and employees should always ask a startup how much runway they have. if they won't tell you, it's a big red flag.

As someone who’s been burned (hard) by asking that question and trusting the answer many times (Fool me once…), I see as a huge opportunity an audit company that could answer that question accurately, and reasonably well for early start-up: before and after hiring you and the all the profiles being considered.

To me I remember Ronald Regan saying "trust but verify".

While it's nice to get an answer to the question I think, having been in business for a long time, [1] the fact that one gets an answer is not necessarily the end of the investigation or proof of the statement.

Point being that if it is important to someone (the answer) before hopping on board it would be appropriate to be shown proof of the fact. (Noting of course that it wouldn't be to difficult to fake that and also noting that you don't have any control over whether the assumptions being made will hold).

Worried about insulting someone by implying that you don't trust? Figure out a creative way to put it into the appropriate words to get by that issue.

[1] As a kid, before car dealers gave loaner cars, I remember my father being told by each salesman "and if your car is in for service I'll lend you mine for the day".