The CVF Journal
Field notes on capital efficiency, the EBITCAC framework, and the economics of non-dilutive growth for Series A/B SaaS startups.
What Is a Good EBITCAC? SaaS Benchmarks by Stage
What separates a healthy EBITCAC from one that hides a loss? The input benchmarks by ARR stage, and the point where acquisition spend stops paying back.
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The True Cost of Revenue-Based Financing: Effective APR
The cap on a revenue-based financing deal is not its cost. Here is how to find the effective annual rate hidden inside an RBF term sheet.
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How to Raise Non-Dilutive Debt When Your SaaS Is Usage-Based
Usage-based pricing breaks the covenants lenders wrote for subscriptions. How to structure the borrowing base, covenants, and prep to raise non-dilutive debt.
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How to Fund a SaaS Acquisition Without Giving Up Equity
A profitable SaaS company can buy a competitor without selling equity by financing the deal against recurring revenue. Here is the capital stack and the sizing math.
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Earnouts in SaaS Acquisitions: How Founders Get Paid After the Deal
An earnout ties part of your acquisition price to targets you hit after close. Here is how SaaS earnouts are structured, what triggers payment, and how to protect yours.
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How to Finance AI Compute Costs Without Giving Up Equity
Training runs and inference bills add up fast. Here is how AI-native startups fund compute with credits, revenue-based financing, and venture debt instead of equity.
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What Happens When Your Venture Debt Matures: Refinance or Repay
At maturity a venture debt facility can be refinanced, extended, or repaid. Here is how lenders decide and how to reach that date with options.
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How Much Venture Debt Can You Actually Raise?
Lenders size venture debt at 20-50% of your last round or 30-50% of ARR. Here is the math, the metrics that move the ceiling, and how EBITCAC raises it.
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The Funding MAC Clause: How Lenders Walk From Undrawn Tranches
A signed term sheet is not guaranteed capital. A funding MAC clause lets the lender refuse undrawn tranches, and the wording decides how much discretion they keep.
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Interest-Only vs Amortizing Venture Debt: The Runway You Actually Get
Venture debt adds less runway than the headline math suggests. The cushion sits in the interest-only period; once amortization starts, repayment competes with burn.
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What Unlocks Your Second Venture-Debt Tranche?
Your venture-debt commitment is a ceiling, not cash. These are the milestones that release the second tranche, and how to set triggers you can actually hit.
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Why Venture-Debt Applications Get Rejected (and the EBITCAC Fix)
A venture-debt decline is usually one or two lines in a credit template. Here is what gets a SaaS application rejected, ranked, and how to fix each before you apply.
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