Tools Strategy and Planning, planning model
The core value equation
A one-page planning model that lines up where the company is today, where next year's spending goes, and the end-of-year targets you're underwriting. The same picture works to close annual planning and to open a raise, and each year's end state becomes the next year's starting point.
- For
- Founders and CEOs closing a plan or a round
- Use when
- Finalizing the annual plan or preparing a raise; once a year, revised as the plan changes
- Inputs
- ARR, ARRv, ARRa and EBITDA today
- Output
- A one-page view of current metrics, planned investment, and EOY targets
- Prepared by
- Blueprint Equity Build Team
- Reviewed by
- Not yet reviewed
- Issue
- A, 31 Aug 2026
- Status
- Published
The planning model
Enter your numbers below. The four metrics on the left are your current traction: what you’ve already built. The four buckets in the middle are where next year’s spending goes; the plus sign shows that spending drives the change, rather than being a figure added to your traction. The right side starts as a projection from your current metrics and the drop-through assumption, and you can overwrite it with the end-of-year targets you’re committing to, which then become the following year’s starting point. Use Roll year forward to project the same inputs across three years.
Where we are today
Where the money goes
- 01GTMDemand, sales, scale
- 02CXOnboarding, retention, expansion
- 03ProductRoadmap that compounds
- 04TalentThe hires the year depends on
Where we end the year
ARRv is Net New ARR added each month (the velocity). ARRa is how much that velocity grows month over month (the acceleration).
Each year’s outcome becomes the next year’s starting point.
Why the model is built this way
It’s easy for a planning deck to end on a list of OKRs and for a pitch deck to end on an ask with no math behind it. This model puts both in one line: what you have now, where the next dollar goes, and the end-of-year target. Each term forces a specific conversation.
It keeps the focus on compounding, not a single snapshot
ARR is a snapshot. ARRv is a slope. ARRa is the second derivative. Once you’re tracking acceleration, the question shifts from last quarter’s ARR to a sharper one: is the rate of growth still rising?
It treats investment as a required input
You don’t reach the right side without spending. Whether the dollars come from the bank account or from an investor, they land in the same four buckets (GTM, CX, Product, Talent) with no unexplained line items.
It chains years together
The right side becomes next year’s left side. Last year’s outcome is this year’s traction, which lets you carry the same structure into each successive raise with a larger number on the left.
It survives the audience switch
Use the same model to close annual planning with the team and to open the raise with a board. Internally it’s a goal; externally it’s an underwrite. The inputs are identical; only the verbs around them change.
Each term, defined
What each term is, and the main thing to watch when you fill it in. A soft term makes the whole model soft, so it’s worth getting each definition right.
Term 01 · ARR, ARRv, ARRa, EBITDA
Traction is what you’ve already built, measured four ways, because a single number hides too much.
ARR is the headline. It’s where you are. It tells you almost nothing about where you’re going.
ARRv (velocity) is Net New ARR per month: bookings minus churn. This is what’s actually happening right now. If ARR is the starting line and the destination, ARRv is the speedometer.
ARRa (acceleration) is how much ARRv changed this month versus last. If ARRv is the speedometer, ARRa tells you whether that speed is rising or falling. Negative ARRa means that even if ARR is still growing, the pace is slowing.
EBITDA is the cost of producing that growth. It keeps the numbers honest: growth bought with unlimited cash says more about spending than about the business.
What to watch: reporting ARRa alongside ARR, not ARR on its own, puts the trajectory of growth into the conversation, not only its current level.Term 02 · GTM, CX, Product, Talent
Every dollar, from the bank account or from a check, lands in one of four buckets.
GTM. The repeatable process that turns a marketing dollar into a closed deal: demand gen, SDRs, AEs, sales ops, and the playbook itself. Spending here moves ARRv.
CX. Onboarding, customer success, support, and expansion. Spending here lowers churn and raises net retention, which lifts ARRv from the other side and protects every prior year of bookings.
Product. The roadmap that earns the next renewal and opens the next segment. Spending here moves ARRa, because product progress compounds GTM and CX gains.
Talent. The hires that make the other three buckets possible. The first GTM leader. The first CX leader. The first staff engineer. Without the right people, dollars in the other buckets are wasted.
What to watch: if you can’t trace a dollar in one of these four buckets to a number on the right side, it’s overhead rather than investment, and worth reassigning or cutting.Term 03 · Same four metrics, end of year
The outcome is where the company ends the year, measured the same way you started.
The right side is deliberately the same shape as the left. ARR is bigger. ARRv is bigger. EBITDA is closer to (or past) zero. And critically: ARRa is still positive. If ARRa turns negative on the right side, you’ve added ARR but lost momentum, which makes the following year’s plan harder to hit.
What to watch: the right side has to be ambitious enough to be worth investing in and credible enough that you’d back it with your own money. If it’s only one of the two, it’s a target that still needs work.How the model compounds over three years
The model is meant to run every year, not once. Last year’s outcome becomes this year’s traction, and across three years the numbers move substantially on the same discipline about which figures go in which boxes. The worked example below is hypothetical: illustrative, not case data. (Roll the model above forward to see the same numbers move.)
| End of year | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ARR | $4M | $8M | $16M |
| ARRv | $200K / mo | $400K / mo | $800K / mo |
| ARRa | +$10K / mo | +$20K / mo | +$35K / mo |
| EBITDA | -$1.5M | -$500K | +$1M |
Revisit the model at each annual plan, and check the prior year’s outcome against the target it set.
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The frameworks behind it
- 01
The pitch deck framework
Ten slides in three acts (why now, why this, why you): what each slide has to earn, how it fails and the question it has to answer in the room.
Framework
Strategy and PlanningRead framework - 02
Simple annual planning
A theme, a reframe, three OKRs, and the initiatives that ladder into them. The plan that fits on one page, and the planning system that keeps it alive all year.
Framework
Strategy and PlanningRead framework
A31 Aug 2026. Moved to Blueprint Equity Design System v4.
More tools
- 01
The annual plan builder
Write next year’s three OKRs, set each key result against Blueprint’s metric definitions, and lay out the value equation: traction plus investment equals outcome. Download a four-slide deck as one self-contained file.
- 02
The board deck builder
Write a quarterly board pack in Blueprint Equity Design System v4, with a live preview and the guidance beside each part. Every sheet carries a title block. Ends with a review against the checks a board would make and a self-contained deck to download.
- 03
The customer journey map
Map every stage from first touch to expansion, who owns it, and how the account moves between stages. Fork the map into a target state, then let the analysis show you the handoffs with nothing written down, the dead ends, and the stretches where the customer hears nothing.