Every AI founder I talk to uses the same spreadsheet for their financial model.

It was originally built for Zendesk. In 2014. Last updated in 2017.

Christoph Janz's SaaS Financial Plan 2.0 is probably the most downloaded startup template in history. And for good reason. Janz is one of the sharpest minds in European VC. Point Nine's track record is absurd. His model taught an entire generation of founders what MRR movements and unit economics actually mean.

But it was designed for a completely different species of company.

What the template assumes:
→ 80-90% gross margins
→ Adding one more user costs next to nothing
→ Clean seat-based pricing across 3 tiers

What your AI startup actually deals with:
→ 50-60% margins on a good day. Bessemer's "Supernovas" run at 25%.
→ Every inference has a price tag
→ Seat-based pricing collapsed from 21% to 15% in 12 months
→ GPU compute eats 40-60% of your tech budget before you hire sales

You're reading a bicycle manual to build a rocket.

Nobody's built "the Janz for AI" yet. But there's enough sharp thinking out there to assemble your model from first principles. 10 reads before you open a spreadsheet:

1. AI Pricing Playbook (Bessemer)
https://www.bvp.com/atlas/the-ai-pricing-and-monetization-playbook

2. The New Economics of AI Pricing (Pilot)
https://pilot.com/blog/ai-pricing-economics-2025

3. Navigating the High Cost of AI Compute (a16z)
https://a16z.com/navigating-the-high-cost-of-ai-compute/

4. The State of AI Gross Margins (Tanay Jaipuria)
https://www.tanayj.com/p/the-gross-margin-debate-in-ai

5. Financial Modeling for AI Startups (Finro)
https://www.finrofca.com/news/financial-modeling-for-ai-startups

6. AI Cost Structure & Cash Flow (Finro)
https://www.finrofca.com/news/cost-structure-and-cash-flow-management-for-ai-startups

7. State of AI 2025 (Bessemer)
https://www.bvp.com/atlas/the-state-of-ai-2025

8. 3 AI Metrics for Fundraising (Pilot)
https://pilot.com/blog/ai-metrics-fundraising-startups

9. AI Margins Reality Check (SaaStr)
https://www.saastr.com/have-ai-gross-margins-really-turned-the-corner-the-real-math-behind-openais-70-compute-margin-and-why-b2b-startups-are-still-running-on-a-treadmill/

10. How to Build an AI Pricing Model (Salesforce Ventures)
https://salesforceventures.com/perspectives/how-to-develop-an-ai-pricing-model/

Stop modeling a 2026 company on a 2017 spreadsheet.

What would you add to this list?