risk first": map the full capital path from here to cashflow positive.

During "peak stupid" (2019-2022), founders could skip this. "We'll raise a big Series B from generalists in 12 months" was part of the story, and most investors went ahead with it.

But the cap tables they built are now blocking new rounds, extensions, and exit conversations. Even when the underlying business is strong.

What a credible financing plan requires, across three questions:

1️⃣ How many dollars do you need before you don't need any more dollars? Work backwards from that number to specific milestones that change how a future investor can underwrite the business.

2️⃣ Where does the first big cheque go? If two-thirds of a round disappears into irreversible CAPEX on day one, there's no ability to slow burn, pivot, or survive a raise that runs longer than expected.

3️⃣ What does the exit look like? Siddhi bakes in that most food companies will be sold on EBITDA multiples. IPO is not the base case.

In Issue #141 of Better Bioeconomy, I talked with Steven about financing risk, cap table engineering, why tech and brand under one roof is a bad idea, and where GLP-1 and AI are creating real opportunity in food.