Module 03 · The board deck~90s dwell · weight 11
KPI dashboard (revenue, growth, burn, runway, cash)
Show the 5-6 numbers that define company health, trended over time, against plan.
This is the slide directors study line by line, often re-reading it during the meeting itself. Bill Gurley's runway writing treats cash and runway as the two numbers that deserve the most scrutiny.
Include
- Revenue (ARR/MRR), growth rate, burn, cash balance, runway in months
- Trend over the last 4-6 quarters, not just this quarter's snapshot
- Actual vs. plan for each metric, not actual alone
Cut
- Vanity metrics with no link to revenue or runway (signups, downloads, press mentions)
- More than 6-7 metrics; a dashboard that needs its own legend has failed
Red flags a reader notices
- Runway is stated in dollars, not months
- Burn is shown but cash-out date is never stated explicitly
Pitfalls behind them
- Showing MRR growth rate but not absolute burn, which hides how many months are left
- Changing which metrics appear each quarter so trends can't be tracked
60-second self-test
- · Can a director calculate the cash-out month from this slide alone?
- · Is every number here also traceable to the P&L slide, exactly?
Template
[Metric]: [value] ([+/-X]% vs. plan) , trend over last N quarters
Weak
"Our metrics are looking great with strong growth and healthy engagement across the platform."
Strong
"ARR: $196K (+38% MoM). Burn: $312K/mo (plan: $280K). Cash: $1.87M. Runway: 6 months, cash-out Aug 2026. 41% of active users engage via Slack integration weekly."
Nimbus states runway as a month, not a range, which is what lets the board react in this meeting instead of the next one.
Quick quiz
Pick an answer. Nothing is graded, and correct answers stay hidden until you choose.
1. Which unit should runway be reported in?
2. Why cap the dashboard at 6-7 metrics?