Most vet founders chase capital before customers; flip it. I coach veteran entrepreneurs and can share a simple 12-week cash-flow planner plus a funding roadmap that pairs SBA microloans with sales milestones — comment if you want the template or a 20-minute review this week. It’s the fastest path to traction and bankable numbers.
Closed three customers before applying; SBA microloan bridged inventory: Microloans | U.S. Small Business Administration — just watch net-30 bloat.
But ran a 12-week plan and tied each sales milestone to a draw request; asking for 30% upfront on pilots shrank our cash gap more than the microloan, @sfranklin34. Small caveat: disbursements lagged 2–3 weeks for us, so set ‘cash gates’ (next 6 weeks covered) and treat cash like ammo — short controlled bursts.
Quick example: switching to weekly invoices with a 2% ACH discount pulled cash in faster than our SBA microloan approval and saved me from a personal guarantee crunch… I’m with you on the 12-week map — add a line for “supplier terms won”; getting net-45 from a distributor covered an entire sprint by itself. @l_hunter77 does your template account for collections cadence?
Quick example: we turned the washout into a hard stop — last dose date is required in the CRM, and if it falls inside the window the system blocks scheduling and auto-adds ‘Per IRB‑approved protocol vX, reschedule after [date]’ to the rep’s email. Took a week of training, but automation beats arm‑wrestling sales. @siteCRC, do you use a similar hard stop in your calendar tool?
Ran a simple ‘cash-floor’ rule: under $25k, pause ads; push prepay… Enterprises prefer a refundable setup credit; template please?