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Finance plays defenseFinance plays defenseFinance plays defense
Finance plays defense

Finance plays defense

Avoid a 7x1 against your startup with these 3 financial statements. Discover how not to die because of finance and call all the female founders you know!
Regina Pernaz
Content Specialist
Published
November 17, 2022

In your startup, product, sales, and marketing teams often get the spotlight: they attack and score the goals ⚽️. But why nobody is talking about those own goals that you've been scoring for neglecting your Unit Economics, Benjamin? (We might or might not be spying on you.)

Finance doesn’t score any fancy goals, but there's no victory without it.

While everybody attacks, finance plays defense, protects the arch and tries to avoid a disastrous 7x1 from happening ever again meu Deus do céu, por favor.

Brazilians after remembering the 7x1. Sorry.

Felipe Mansano, from EquitasVC, gave us a very practical class the other day on how not to f*cking die because of finance. Clear and to the point.

"I found out that a lot of startups don't consider basic finances from the start. When they grow and even become unicorns, the lack of foundation becomes more visible, and the risk of the whole building falling apart only increases," says Felipe.

So, how to make the right passes and win this financial game?

Easy! (not really)

The BIG 3 financial statements

1. Income statement

It starts with how much money you made from sales.

With each line you go down in the income statement, more expenses are taken from your sales. At the end of the statement, you reach the net income.

Why is it important? You can use it to analyze the profitability of your startup.

2. Cash flow statement

It starts where the income statement ends: at the net income of your company.

After going through Capex and debt repayment, it gets to free cash flow. That's, basically, how much you've earned or burned at the end of the period analyzed in the statement.

Why is it important? You can use it to check your startup's runway – and like, you know, avoid running out of money, maybe?

3. Balance sheet

On the left, is the stuff you own. On the right, the stuff you have to pay and what's left for the shareholders.

Both sides must be equal:

Total assets = total liabilities + total equity

Why is it important? You can use the balance sheet to assess the health of your business. No toxicity is allowed in this household, young founder.

"And that's it?"

Pfft, you wish, Carmen – we are here for the World Cup, not second-division games.

If you want a good score on Startup Finance 101, mandatory lessons also include accrual x cash basis, contribution margin, customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), burn multiple, and much, much more.

Breath. We have it all covered on our blog! – aren't we life-savers?

To end this match with a superb goal right at the last minute, Felipe Mansano also shared the minimum that you should know to be able to focus on growing your business, while not letting finance be a problem now and in the future.

Sounds interesting? Then go get your sneakers!

Learn how to play defense with your finance

Don't lose the match before even starting!

A seat at the table

Last week, we hosted our first-ever Latitud Female Dinner in Mexico City!

On this rad night, we shared a table with some of the most brilliant founders from the startup ecosystem. And they are ready to add new rules to the game – see any familiar faces?

However, it has to be said: for some odd reason (aka patriarchy) female founders make up less than 15% of our programs’ applications. WTF?!

We are on a mission to bring more bad-ass entrepreneurial women together. But we need the help of our community – that's you!

If you know any female founders or soon-to-be founders ready to eat the world, give them a push our way and let them know about our programs!

Next applications will open next year, so you still have that Christmas party to put in a good word for us.

Send this to every female founder you know!

And if you ARE a female founder, don't let that impostor syndrome get in your way!

Make Beyoncé proud!

⛵ Hot News Ahoy!

Perfect food

Perkecto, the Mexican platform that aims to avoid food waste, raised US$ 1.1M in pre-seed funding to expand its subscription box program. Congrats to our fellows Jan Heinvirta and Anahi Sosa for this achievement!

For more women in tech

Peruvian edtech Laboratoria got US$ 4M grant from MacKenzie Scott to support women in tech and boost their strategy in the region. Congrats to our fellow Mariana Costa and the whole Laboratoria team!

-> Every time one of your friends subscribes to our Newsletter, ✨ a female founder plays the game wins the match and takes home the cup ✨ So ask them to subscribe!

Stay tuned

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