How to Create Your Annual Operating Budget

As the current year comes to an end, it’s time to start creating your annual operating budget, especially if you’re a growing startup.

Building an operating model and budget is as much an art as it is a science. It is an exercise in predicting the future based on limited information today. However, in the world of startups, were there are already plenty of unknowns, there are more unknowns than ever before, making your annual operating budgeting process all the more important.

Historically, the most successful founding teams will take their time at the end of each year to project out growth, expenses, head count, and other KPIs in order to prep game plan for the following year.

Need helping thinking through or creating next year’s budget? Join Graphite and SVB for a workshop led by Paul Bianco, CEO of Graphite and past VC, as he leads us through how to think about and create our annual operating budgets.

Topics Covered:

Do I need to increase my prices due to inflationary pressures? Will that lead to higher churn?

How can I build my model in a way that is both useful is a tool for the business but also defensible and explainable to my current and future investors.