# Funding desk Understand the money you can raise or borrow, before you ask for it. Canonical URL: https://worldenterprise.org/insights/topic/funding/ Last updated: 2026-10-10 Publisher: World Enterprise, run by World Enterprise Group Incorporated Funding is the desk for understanding the money itself: the routes open to a software company, the instruments investors use, the rules around them and how long cash lasts. It sits beside the Fundable desk, which is about preparing your evidence. The ten articles cover routes from customer revenue to grants, loans and crowdfunding, how a SAFE differs from a convertible note, how to read a term sheet, how a cap table records ownership, and how to work out burn and runway. Each says where its sources stop and lists questions for your own counsel or accountant. Two limits apply throughout. World Enterprise makes no promise of funding, and nothing here predicts that any company will raise money. World Enterprise gives no legal or financial advice. An article says what a document or rule is, and what to ask a professional you choose. ## Articles - [Bootstrapping versus raising over a ten-year horizon](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/bootstrapping-versus-raising-over-a-ten-year-horizon/): Most new firms start with little outside money. What Kauffman Firm Survey and federal survival data say about funding choices when the horizon is ten years. - [SBIR and STTR as patient capital for research-based companies](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/sbir-and-sttr-as-patient-capital-for-research-based-companies/): How federal SBIR and STTR awards fund research over years without taking shares, what the 2026 reauthorization changed, and what to ask first. - [The time between funding rounds: what Carta data reports](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/the-time-between-funding-rounds-what-carta-data-reports/): Carta reports that the median wait between rounds has stretched past 600 days. The figures, who they cover, and how to turn them into a runway question. - [Angels, micro-funds and funds: what the rules say and what to ask](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/angels-micro-funds-and-funds-what-the-rules-say-and-what-to-ask/): Founders talk about angels, micro-funds and funds as different investors. This article sets out what US securities rules say about each and what to ask. - [Cap table basics for founders](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/cap-table-basics-for-founders/): What a capitalization table records, how options, the option pool and unconverted SAFEs appear in it, and what to ask your counsel before you sign. - [Crowdfunding and Regulation CF for a software company](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/crowdfunding-and-regulation-cf-for-a-software-company/): What Regulation Crowdfunding requires of a company that sells shares online: who is eligible, the limits, the filings, and what to ask your counsel first. - [Funding a first SaaS from customer revenue](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/funding-a-first-saas-from-customer-revenue/): How customer payments can fund a first SaaS, what billing choices do to the timing of cash, what you owe for prepaid service, and the arithmetic to track it. - [Funding a software startup: the routes and what each asks of you](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/funding-a-software-startup-the-routes/): A plain-language map of the routes to money for a software startup, from customer revenue to grants, loans, investment and crowdfunding, and what each asks. - [Grants and SBIR programs for software companies](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/grants-and-sbir-programs-for-software-companies/): What the US SBIR and STTR programs are, who can apply, how the phases work, and what a software company should check before it writes a proposal. - [Reading a term sheet, line by line](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/reading-a-term-sheet-line-by-line/): A walk through the sections of a published model term sheet for a priced round, what each part is for, and the questions to ask your own counsel about it. - [Revenue-based financing and venture debt: when they apply](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/revenue-based-financing-and-venture-debt-when-they-apply/): What public sources say about sales-based financing, loans and debt beside equity, and what to ask a provider before you agree to repay money from revenue. - [Runway and burn: the arithmetic](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/runway-and-burn-the-arithmetic/): How to work out burn and runway with one worked example, what the arithmetic hides, and how to read the result before a decision about spending or raising. - [SAFE or convertible note: how the two instruments differ](https://worldenterprise.org/insights/safe-or-convertible-note-how-the-two-instruments-differ/): How a SAFE and a convertible note differ, from debt and interest to what happens on a sale, with the questions to bring to your own counsel.