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Write the story behind your projections
Paste your projection or the assumptions behind it. Get a clear written explanation with every assumption visible and the main risks named.
River's projection narrative writer explains a 12-month financial projection in plain words. Paste the projection or the assumptions behind it, or attach the spreadsheet. You get a written explanation of how revenue is built, what drives costs, when cash runs low or the business breaks even, and what has to go right.
Every assumption is stated where a reader can check it, and the arithmetic is shown. River does not invent revenue figures or costs: if a driver is missing, it is marked for you to add.
If you need a full business plan with the financial section built in, River's business plan writer on meetriver.com covers the whole plan.
What Makes Financial Projections Credible
Credible financial projections are built from clear assumptions that investors can stress-test, not wild guesses or linear growth curves that never happen. Weak projections show hockey stick growth without explaining drivers, ignore costs, or present precision (projecting revenue to the dollar) that's implausible for early-stage companies. Strong projections show bottom-up thinking: here's how many customers we'll acquire, here's average revenue per customer, here's how much customer acquisition costs, here's our team size and compensation, here's path to breakeven. Every number should connect to realistic assumptions about market, sales, and operations.
The best financial narratives explain assumptions explicitly. Revenue: explain customer acquisition model (how many leads to how many customers at what cost), pricing strategy, ramp up timeline (early months will be slow, growth accelerates as you learn). Costs: break into categories (team, customer acquisition, operations, overhead), explain hiring plan, justify burn rate. Unit economics: show customer lifetime value exceeds acquisition cost. Path to profitability: when do revenues exceed costs, or when do you need next funding. Metrics: ARR, CAC, LTV, burn rate, runway. Be realistic about early slow growth and challenges.
Frame projections honestly. Call them projections or forecasts, not guarantees. Acknowledge uncertainty. Present base case, not best case. Show you understand what needs to go right for projections to happen. Address risks (slower sales ramp, higher churn, higher CAC). Investors know projections are always wrong. They want to see your thinking is sound, you understand key drivers, and you've thought through dependencies and risks. Conservative projections you exceed beat aggressive projections you miss. Under-promise, over-deliver works better than the reverse.
How it works
Paste your projection
The numbers or the assumptions behind them, or attach the spreadsheet.
River explains it
Revenue, costs and cash are explained from your assumptions, with arithmetic shown.
Check the assumptions
Confirm anything marked and correct any driver that is off.
Test it in chat
Ask what happens if churn doubles or a hire slips three months.
What you get
- A plain explanation of how revenue is built from your stated drivers
- Costs grouped by category, with hiring and spending changes explained
- Cash, runway or break-even, with the arithmetic shown
- Every assumption listed where a reader can check it
- The two or three assumptions that move the result most, and what happens if they miss
- Missing drivers marked for you to add instead of guessed
Common questions
Does this build the spreadsheet?
It explains a projection rather than replacing your model. If you only have assumptions, River can lay out a simple monthly table from them in the document so the narrative has numbers to refer to, and you can ask it to build a spreadsheet in the chat.
How detailed should my assumptions be?
Specific enough that someone could check them: customers added per month, price, churn, hires and their start dates, and major costs. Ranges are fine if you say which value the projection uses.
Should I show a conservative or optimistic case?
Lead with the case you actually expect, and show what happens if the most important assumption misses. Readers trust a projection more when it names its own weak points.
What if we are not profitable within 12 months?
That is common for young companies. The narrative says when cash runs low, what milestone the current money reaches, and when you would need more funding, based on your numbers.
Write the story behind your projections
Describe what you need, add any files you have, and your workspace opens with the work already underway.