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runway

runway

7 5.8
The amount of time a company has before it runs out of money
  • noun
  • /ˈrʌnˌweɪ/
  • Jargon
translation icon : plazo de financiación
  • With our current cash flow, we have enough runway to sustain operations for the next six months.
  • running out of runway
  • give yourself enough runway
  • a long runway

So that gives us a huge runway to change the trajectory.

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Examples

  • Andrew: At any one point, how much of a runway did you have in the bank?

    Blog text (1)
  • So we're all like in that range of like, all right, we got a lot of runway still to go.

  • So, so we, we have a long runway of still being able to spend through this.

  • And so I had a long runway before that.

  • So that gives us a huge runway to change the trajectory.

  • No, I, I mean, basically we're going to need runway to keep everyone employed after we reopen.

  • Because each member of the class has raised $150,000, they still have runway.

    Blog text (32)
  • A/R financing can provide a runway for small business owners to get the working capital they need when banks tell them "no" or "not yet."

    Blog text (23)
  • They would have given it a few months of runway to prove the model and then would have demanded revenues or a trade sale.

    Blog text (31)
  • We said then that once the E&P was split, the tank business had a significant growth runway and that the company was likely to get acquired.

    Blog text (16)

Antonyms

bankruptcy
  • Specialized
315 4.1

A legal state when a person or company cannot pay their debts

insolvency
  • Specialized
12 6.8

A situation when someone cannot pay money they owe

Surface Forms

runway singular
runways plural

Morphology

runway = run + way (semi-transparent) = run + way

The financial sense is a metaphorical extension (length of runway → time/money available), so the compound's components do not directly yield the financial meaning to all learners.

Etymology

A helpful way to remember the business sense of runway is to picture a plane needing a long runway to take off; a company's runway is the time or money it has left to keep going before it must stop.