Why We Searched for Business Startup Calculators
No one on our team loves Excel enough to build spreadsheets from the ground up. Besides, we can find more productive uses for their talents than duplicating the business startup calculators that others have shared on the Internet.
Here's the best of what we found on our search for business startup calculators. Most of these tools have a lot more than equations to offer. It turns out that the wisdom and experience of their makers can't be duplicated.
For Early Stage Startups or Startups in Transition
These calculators cover some of the expenses that many startups wish they'd carefully estimated before they started up. Would-be founders, here's your chance to show us how it's done.
- Startup Cost Calculator created by the Wall Street Journal is a classic. It reveals how much cash startups and small business will need to "start up."
- Cost of Living Calculator from Nerd Wallet can help determine whether or not moving to SV is as critical as it feels.
- Minimum Viable Product Calculator from SVSG estimates the cost of creating the MVP of your digital product.
- How Much to Make an App, created by the team at Crew, walks you through those costs that can be murky if you're not a dev or a designer.
- Co-founder Equity Calculator helps co-founders split the baby.
Screenshot from the Co-founder Equity Calculator
Startups with Traction
Have traction? This next set of calculators helps you determine the amount and costs of the inputs your startup requires for steady growth.
- Employee Cost Calculator from Staff.com helps you estimate your full cost per employee, down to their office equipment. We did not see Kleenex factored in, however.
Ad Spend Calculator Screenshot
- Recruiting Cost Per Hire (UK values) by RiseHigh figures just the cost of recruiting a single full-time employee. We were amazed -- not in a good way.
- Startup Equity Calculator created by Ryan Kulp takes the pain out of figuring non-founder employee equity awards.
- KPI Dashboard for Early Stage SaaS Startups from Christoph Janz. A clean, straightforward SaaS dashboard.
- MRR Projection Calculator by Jaana Kulmala estimates if a SaaS can meet its MRR goals over time.
- Build v. Buy Calculator from Baremetrics does just what it says.
- Ad Spend Calculator created by the team at Qwilr
- Startup Success / Product Adoption Calculator from Let's Crunch It simulates whether or not your startup will survive. Proceed with caution. Do not calculate when you're alone in the office.
For Every Startup
- Startup Growth Calculator created by YC's Trevor Blackwell is a stalwart of the startup set. Of every business startup calculator here, Blackwell's is the one to master.
Startup Growth Calculator Screenshot
The thing is deceptively simple. Provide some basic inputs and boom: you'll know how much funding you need to maintain your current growth rate and when your startup will break even.
Bonus: the code for this calculator is on GitHub.
For Your Future
The Calculator for New Stock Investors by Humberto Valle may seem like an odd way to end our list. Think of it as a light at the end of the startup tunnel.
Doing a startup isn't easy, and optimism can be difficult to maintain. Save this last calculator. We believe you're going to need it, and you should, too.
Thanks to a few makers for sharing some of the above resources with us previously.
- Ali Mese and his most excellent resource, Growth.Supply
- Ivan Widjaya and his Noobpreneur.com, enjoyed by both n00b founders and small business owners
- Ryan Hoover and his Product Hunt, a most popular platform that needs no introductio
We are on the hunt for the best of the best business startup calculators. Do you know of any we can add to this list? Please share in the comments or via email. Thanks so much!
