Hi everyone, our early stage startup just raised a first round, currently for 12-18 months of runway. Like the US, inflation is hitting Europe with ~7.5% p.a., salary expectations in job interviews with newly grads are already up 15-20% compared to last year.
After a long time of bootstrapping, “just spend faster” is not a viable option to prevent inflation from shrinking that pile of cash we're sitting on – we're both culturally and operationally not yet ready to open the floodgates: hiring the right people and building the team takes time, and we also haven't figured out which sales channels are the right ones to scale. Our business is highly cyclical, so we need certain periods of the year to figure stuff out while improving product and ramping up capacity in the mean time.
How do you fellow founders manage this situation? Do your companies hold assets to hedge inflation risks? Do you think about putting clauses into contracts with investors to adjust future payments to inflation? Are there any good reads on cash management for startups in general?
