Should I cut costs to extend runway or spend to grow?

Extending runway by cutting costs often leads to a 'slow death' where you lack the fuel to actually pivot. If your current growth is flat, buying three extra months of stagnation solves nothing. We recommend spending your remaining capital on one high-conviction, aggressive play that generates a 3x increase in signal or revenue, making you bankable again.

How do we decide which features to keep and which to kill?

We look at the 20% of your product that drives 80% of the user value. If a feature doesn't directly contribute to a conversion or a core proof point for investors, it is bloat. We strip the roadmap down to the bare essentials to ensure your limited engineering resources are focused entirely on the single most likely path to survival.

Can a short runway actually be an advantage for a turnaround?

Yes, because it forces a level of radical honesty that well-funded companies lack. With 3 to 6 months of cash left, you no longer have the luxury of politeness or 'nice-to-have' projects. This constraint forces founders to make the hard decisions they have been avoiding, often resulting in a leaner, more focused business that finally finds traction.

What happens if the aggressive play fails to find product-market fit?

If you fail after an aggressive play, you leave with a clear answer and a clean cap table. If you fail by slowly fading out, you waste years of your life on a zombie company. An aggressive failure is often more respected by VCs than a long, drawn-out decline, as it demonstrates decisive leadership and clear market testing.

How do we pitch a short-runway company to new investors?

You don't pitch the past; you pitch the velocity of the pivot. Investors back teams that can iterate fast under pressure. By showing 4 weeks of rapid growth or a significant change in unit economics following a radical strip-back, you create a narrative of a 'phoenix' startup that is finally onto something real and worth saving.

Time's tight

Short runway, still choosing

The countdown is fixed but your strategy is not. We help you skip the salvage operations and build one final, aggressive play to find product-market fit. Use the remaining months to win, not just to survive.

Short runway doesn't mean no options. It means fewer of them, made faster, with less room to be wrong. Whether you're in a cash crunch, a turnaround, or a quiet wind-down, the bold move is to choose deliberately — not just react.

Use Grower to map the realistic moves, costs, and timing.

Make the next move

Pressure-test it in an hour

Use Grower to scope the bet, or book a call with us.

Decisive action

Stop counting pennies and start counting hits

Your bank account has a finite end date and current growth is too slow. You are stuck between cutting costs to buy time or spending the lot on one last attempt to scale. The default path is a slow fade. Hypergility strips your product back to the high-conviction features that actually convert. We stop the bloat and focus on the single lever that moves the needle before the runway hits zero. You get a lean, functional engine that proves your hypothesis to investors or generates immediate revenue. We turn a desperate situation into a sharp, credible turnaround effort. We trade hesitation for velocity.

What you bring

The remaining capital and the nerve to bet it all on one focused, high-stakes direction.

What we add

Ruthless technical execution and product logic that ignores everything except your primary metric.

What changes

The atmosphere shifts from managing a decline to executing a calculated, aggressive offensive.

Cash crunch

Cash is tight, decisions are tighter. Choose the next move on purpose.

Cash Crunch Reality: Cash is tight, but this isn't a death sentence.
The Hoping Trap: It is hard to confront the reality rather than hoping the situation will improve on its own.
Deliberate Choices: Stop hoping and start choosing.

How do I calculate my true survival runway?

Take your current bank balance and divide it by your average monthly net burn. However, to be safe, subtract 15% from that total to account for unforeseen emergencies.

“Startups don't die when they run out of money. They die when the founders run out of energy and ideas.”

— Paul Graham, Co-founder, Y Combinator

Turnaround / restructure

The business must look different to survive. Your runway is the only metric that matters. Lead the reset with absolute clarity and move before the decision is taken out of your hands.

Early reset, swift action: Founders must act fast on cost, team, product, and pricing to preserve value in a turnaround situation.
Don't delay till forced: Waiting for absolute clarity or allowing the numbers to dictate the restructure leads to greater value erosion and a harder battle.
Pressure-test restructure plan: The bold move is to proactively pressure-test your restructure plan before full commitment, reducing risks and optimising outcomes.

How do we decide who stays and who goes?

You cut to the bone of the core product. Identify the absolute minimum headcount required to maintain your primary revenue-generating asset.

Distressed

Down to the wire. Preserve what's real, choose the next chapter.

Down to the wire: It is brutal but clarifying.
Slow collapse: The trap is to view current conditions as a slow collapse rather than an opportunity for deliberate redesign.
Preserve, pivot, sell, or wind down: The bold move is to make the difficult decision to preserve, pivot, sell, or wind down your business.

How do I know if my startup is officially insolvent?

In the UK, insolvency is triggered if you can't pay debts as they fall due or if your liabilities outweigh assets on the balance sheet. Under the Insolvency Act 1986, continuing to trade while insolvent can lead to personal liability for directors.

Preserve, or pivot

Keep the current bet — or change it. Decide before the runway decides for you.

Sticking with a Bet: Founders are faced with the dilemma of whether to continue with their current business idea or product, despite any challenges they might be facing.
Fear of Pivoting: There's a constant fear of changing direction too soon and abandoning a promising idea, or changing too late after exhausting resources and time.
Decisive Test and Deadline: The best step is to establish an unambiguous deadline and a clear, measurable test for the current strategy to make an informed, timely decision.

When is the right time to move from the current path?

You move when the data proves your core assumption is wrong or the cost of acquisition permanently exceeds lifetime value. According to Startup Genome, 70% of startups struggle due to premature scaling.

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