Foundry Academy · Funding Readiness · Lesson 1 of 6

Define the milestone and cash need

Produce a milestone-based funding gap and explain which cash is truly available.

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01 · Explanation

Define the milestone and cash need

Objective: Produce a milestone-based funding gap and explain which cash is truly available.

Start with a decision the money makes possible: for this case, producing and testing a pilot batch before larger manufacturing commitments. Write the deliverables, acceptance criteria, owner, and cash timing before choosing a funding product. A budget is a statement of intended uses; a financing request is the portion not covered by funds that are both available and authorized for that purpose. Separate existing obligations and operating reserves from money available for a new milestone. Never count an unsigned expression of interest, hoped-for grant, or anticipated investor conversation as cash.

The four incremental uses total $60,000. A stated 10% planning allowance adds $6,000, so the milestone needs $66,000. The fictional $24,000 cash balance less the proposed $9,000 protected reserve leaves $15,000 available, producing a $51,000 funding gap. That is a scenario, not an approved request: the reserve, scope, estimates, and cash availability still need human review. The $3,000 monthly operating shortfall is a warning, not a second expense to silently add twice. Build a dated cash schedule to show whether the milestone working-capital line already covers a given shortfall. The packet lacks that schedule, so report the uncertainty instead of presenting a precise runway forecast.

Before you begin

  • Read the source facts and preserve their fictional status.
  • Keep estimates and absent evidence visible.
  • Use no private records or live application systems.

Original overview module anchor →

02 · Compare the artifacts

Supported work. Visible uncertainty.

Fictional training case. No real company, funder, offer, application, deadline or outcome is represented. Do not submit, contact, sign, upload private records, or treat calculations as financial/legal advice.

Canyon Sensor Works — from funding wish to reviewable packet

A Utah industrial-sensor startup wants a pilot milestone funded within six weeks. Its budget contains both estimates and an engineering estimate; ordinary operations consume more cash than they generate. Two simulated grants and two simulated financing structures create tempting but flawed shortcuts. Your job is to produce six traceable artifacts, preserve missing evidence, and prepare a human-review handoff—not to obtain funding.

Supported example — reference only

Line
Funding gap
Calculation or evidence
$66,000 total need − $15,000 available; F02/F03
Amount USD
51,000
Assumption or gap
Reserve and cash timing need approval
Reviewer and status
Founder and finance reviewer — draft

A well-handled evidence gap

Line
Cash timing
Calculation or evidence
F04 supplies monthly totals, not collection timing
Amount USD
Not supplied
Assumption or gap
Build a weekly cash schedule; do not claim eight months of usable runway
Reviewer and status
Finance reviewer — open

Flawed approach — do not copy

Request $66,000 because that is the project cost, count all $24,000 as available in a different worksheet, and omit the protected reserve. The two representations disagree and cannot support a financing decision.

Repair: Reconcile the request to one cash bridge: $60,000 of milestone uses plus the $6,000 planning allowance equals $66,000; $24,000 cash less the proposed $9,000 reserve leaves $15,000 available. Show the resulting $51,000 gap in both the budget and narrative. Mark the reserve, estimates and missing cash-timing schedule for finance review, and keep any delayed-tooling alternative separate from the base case.

Full case record, ambiguities and all assignments →

03 · Bounded practice

Build the milestone cash bridge.

Rebuild the four cost lines, planning allowance, available-cash bridge, and $51,000 gap from F02–F04. Write an alternative that delays tooling; label it a proposal, not an approved saving.

Deliverable: A cost bridge with formulas, source IDs, estimate status, reserve assumption, missing cash-timing schedule, and founder/finance-review owner.

Use only the cited fictional inputs. Label estimates, proposals and missing evidence. No real outreach, submission, signature, offer acceptance, data transfer, or credential claim is authorized by this exercise.

Exact supplied inputs for this assignment
  • M01-I01 · F02 — The incremental pilot milestone budgets $18,000 prototype work, $12,000 testing, $20,000 tooling, and $10,000 pilot working capital. These are separate from ordinary monthly operating expenses.
  • M01-I02 · F03 — The planning allowance is 10% of the $60,000 incremental milestone budget. Cash in the fictional record is $24,000; the founders propose keeping $9,000 untouched as an operating reserve. No other funds are committed.
  • M01-I03 · F04 — Monthly ordinary cash receipts are $6,000 and ordinary cash expenses are $9,000. Receipts are not signed future orders. The case does not supply a month-by-month collection schedule or forecast.
  • M01-I04 · F10 — An engineering estimate supports prototype work. Testing and tooling amounts are founder estimates with no supplier quotation or validity date. No independent technical or regulatory review is supplied.

Operating procedure

  1. Name the pilot milestone and its acceptance decision.
  2. List the four incremental uses from F02 without adding ordinary expenses a second time.
  3. Apply the stated allowance to the $60,000 subtotal, not to a different base.
  4. Subtract only cash authorized for this milestone after the proposed reserve.
  5. Reconcile the resulting $51,000 gap and label every number as supplied, calculated, or estimated.
  6. Log the missing cash schedule and ask a finance reviewer to test timing and the reserve.
  7. Record the delayed-tooling alternative separately as an unapproved proposal.
Field-by-field guidance
Line
Record line with a source or explicit assumption. Example: Funding gap Keep an absent value marked not supplied.
Calculation or evidence
Record calculation or evidence with a source or explicit assumption. Example: $66,000 total need − $15,000 available; F02/F03 Keep an absent value marked not supplied.
Amount USD
Record amount usd with a source or explicit assumption. Example: 51,000 Keep an absent value marked not supplied.
Assumption or gap
Record assumption or gap with a source or explicit assumption. Example: Reserve and cash timing need approval Keep an absent value marked not supplied.
Reviewer and status
Record reviewer and status with a source or explicit assumption. Example: Founder and finance reviewer — draft Keep an absent value marked not supplied.
Milestone cash bridge · learning draft
LineCalculation or evidenceAmount USDAssumption or gapReviewer and status

Start with 6 rows; the complete workbook specifies 6 stable rows for this artifact. Add rows here or use the full download. No action is saved until you explicitly choose saving above.

Download complete six-module workbook (.md) · Structured case packet (.json)

Keep private client data, unpublished inventions, personal identifiers and credentials out of these public learning tools.

Module 1 · 2-item formative check

Define the milestone and cash need

Choose an answer and request feedback. Read why each option does or does not fit the evidence. Answers stay in this tab unless you choose device-only saving; they are never submitted.

Question 1 of 2 · MODULE 1 · scenarioWhat is the case milestone funding gap after the planning allowance and protected reserve?
Question 2 of 2 · MODULE 1 · scenarioCan the monthly totals support a reliable dated runway forecast?

Answer either question to review its reasoning.

Inspect the artifact, not just your quiz answers

  • The $60,000 subtotal, $6,000 allowance, $15,000 available cash, and $51,000 gap reconcile
  • Operating reserve and ordinary cash shortfall are not counted as free cash or double-counted expenses
  • Every estimate, proposed scope change, and missing timing record has an explicit status

Stop: Stop if a material source, authority, or applicable eligibility condition is absent or contradicted.

Go: Go only to the next bounded learning artifact after the supplied facts and limits are represented accurately.

Escalate: Route actual financing, tax, legal, technical, safety and program-specific decisions to qualified reviewers; do not infer approval.

04 · Evidence to keep

Leave with usable work.

A cost bridge with formulas, source IDs, estimate status, reserve assumption, missing cash-timing schedule, and founder/finance-review owner.

Download your artifact CSV and, if wanted, export the learning-work JSON above. Neither export is a reviewed submission or certificate. Device-only saving is optional; you must press Save my work now after edits.

When all six artifacts are ready, compare the full packet against the track rubric. Qualified human review is still required before real-world decisions.

Funding readiness specialist reviewing a document with business statistics.
Learn the standard. Practice the work.
Founder reviewing and signing a prepared business funding document.
Leave with evidence you can inspect.

Sources, scope and review boundaries

Curriculum 2026.10.08-learning-paths-1. External source dates below are record checks, not continuing guarantees. Verify current requirements before consequential use.

sba-loans · Official guidance

Loans — U.S. Small Business Administration

Official overview of SBA-backed lending and provider-specific eligibility. It does not substantiate the fictional offer, rate or company qualification.

Open reviewed external source ↗

ws-funding-evidence-standard · Academy internal operating standard

Wealth Synergy funding evidence and readiness teaching standard

Academy-authored screening, arithmetic, evidence-index, privacy and no-submission exercises. All case rates, company facts and programs are fictional. This is not externally validated instruction or individualized financial/legal advice.

Version 2026.10.08-1 · reviewed 2026-10-08 · owner: Foundry Academy curriculum owner

A future Wealth Synergy private professional-development certificate would be issued only after its assessment, capstone, identity, reviewer, retention, access, deletion, appeal, and issuance controls pass quality review. No credential is currently issued. Any future certificate would not be an accredited academic qualification, professional license, or government certification.