VCs, who on the whole underperform the market and fail to provide returns to their limited partners and investors, seem to think that as a group that have the best insight and feedback in the industry. Singularly, they believe they are the smartest and most profound people on the planet. This despite investing in companies that mostly go under, have down rounds, or themselves face disappearance. All the feedback in this article is trite, obvious, and easy to say in hindsight. Where were these smart VCs in 2021 when it was all about burn, burn, burn and spend, spend, spend? How smart it is to say that if you have 12 months of runway, cutting 50% of costs saves you a year. Where was that advice a year ago?<p>VCs are money managers, managing mostly other people's money, investing in startups primarily as financial products, not as long-term business concerns. Take the advice with a grain of hindsight is 20/20 salt.<p>The net sum of this wise money manager's feedback on how to "manage cash for early stage startups": raise more money (if you can), spend less money (if you can), make more money (if you can), and run your company better (if you can). All that without a fancy four-letter framework.