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Cutting burn rate is not about heroics. It is about going through every line item and asking "do we need this?" and "can we get the same outcome cheaper?" Twelve specific tactics, in roughly the order you should try them.
Start with the most reversible cuts and work down. The goal is to extend runway without breaking anything you cannot easily fix.
Pull your last 3 months of credit card statements. Highlight every recurring software charge. For each one ask: who uses this? when did they last log in? could we consolidate? Most startups find 15-30% of their software spend goes to tools no one uses.
Realistic savings: $2K-$10K/month, no productivity loss.
Calculate your burn rate, runway, and zero date in 30 seconds.
Open Burn Rate Calculator →Every annual SaaS contract has flex room. Email your account manager with: "We are reviewing budgets for next quarter. Can you offer a 20% discount or we move to a quarterly contract." About half will say yes.
Realistic savings: $500-$5K/month per renegotiated contract.
Look at your CAC by channel. Pause anything where CAC is more than 12 months of customer payback. You can always restart it. Channels that work will still work next month.
Realistic savings: $5K-$30K/month for ad-heavy startups.
Every open req that has not started yet is a free month of runway. Push hires by 2-3 months unless the role is critical to revenue or the next milestone.
Realistic savings: $8K-$15K/month per delayed hire.
Office leases are pure overhead. If you have an office that is half-empty most days, sublease it or break the lease (the penalty is usually less than 6 months of rent). Cowork credits work for the days you need to be in person.
Realistic savings: $4K-$25K/month depending on city.
Founders should be willing to cut their own pay first if asking the team to make sacrifices. A 30-50% temporary cut for 6 months sends a powerful signal and saves real cash.
Realistic savings: $5K-$15K/month per founder.
Calculate your burn rate, runway, and zero date in 30 seconds.
Open Burn Rate Calculator →Net 30 or net 45 payment terms instead of upfront. Quarterly billing instead of monthly to get a discount. Switching from premium to standard tiers on services you do not use the premium features of.
Realistic savings: $1K-$10K/month.
Conferences, client dinners, team offsites. None of these are revenue-generating in the short term. Pause them for 6 months and see if anything actually breaks.
Realistic savings: $2K-$20K/month.
Contractors are easier to cut than employees. Review every active contract: is the work essential to next month's milestone? If not, pause it.
Realistic savings: $5K-$30K/month.
If you have an in-house designer who is 60% utilized, switching to a freelancer for occasional work could save $4K-$8K/month. Same for in-house ops, finance, HR.
Realistic savings: $4K-$12K/month per role.
If runway is under 6 months and the above 10 cuts have not been enough, layoffs become unavoidable. Do them once, do them deeply enough that you do not have to do them again, and be transparent about why with the remaining team.
Realistic savings: $8K-$15K/month per FTE eliminated.
Some startups have side projects, patents, or business lines that could be sold. The cash from a divestiture buys runway without dilution. Rare but worth considering.
Realistic savings: Variable, often one-time.
Here is a realistic 30-day plan to cut burn 20%:
Use the scenario slider on the burn rate calculator to see exactly how much runway each percentage cut buys you. A 20% expense cut on a $80K burn = $16K/month saved = several months of additional runway depending on your bank balance.
Run the numbers before the meeting. Walking in with "if we cut 18% we extend runway from 9 to 14 months" is a much better conversation than "we should probably cut some stuff."