The single most clarifying question a founder can answer: on your current growth and burn, do you become profitable before you run out of cash? If you don’t know the answer cold, that’s the first thing to fix.

This piece will cover:

• The default-alive vs. default-dead test
• Why fundraising hides the answer instead of solving it
• The two levers — growth and burn — and when to pull each

Working draft — an outline for now; the full version is coming.