Oct 7, 2026 5:30pm to 6:30pm<\/p>\n
A model built on a growth percentage and a hopeful margin won’t survive the first investor question. This session covers driver-based financial modeling \u2014 where revenue and costs are built from the specific inputs that actually move them \u2014 with focused attention on AI-era economics: usage- and outcome-based revenue, compute and inference costs, and how those change the shape of a forecast.<\/p>\n
**What We’ll Cover**<\/p>\n
* Driver-based modeling: building from inputs rather than top-line guesses
\n* Revenue models beyond per-seat \u2014 usage, consumption, and outcome-based pricing
\n* Modeling compute, inference, and model costs as they scale with usage
\n* Gross margin in AI businesses and why it behaves differently than SaaS
\n* Building an 18-month forecast with defensible assumptions
\n* Tying use of funds to specific, dated milestones
\n* Sensitivity and scenario testing before investors do it for you<\/p>\n
**Who Should Attend**
\nMissouri founders building or rebuilding a financial model ahead of a raise \u2014 particularly AI-enabled companies whose cost and revenue structures don’t fit standard SaaS templates.<\/p>\n
**What You’ll Leave With**<\/p>\n
* A driver-based 18-month forecast
\n* A use-of-funds tied to milestones
\n* AI-era revenue and cost modeling<\/p>\n
Part of the Show-Me Founders Series.<\/p>\n
*This project is supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SSBCI-21031-0104 awarded to the State of Missouri by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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