BRAND FOUNDER ACADEMY FREE TOOLS · THE FUNDING PATH PICKER
FREE TOOL · FUND YOUR LAUNCH

The Funding Path Picker.

Five ways to fund a launch. Answer three questions and the picker suggests a mix. Then change any path or amount until the plan matches what you will actually do, and save it.

Your launch number can be rough. If you do not have one yet, get a placeholder from The Launch Cost Stack and come back. The path barely changes between $20,000 and $30,000. It changes a lot between $8,000 and $80,000.

Three questions

From The Launch Cost Stack. Your winning quote plus everything else it takes to launch, rounded up to a clean number.
Would you give up a piece of the company?
Equity means selling a piece of your company for money. You never get it back. Investors and equity crowdfunding both take a piece.
Your audience today
Small: friends and a few followers. Growing: a waitlist or a few hundred people who reply. Big: thousands who buy what you point at.
Units times the price per unit, plus the one-time fees on the quote. Leave it blank if you do not know yet.
So the tool can count how many pre-orders your plan needs.

Your funding mix

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Click a path to add it to your plan or take it out. Then set how much comes from each one. The picker marks the paths it suggests.

Pre-orders your plan needs
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Finalize your plan
You edited this line, so it no longer changes when you change the picker.

Keep your plan

🤖 Add it to your brand file

Copies your plan with a note for Claude. Paste it into a chat in your brand project and Claude adds it to your brand file.

🖨 Print it or save it

Print a one-page copy, save it as a PDF, or save a file you can open here again later.

Kept in this browser
Where your work is kept: this page remembers your answers in this browser only. A private or incognito window forgets them when you close it, and so does clearing your browser or switching computers. To keep your plan, click Save a copy to my computer. It goes to your Downloads folder, and Open a saved copy brings it back.

What the picker is doing

The 5 ways are your own money, friends and family, crowdfunding or pre-orders, loans, and investors. Everything else you will hear about is a version of one of these.

The Funding Trifecta is how Pete funds his own first launches: some of his own money first, a small amount from people who already believe in him, and a pre-order at launch so customers pay for the run. It is one founder's way, not a recommendation for your situation.

How the picker splits the money. If your plan has a pre-order and you added what you pay your manufacturer, the pre-order covers that. The rest is split evenly across the other paths and rounded to the nearest $100. Change any amount you like.

The picker never suggests investors while equity is set to No. You can still add them. Clicking Investors changes your equity answer to Open to it, because taking investor money means giving up a piece of your company.

Crowdfunding is 2 things. A pre-order (Kickstarter-style) sells the product before it exists and you keep the whole company. Reg CF is equity crowdfunding: everyday people invest small amounts through a regulated platform and get a small piece. This tool means the pre-order kind.

This is a starting point, not advice. Your situation, your country and your relationships change the answer. Talk to a professional before you take money from anyone.

This is one lesson inside the Launch Accelerator.We pick the path together, then build the pitch deck that raises the friends-and-family part of your plan, drafted by Claude from your brand file.
SEE THE ACADEMY

Need the number first? The Launch Cost Stack. Building the cost sheet behind it? The Three Buckets and The Margin Dial.