Five buckets — product, GTM, ops, hiring, buffer — mapped to milestones and the people who deliver them.
Layout
Use of Funds
5 blocks · 2-row grid
"A use-of-funds doc is a hiring plan with a budget — not a budget with a hiring plan."
What it is
Five buckets. Product & Engineering names hires and capabilities unlocked. Sales & Marketing names hires plus channel spend. Operations covers the unsexy back office. Hiring Plan dates each role. Buffer & Runway gives an honest months-of-runway number.
Origin
Use-of-funds breakdowns started as line-item finance schedules required by banks and grant programs. The startup-era refresh aligned them to milestones rather than account codes — investors aren't auditors; they want to know what the dollars are buying.
When to reach for it
Closing a round and the term sheet asks for a use-of-funds schedule.
Briefing the board on how the new round translates into headcount and capability.
Reviewing internally after a raise — does the planned ramp still make sense?
The blocks
Worked example uses A Series A SaaS startup ($15M raise).
What good looks like
Engineering hires by quarter, infra spend, specific capabilities and outcome milestones.
Example — A Series A SaaS startup ($15M raise)
$5.2M. 6 engineers (2 platform, 2 product, 2 ML), 1 design lead, 1 staff engineer. Infra ~$240k for multi-region scale. Outcome: ship platform v3, enterprise SSO, SOC 2 Type II.
What good looks like
Sales hires (BDR/AE/leadership), marketing programs, channel paid budget, funnel targets.
Example — A Series A SaaS startup ($15M raise)
$4.6M. 4 AEs ($550k loaded × 4), 2 BDRs ($220k × 2), 1 VP Marketing. Paid acquisition $80k → $150k/month ramp. Content engine $25k/month. Target: 50 new enterprise logos.
What good looks like
Finance/legal/HR/CS hires, tools, compliance, facilities.
Example — A Series A SaaS startup ($15M raise)
$1.3M. Head of People, Senior Counsel (contractor → FT), Senior FP&A. Compliance & legal ~$280k. Tooling $9k/month average.
What good looks like
Roles × quarters × seniority. Each owns an outcome, not a task. Sourcing channel.
Example — A Series A SaaS startup ($15M raise)
Q1: VP Marketing, 2 AEs, 1 staff eng, 1 platform eng. Q2: VP People, 2 AEs, 2 BDRs, design lead. Q3: 2 product engs, 2 ML engs, FP&A. Q4: Counsel, hiring fills hold.
What good looks like
Months of runway, buffer in burn, trigger to cut, runway after planned hires.
Example — A Series A SaaS startup ($15M raise)
18 months at planned burn. 3-month buffer baked into burn estimate. Cut trigger: if ARR growth misses Q2 target by >20%, freeze 30% of remaining hires.
How to use it
Lead with hires, follow with infra. People are the largest spend at every stage.
Each hire gets a quarter of start and an owner of what they deliver.
Marketing budget needs a CAC assumption attached, or it's just a number.
Buffer is a feature, not a failure. Plans that exhaust runway lose negotiating leverage at the next raise.
Common mistakes
Round percentages with no plan. "30% to growth" isn't a plan.
Hiring without sourcing channels. Senior eng leadership in 60 days is a fantasy without a stated plan.
No buffer. Plans built to exhaust the round on day one collapse the next raise.
Spin up the canvas in one click. Copilot will score every cell against the same rubric this guide describes.
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