You just closed your Series A. €10 million in the bank. The pressure is on.

Your board wants growth. Your investors want metrics. Your team wants to hire.

But you also know: runway is everything.

Burn too fast, and you'll need to raise again in 12 months - on worse terms. Burn too slow, and you'll miss your growth targets.

Every founder faces the same dilemma:

• Hire aggressively → risk running out of cash
• Hire conservatively → risk missing milestones

But there's a third option most founders miss:

Optimize your treasury to extend runway - without cutting costs or delaying hires.

This post shows you how to add 3–6 months of runway (and hire 2–5 additional FTEs) by earning yield on idle cash.

No fundraising. No dilution. No layoffs.

Just smarter treasury management.

The problem: Idle cash Is costing you runway

Most startups keep 100% of their cash in checking accounts earning 0%.

Let's run the numbers:

Scenario:

• Series A raise: €10 million
• Monthly burn: €400k
• Current runway: 25 months
• Yield on cash: 0%

What you're losing:

At 0% yield, your €10M is losing value to inflation (2.5% average):

• Year 1: Purchasing power = €9.75M
• Year 2: Purchasing power = €9.51M

That's €490k lost in 2 years - without spending a single euro.

In runway terms:

• €490k ÷ €400k/month = 1.2 months of runway gone

You're burning money by doing nothing.

The solution: Earn yield on idle cash

What if you could earn 6–8% on idle cash - without locking it up or taking unnecessary risk?

Same scenario, with yield:

• Series A raise: €10 million
• Monthly burn: €400k
• Yield: 7% APY
• Annual yield income: €700k

New runway:

• Original: 25 months (€10M ÷ €400k)
• With yield: 27.9 months (€10M + €700k/year ÷ €400k)

Result: You've added 2.9 months of runway without raising capital.

How to allocate cash for yield (without sacrificing liquidity)

You don't need to put 100% of your cash into yield products.

Use the 3-tier treasury framework:

Tier 1: Operating cash (0–3 months runway)

• Amount: €1.2M (3 months × €400k)
• Purpose: Payroll, vendors, rent
• Where: Business checking account
• Yield: 0% (that's fine - you need instant access)

Tier 2: Working capital (3–6 months runway)

• Amount: €1.2M (3 months × €400k)
• Purpose: Short-term buffer
• Where: High-yield savings or over-collateralized lending
• Yield: 5–7% APY
• Liquidity: 1–7 days

Tier 3: Strategic reserves (6+ months runway)

• Amount: €7.6M
• Purpose: Extend runway, growth optionality
• Where: Over-collateralized lending, stablecoin yield vaults
• Yield: 7–10% APY
• Liquidity: 7–30 days (acceptable since you're not burning it soon)

How yield translates to hiring capacity

Let's make this concrete: how many additional FTEs can you hire with yield income?

Scenario: Series A SaaS startup

• Cash on hand: €10M
• Monthly burn: €400k
• Average fully-loaded FTE cost: €100k/year (€8,333/month)

Without yield:

• Runway: 25 months
• FTEs affordable: 48 (€400k/month ÷ €8,333/FTE)

With 7% yield (€700k/year):

• Additional income: €700k/year = €58,333/month
• Additional FTEs: 7 (€58,333 ÷ €8,333)

Result: You can hire 7 more engineers, marketers, or salespeople - without raising more capital.

Scenario: Early-stage startup (seed)

• Cash on hand: €2M
• Monthly burn: €150k
• Average FTE cost: €80k/year (€6,667/month)

Without yield:

• Runway: 13.3 months
• FTEs affordable: 22 (€150k/month ÷ €6,667/FTE)

With 7% yield (€140k/year):

• Additional income: €140k/year = €11,667/month
• Additional FTEs: 1.75 ≈ 2 FTEs

Result: You can hire 2 more people or extend runway by 0.9 months.

Scenario: Series B growth-stage

• Cash on hand: €30M
• Monthly burn: €1M
• Average FTE cost: €120k/year (€10k/month)

Without yield:

• Runway: 30 months
• FTEs affordable: 100 (€1M/month ÷ €10k/FTE)

With 7% yield (€2.1M/year):

• Additional income: €2.1M/year = €175k/month
• Additional FTEs: 17.5 ≈ 17 FTEs

Result: You can hire 17 more people or extend runway by 2.1 months.

Real-world example: How a Series A SaaS company extended runway by 8 months

Company profile:

• Stage: Series A SaaS
• Cash raised: €15M
• Monthly burn: €500k
• Original runway: 30 months

Treasury optimization:

• Tier 1 (Operating): €1.5M (3 months burn) → 0% yield
• Tier 2 (Working Capital): €1.5M → 6% yield = €90k/year
• Tier 3 (Strategic Reserves): €12M → 8% yield = €960k/year
• Total yield: €1.05M/year

Results:

• Runway extension: 2.1 months (€1.05M ÷ €500k)
• Additional hires: 10 FTEs (€1.05M ÷ €105k fully-loaded)
• Impact: Hired 3 engineers, 2 sales reps, 1 marketer - hit revenue milestones faster - raised Series B on better terms

Quote from CFO:"We would've had to delay hiring or raise a bridge round. Instead, we earned enough yield to hire the team we needed and hit our ARR targets 6 months early."

Common objections (and why they're wrong)

Objection #1: "Earning yield is risky"

Reality: It depends.

• Earning 20% in some unregulated DeFi protocol? Yes, risky.
• Earning 7% in over-collateralized, insured lending? No more risky than a money market fund.

Ask these questions before deploying:

1. Is it over-collateralized? (130–150% collateral backing)
2. Is the principal insured? (Institutional insurance)
3. Is it regulated? (MiCA-compliant in EU)
4. Who holds custody? (Institutional custodians like Fireblocks, BitGo)

If the answer is "yes" to all four, risk is low.

Objection #2: "My board will think I'm wasting time"

Reality: Your board wants you to optimize runway.

Present it like this:

"By earning 7% on our idle cash, we can hire 5 additional engineers this year - without raising more capital or extending our burn. That gets us to our revenue milestones faster."

Your board will approve.

Objection #3: "This is too complicated"

Reality: It takes 2 hours to set up.

1. Week 1: Calculate your tiers (1 hour)
2. Week 2: Research yield platforms (1 hour)
3. Week 3: Deploy Tier 2 + 3 cash (30 minutes)
4. Week 4: Review quarterly (30 minutes)

Total time investment: 3 hours to add months of runway.

Your 4-week treasury optimization plan

Week 1: Audit your cash

✅ How much cash do you have?

✅ What's your monthly burn?

✅ What's your current runway?

✅ How much is sitting idle at 0%?

Week 2: Model your tiers

✅ Calculate 3, 6, 12 months of runway

✅ Allocate into Tier 1, 2, 3

✅ Identify how much you can deploy into yield products

Example:

• Total cash: €10M
• Monthly burn: €400k
• Tier 1 (0–3 months): €1.2M → checking (0%)
• Tier 2 (3–6 months): €1.2M → yield (6%)
• Tier 3 (6+ months): €7.6M → yield (8%)

Week 3: Research yield platforms

✅ Compare 3–5 treasury/yield platforms

✅ Ask: Over-collateralized? Insured? Regulated? Custodied?

✅ Read reviews, check track record

Platforms to consider:

• Byzantine (EU, MiCA-compliant, over-collateralized)
• Aave (DeFi, transparent, audited)
• Compound (DeFi, institutional-grade)
• Money market funds (traditional, lower yield)

Week 4: Deploy & document

✅ Move Tier 2 + 3 cash into chosen platform(s)

✅ Document your strategy (one-pager for your board)

✅ Set calendar reminder to review quarterly

ROI calculator: How much could you earn?

Use this formula:

Annual Yield Income = (Tier 2 Amount × Tier 2 Yield) + (Tier 3 Amount × Tier 3 Yield)

Additional Runway (Months) = Annual Yield Income ÷ Monthly Burn

Additional FTEs = Annual Yield Income ÷ Fully-Loaded FTE Cost

Example 1: Seed startup

• Tier 2: €500k @ 6% = €30k/year
• Tier 3: €1.5M @ 8% = €120k/year
• Total yield: €150k/year
• Monthly burn: €150k
• Runway extension: 1 month
• Additional FTEs: 1.5 ≈ 2 hires

Example 2: Series A

• Tier 2: €1.2M @ 6% = €72k/year
• Tier 3: €7.6M @ 8% = €608k/year
• Total yield: €680k/year
• Monthly burn: €400k
• Runway extension: 1.7 months
• Additional FTEs: 6.8 ≈ 7 hires

Example 3: Series B

• Tier 2: €3M @ 6% = €180k/year
• Tier 3: €20M @ 8% = €1.6M/year
• Total yield: €1.78M/year
• Monthly burn: €1M
• Runway extension: 1.8 months
• Additional FTEs: 14.8 ≈ 15 hires

The bottom line

Every month of runway matters.

If you're sitting on €5M, €10M, €20M at 0%, you're leaving months of runway on the table.

By earning 6–8% on idle cash:

• You extend runway by 1–3 months
• You hire 2–10 additional FTEs
• You hit milestones faster
• You raise your next round on better terms

No dilution. No hiring freeze. No layoffs.

Just smarter treasury management.

Next steps

1. Calculate how much you could earn (use the formulas above)
2. Model your 3-tier allocation (Tier 1 = checking, Tier 2 + 3 = yield)
3. Research platforms (Byzantine, Aave, money market funds)
4. Present to your board ("We can hire X more people with yield income")
5. Deploy and review quarterly

Ready to calculate your potential yield?