Default Alive or Default Dead?

•Why it earns a slot

The five-minute essay that has saved more startups than most accelerators. The question still gets asked too late.

One question determines a startup's strategy: at current growth and spending, do you reach profitability before the money runs out? Most founders cannot answer it, and the ones who ask too late meet the fatal pinch: default dead, plus investors who no longer want to help.

This distillation is written from the freely available original, which is always the better read when you have the time: paulgraham.com.