How to build a long-term plan and forecast for investors: A scaleup guide

If you’re leading a scaleup, you’ve already proven that your business has legs. You’ve got traction, paying customers, and momentum on your side.

But when it comes to raising your next round, investors are looking for more than progress, they want a plan. They want to see where your business is heading, how you’ll get there, and what could stand in the way.

This guide will help you build exactly that: a long-term plan and forecast that inspires investor confidence. We’ll break down how to define your current position, map out your vision, model your financials, and manage risk.

Whether you’re raising a Series A, Series B, or preparing for an even bigger round, this is your playbook to give investors every reason to believe in what comes next.

1. Where you are now

Before you can plan where your business is going, you need a clear picture of where you are right now.

This section will help you define your current scaleup stage, highlight the key metrics investors look for, and understand why this matters when building a long-term forecast.

1a. Define your current position

Start by preparing the facts about your business today.

This shows investors you have a clear grasp of your operations and are building from something real, not just a big idea.

As part of this process, you should be able to clearly describe:

• Who you are as a founder – What makes you the right person to lead this business? Why should investors believe you?
• Your current revenue – What are you making monthly or annually as a result of your startup?
• Traction so far – How many customers do you have? Are they renewing, growing, or churning? What does usage or engagement look like?
• Product-market fit – Do you have evidence that your product is solving a real problem? Are customers sticking around and recommending it? If you are seeing traction, there is good evidence that you have a reasonable fit.
• Milestones achieved – What have you already accomplished? Maybe you’ve expanded into a new market, launched a new product line, or hit $1M in annual revenue.
• Competition and Total Addressable Market – Who else is playing in this space, and how big is the opportunity? Frame where you fit in and how you stand out.
• Strengths and weaknesses – Be honest about what’s working and what’s not. Are your sales processes repeatable? Is your tech scalable? Are there parts of your operations holding you back?

For many of these, you’ll need to justify them with the key financial metrics below.

1b. Key financial metrics to show you’re ready to scale

At this stage, you’re not a beginner company anymore, so investors want proof you know your numbers and that your business has what it takes to grow.

Here are the essential metrics to have at your fingertips:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue / Annual Recurring Revenue – How much recurring revenue are you bringing in monthly (MRR) or annually (ARR)? This is your predictability benchmark. If you’re north of $1M ARR, you’re already in early scaleup territory.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – What’s it costing you to win a new customer? Ideally, this number is going down over time, or at least makes sense given how much a customer is worth.
• Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) – How much revenue does the average customer bring in over their lifetime? This shows stickiness and value, especially important if you’re building a long-term customer base.
• CAC:LTV ratio – A 3:1 ratio or better tells investors you’re not overspending to grow. It means your growth is sustainable, or at least headed that way.
• Gross Margin – This is the percentage of revenue you keep after direct costs. For SaaS startups, 70%+ is strong. For product-based businesses, lower margins can still work, just make sure you can justify it.
• Burn Rate & Runway – How much are you spending each month? And how long can you last at that pace before you need to raise again? A lower burn and longer runway buys you time and builds investor confidence.

Start with the data you’ve already got, even ballpark numbers are better than nothing. Pull what you can from your monthly reports, or work with your accountant or CFO to get clearer figures.

If some numbers are hard to pin down, that’s okay. For example, if you’ve still got all your original customers, LTV might be hard to calculate. But estimates are still useful.

Once you’ve got the numbers, take a step back. Are they improving? Holding steady? Sliding? That narrative — the story behind the numbers — is what gives investors confidence that you know what you’re doing, and where you’re heading.

1c. How you’ll use these metrics for forecasting

These metrics matter because you can’t build a meaningful financial forecast if you don’t know your start position. They help you figure out:

• How much money you’ll need to grow
• How fast you can grow
• What might slow you down (we’ll talk more about that later)

For example, if your CAC is creeping up and your retention is flat, hiring a bigger sales team might just accelerate your costs without improving results.

Your numbers also help investors compare you to other startups. They look at common patterns — CAC:LTV ratios, gross margins, burn rates — to decide if your business is ready to scale or still has issues to work out.

The better you understand your current position, the easier it is to create a plan that investors will believe in.

2. Where you’re going

Once you’ve clarified where your business stands today, the next step is to map out where you’re headed.

This is what investors care about most: your potential. They want to see that you’ve thought about what success looks like, how you plan to get there, and what kind of investment will help you grow faster and smarter.

A strong long-term vision gives investors confidence in your leadership. This section will help you define that vision, outline key milestones, and build a credible forecast to support your fundraising journey.

2a. Define your long-term vision

Start by painting a clear, compelling picture of what success looks like. To do this, give yourself the question: What will my company look like in 10 years?

To do this, write down, “In 10 years, we are…” and describe your business at scale – who you're serving, what you're known for, and how the world is different because of you.

For example:

“In ten years, we help thousands of patients manage chronic pain without relying on medication. Our app is recommended by doctors, covered by insurance, and supported by strong clinical results. We’ve changed how people think about pain – from something to suppress, to something they can understand and control.”

There’s lots of ways to make an impact.

• Will you dominate a niche market?
• Expand globally?
• Evolve into a multi-product platform?
• Become the go-to solution for a critical industry problem?

A clear vision shows investors the kind of business you're building and why it matters. It becomes your North Star, helping you make tough decisions, stay focused when things get messy, and keep going when short-term wins are hard to find.

Your vision doesn’t need exact metrics, but it should be achievable. Visions with unachievable goals (e.g. “everyone in the world with chronic pain will use our app”) can set you up for failure – both in your business and with investors.

2b. Set growth milestones and revenue goals

To turn your vision into reality, you need to break it down into clear growth milestones.

Think of these as your business’s checkpoints — the big markers that show you’re on track. They give your long-term vision structure and make it easier to track progress over time.

Start by taking your big-picture goal and breaking it into smaller timeframes. For example: Where do you want to be in 3 years? In 5 years? In 7 years?

Then, for each timeframe, map out 3–5 key milestones. These might include:

• Hitting $10M, $50M, or $100M in ARR
• Expanding into new countries or customer segments
• Releasing new product lines or platform features
• Reaching profitability or preparing for exit (IPO or acquisition)

These milestones will become essential when you’re pitching to investors. They help explain why you’re raising, how the funding will fuel your growth, and what success looks like at each stage.

The clearer your milestones, the more investable your story becomes.

2c. Build your financial forecast

Your forecast is where vision meets numbers.

Investors don’t expect you to predict every line item, but they do want to see that you’ve thought critically about your growth.

In the early stages, a top-down forecast can be a helpful starting point. To do this, you begin with the size of the overall market, then estimate the slice you could reasonably capture. For example:

“If the total market is $1 billion. If we capture just 1%, that’s $10 million in revenue.”

A top-down forecast is great for showing potential and helping investors understand the scale of the opportunity. And if it’s your first time raising, this can often be enough to open the door.

But a top-down forecast doesn’t explain how you’ll achieve that market. It leans heavily on your vision and milestones to carry the weight. That’s why, especially as you grow, it’s important to also build a bottom-up forecast.

Bottom-up forecasting starts with real-world inputs you can control. These are things like how many team members you’re hiring, what your sales process looks like, and how much each customer is worth.

For example:

You’re a SaaS startup with 3 salespeople. Each month they sign up 10 new customers each (30 total). Each customer pays $200 a month, so that’s $6,000 of new income each month. But around 10% of customers leave each month.

Even with that, the business keeps growing:

• In the first month, you make $6,000
• In the second month, you lose $600 from people leaving, but add another $6,000, so now you make $11,400
• In the third month, you lose a bit more ($1,140), but still grow to $16,260

The more grounded your forecast is in reality, the more confident you, and your investors, will be in what comes next.

2d. Map out your competitive edge

It’s one thing to have a big vision, but investors also want to know: why will you succeed when others don’t?

This is your competitive edge, the reason customers will choose you over someone else, and the reason your business will get stronger over time.

Investors will be asking:

• What makes your product better, faster, or easier to use?
• What stops others (especially big companies) from copying you?
• Will your business become more profitable and sticky as it grows?

Let’s look at an example:

You’ve built software for a niche market that others ignore. You’re solving problems no one else is focused on, so you get loyal customers.

As you grow, you offer more features and expand into new markets, and because your data improves with every new customer, it becomes harder for emerging companies to compete with you.

What’s important here is that what gives you an edge now (being niche and focused) isn’t the same as what gives you an edge later (scale, data, and smarter systems). Your advantage grows with you.

But what if you don’t have an edge yet? Well, that can be fine. Just be honest and clear with your investors about what you’re doing to build one. For example:

“Right now, we rely on paid ads to grow. But over the next 6 months, we’ll shift to partnerships (which we’ve already started developing) — a cheaper and more sustainable strategy in our industry.”

You can also compare your business to others as a way to reveal your advantages. For instance, if it costs you less to get a customer than your competitors, that’s a strength, and it may be possible to turn the reason why into a strategic advantage.

With the best competitive strategies, the bigger you build, the bigger your advantage should become.

3. How you’ll get there

It’s one thing to have a strong vision and a clear forecast. But investors also want to know if you can deliver it.

This section is about showing that you have a plan, not just to grow, but to grow in a way that’s sustainable, strategic, and well-managed.

That means showing where you’ll invest, how you’ll scale operations, and how you’ll stay financially healthy while doing it.

3a. Set your funding roadmap

You won’t scale your startup in one big leap. Growth happens in stages and each stage usually needs its own round of capital.

That’s why investors don’t just want to know how much you’re raising. They want to know why now, and what comes next.

Your job is to connect the dots. Show how each round of funding unlocks a specific milestone, something real you’re building, launching, or scaling.

If you’ve been following this guide, you’ve already mapped out your growth milestones. Now, you need to tie them to the capital that will bring them to life.

For example:

• Series A → Build a repeatable sales process, grow the go-to-market team
• Series B → Expand into new markets, launch enterprise features
• Series C → Go global, prepare for IPO, acquire smaller players

Each round should match the size of the step you’re taking. Don’t raise $10M just to experiment. Don’t try to go international with $1M.

What matters most is clarity. Can you explain where you’re going, what milestones you’ll hit, and how this funding gets you there? If the answer is yes, you’re already ahead of most founders..

3b. Set your growth levers

Investors don’t just want to know that you’ll grow, they want to know how you’ll do it.

Start by identifying the key growth levers you plan to pull. These are the specific actions that will drive your next phase of revenue and move towards achieving your growth milestones. Here are some common ones:

• Market expansion – Entering new locations, industries, or customer types to grow your potential market.
• Product expansion – Launching new features, upsell options, or related products to increase how much each customer spends.
• Customer acquisition – Scaling up sales, marketing, or outbound efforts to bring in more customers faster.
• Customer monetisation – Improving how long customers stay and how much they spend through better retention, smarter pricing, or cross-sells.
• Strategic partnerships – Working with other companies to tap into their audience, tech, or brand to grow faster.

When revealing these to investors, don’t just list everything you could do. Rather, you should show what you’ve chosen to do, and why you’ve chosen that option. For example:

“We tested both paid ads and partner-led acquisition. Paid gave us faster volume, but leads from partners had 3x higher Lifetime Value (LTV) and 40% lower Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). So now we’re doubling down on partnerships.”

This kind of thinking shows maturity. It tells investors you’re testing what works, using real data to make decisions, and are focused on the levers that move the needle.

3c. Show where you’ll spend money

So you’ve planned your funding roadmap and set out your growth levers. Now, you need to drill down into the specific stage you’re applying for, and how you’ll use the money for that stage.

When you pitch to investors, they’ll want to know:

• Why are you asking for this specific amount?
• Why now?
• What will this money help you achieve?

They’re not just giving you money to “grow.” They want to see a clear, detailed plan for how you’ll use their investment to reach the next big milestone.

Let’s say you’re raising to reach a growth milestone of $10M in annual recurring revenue, and customer acquisition is your growth lever. You might say:

“We’re raising $5M to hire 10 senior salespeople and expand into two high-potential international markets.”

That kind of detail goes a long way. It tells investors what you’re doing, why it matters, and how it helps you grow. You can then break that $5 million down like this:

• $2.5M (50%) – Sales & Marketing: For hiring, training, sales tools, running campaigns, and building your brand in new regions.
• $1.5M (30%) – Hiring & Team Growth: For recruiting and paying those 10 senior salespeople, and possibly a sales leader or recruiter.
• $500K (10%) – International Expansion: To set up in new markets — things like legal, office space, local partners, and translating your materials.
• $500K (10%) – Safety Buffer: To cover unexpected costs or to double down on strategies that are working well.

This kind of breakdown builds trust. It shows investors you’ve thought it through and that their money will directly power your growth.

3d. Build a sustainable growth model

Growing your business isn’t just spending more money. Investors want to see that your business is learning, improving, and becoming more efficient over time — not just getting bigger, but getting better. That means:

• You’re spending money more wisely.
• You’re getting more customers without needing to spend as much.
• You’re making more profit from each customer.
• Your business can grow steadily without breaking under pressure.

To show this to investors, you can use simple metrics like:

• CAC payback period: This is how long it takes for a new customer to “pay back” the money it cost to get them. If it takes less than 12 months, that’s good. (e.g. If you spend $1,000 to get a customer, you want to earn that $1,000 back from them within a year.)
• Burn multiple: This tells investors how efficiently you’re spending to grow. (e.g. A burn multiple of 1.5 means you're spending $1.50 to make $1 in new revenue — okay for now, but not ideal. You want to get this under 1, meaning it costs less than a dollar to earn a dollar.)
• Improving margins: Are you making more money from each sale, either by charging more or reducing your costs?

Investors love it when you can show that your business is not just growing — it’s getting leaner, smarter, and more efficient. Here’s how you could show that:

“We’ve reduced our cost to acquire a new customer by 20% over the past year, thanks to better audience targeting and more strategic referrals from current customers.”

And if something’s not going perfectly, don’t shy away from the tougher numbers. Be honest with investors, but show what you’re doing to fix it:

“Customer drop-off increased by 8% last quarter, but we’ve already launched a better onboarding process to improve retention.”

Growth is great, but efficient growth is what builds a lasting business.

4.What could go wrong (and how you’ll handle it)

Investors don’t expect your journey to go perfectly. In fact, most of them assume something will go wrong. What they really want to know is: Are you ready for it?

When you spot risks early, and have a plan to handle them, you build trust. This is your chance to show that you’re thinking like a strategist, not just a dreamer.

Let’s walk through how you can spot the risks that actually matter, plan for different outcomes, and prove that you’re ready to adapt when the road gets bumpy.

4a. Identify your key risks

Every startup faces risks and investors know it. The question isn’t whether risks exist, but whether you’re ready for them.

So be proactive. Call them out. Show that you’ve thought about what could go wrong and what you’re already doing to stay ahead of it. Here are a few common areas to consider:

• Market risks – A downturn could tighten customer budgets. Regulations might shift. A well-funded competitor could come in swinging with better pricing or faster distribution.
• Internal risks – A key hire might leave or take longer than expected to replace. Your burn could creep up faster than forecast. Maybe your team or tech can’t scale fast enough.
• Product or revenue risks – Churn could spike if engagement drops. A major feature could be delayed. A key partner might walk.

You don’t need to list every possible risk, just focus on the ones most likely to throw your plan off course. The goal is simply to show that you’ve thought ahead. For example:

“We rely on a small number of enterprise clients. A sudden churn event would hit revenue. That’s why we’re strengthening onboarding, investing in support, and broadening our customer mix over the next 12 months.”

That’s how you turn a risk into a signal of readiness.

4b. Do scenario planning

Once you’ve identified risks, the next step is to model how they could impact your business. This is where scenario planning is useful.

Scenario planning is the practice of building multiple versions of your future so you're ready no matter what happens. Instead of betting everything on one outcome, you model a few different possibilities:

At a minimum, include three financial scenarios in your forecast:

• Base Case – This is what you think is most likely to happen, based on how things are going now.
• Best Case – This is what things look like if everything goes better than expected (like getting more customers faster or spending less to find them).
• Worst Case – This is a more cautious version, where things slow down (like taking longer to raise money, or getting fewer customers than expected).

In each case, you should estimate your financial metrics. These include:

• Revenue growth – The amount of money coming in from customers increases, stays steady, or slows down depending on performance.
• CAC and LTV – Your cost to acquire customers may rise or fall, and customer value may improve or decline based on efficiency and retention.
• Headcount and hiring timeline – You hire faster, slower, or pause hiring depending on growth and available resources.
• Burn rate and runway – Your monthly spending and how long your cash lasts will shift based on how aggressively or conservatively you operate.

So how does this play out:

*Let’s say in your base case you plan to hit $15 million ARR in Year 3. In your best case, that figure jumps to $25 million, but in your worst case, maybe you only reach $8 million ARR because customer growth is slower. *

Investors don’t expect you to know the future. What they do expect is that you’re ready for whatever comes. Scenario planning proves that you’ve thought things through and that you know how to stay in control.

And that’s why you also need risk mitigation strategies.

4c. Plan your risk mitigation strategies

Now it’s time to bring it home: what actions will you take if things don’t go to plan?

Investors want to know that you’ve thought about not just what could go wrong, but also how you’ll respond if it does. Here are some common mitigation tactics:

• Control your costs – Have a plan to quickly reduce spending if needed. This might mean pausing hiring, cutting non-essential costs like events, or shifting to stronger marketing channels.
• Maintain revenue flow – Find ways to keep money coming in, even if the market gets tough. Focus on your most reliable customers, offer upfront payment discounts, or introduce a more affordable version of your product.
• Prepare for delayed funding – Be ready if your next raise takes longer than planned. Look into options like grants or venture debt, build relationships with investors early, and have a backup plan like a bridge round.
• Get support from experts: Don’t go it alone. Stay close to experienced mentors and advisors who can help you spot problems early and guide you through tough decisions – and know who you can reach out to in an emergency.

This is how it could look for your business:

Let’s say you’re expecting 10,000 customers, but in your worst case, you only reach 1,000. To stay prepared, you’ve mapped out how you’d respond. You scale back engineering hires and cut spend on underperforming marketing channels. This will stretch your runway from 18 months to 24, giving you time to course-correct without scrambling.

This is what gives investors confidence. A thoughtful risk plan shows you’re not just aiming for growth, you’re building staying power.

Final thoughts

With a long-term plan and financial forecast, you can show that your business is built to last.

At the scaleup stage, investors are no longer betting on your idea. They’re betting on your ability to scale it. That means showing where you are today, where you're going, how you'll get there, and what you'll do if things go off track.

Let’s recap the key takeaways:

• Start with where you are – Know your current metrics, milestones, and market position.
• Define where you’re going – Set clear long-term goals and tie them to specific growth and revenue milestones.
• Build a plan to get there – Show how you’ll invest, scale, and use capital, with a clear path to profitability.
• Plan for what could go wrong – Identify risks, model scenarios, and have strategies ready to adapt.

Forecasts will evolve. Markets will shift. But when you build with discipline, data, and direction, you give investors every reason to believe in what’s coming next.