Months of runway from cash and net burn.
Runway
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Net monthly burn
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Cash on hand
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Your breakdown
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Runway is a division, not a forecast
Founders tend to overcomplicate runway. At its core it is one division: cash you can spend, divided by the cash you lose each month after revenue. This tool does exactly that. It takes your bank balance, subtracts monthly revenue from monthly costs to get net burn, and tells you how many months that balance lasts. Everything else, the fundraising story, the hiring plan, the optimism, sits on top of that single number. If you are a seed-stage Malaysian startup deciding whether to hire a second engineer or hold the line, this is the figure that should anchor the conversation.
The reason it works as a planning anchor is that it strips out wishful thinking. Revenue you hope to close next quarter is not in the bank, so it does not count. The tool only nets the revenue you put in against the costs you put in. That discipline is the whole point.
What actually sits inside your Malaysian burn rate
The monthly cost figure you type in is not just salaries and SaaS subscriptions. For a company employing staff in Malaysia, payroll carries statutory add-ons that quietly inflate burn. On top of gross wages you fund employer EPF, which the EPF (KWSP) sets at around 12 to 13 percent of wages for employees under 60, lower or nil for older staff. You also pay the employer share of SOCSO and EIS through PERKESO. So a developer on RM8,000 a month costs you noticeably more than RM8,000 once those contributions are layered on. When you estimate burn, build the loaded payroll figure, not the headline salary.
On the revenue side, watch the SST line. Once your taxable turnover crosses the service tax registration threshold, which the law currently sets at RM500,000 a year, you must register and charge service tax. That tax is collected for the government, not kept, so it should not be counted as revenue that funds your burn. Treat the statutory contribution rates and the SST threshold here as figures to confirm with KWSP, PERKESO, and the Royal Malaysian Customs, since they shift between budgets.
Six months on RM300,000: the arithmetic
Take the default scenario. You hold RM300,000 in cash, spend RM80,000 a month, and bring in RM30,000 a month in revenue. Net burn is RM80,000 less RM30,000, which is RM50,000. Divide RM300,000 by RM50,000 and you get exactly 6.0 months of runway. The chart below shows the cash balance stepping down by RM50,000 each month until it hits zero.
When net burn turns negative
If you raise monthly revenue above monthly costs, net burn becomes zero or negative and the tool reports "cash-flow positive" instead of a month count. That is correct: you are no longer consuming cash from operations, so there is no finite runway to run out. A practical tip, though. Cash-flow positive on a spreadsheet is not the same as durably profitable. Lumpy enterprise revenue, a delayed client payment, or one large annual software renewal can flip a "positive" month back into a burning one. Run the calculator with your worst plausible revenue month, not your average, and keep at least three months of buffer beyond whatever the tool shows.
Should I include my founder salary in burn?
Yes, if you are actually drawing one. Many Malaysian founders pay themselves a token salary or nothing in the early months, which flatters runway. The honest approach is to model the salary you will need to keep paying yourself, including the employer EPF and PERKESO contributions on it, so the runway reflects a sustainable team rather than a temporary sacrifice.
Does this account for a one-off large expense?
No. The tool assumes a steady monthly burn. If you have a chunky one-off coming, such as a security audit, legal fees for a funding round, or annual insurance, subtract it from cash on hand before you start, or it will overstate your runway. The figure works best as a smoothed monthly view, with big irregular costs handled separately.