How to Build a Pre-Seed Financial Model Without Revenue

Episode 25 of The Pre-Seed Podcast tackles the intimidating task of building a financial model when you have zero revenue and no historical data. Lucas walks through the Lean Canvas approach adapted for finance, explaining how to project costs, estimate unit economics from industry benchmarks, and model three funding scenarios. He shares the specific three-statement model template he used at his own startup, which helped land a $250,000 pre-seed check. Luna pushes back on the value of detailed projections pre-revenue, and Lucas concedes that the model's real purpose is showing investor-grade thinking, not accuracy. They discuss the norm in 2026: pre-seed investors expect a 12-month cash flow forecast and a basic cap table. The episode includes a natural donation segment where Lucas notes listener support keeps the podcast ad-free (buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo). #FinancialModel #PreSeed #StartupFinance #UnitEconomics #ThreeStatementModel #LeanCanvas #CashFlowForecast #CapTable #BurnRate #RevenueProjections #InvestorReadiness #FounderEducation #BusinessModel #PreRevenue #StartupMetrics #Business #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo