Founders tend to send investor updates in one of two ways: long ones when things are going well, and none at all when they are not. Both are mistakes. The update exists so that the people who backed you can help, and they can only help with what they know about.
Send it on a schedule
Monthly is the usual rhythm for an early company. Pick a day and keep it. A regular plain update builds more trust than an occasional polished one, and silence is read as bad news whether or not it is.
The six sections
- One-line summary. The month in a sentence. Put the key number and the runway in the subject line too, so the update is useful even unopened.
- Numbers. The same three or four metrics every month, with the change from last month. Do not swap metrics when one looks bad. Investors notice.
- What went well. Two or three items, each a single line.
- What did not. The same length and the same plain tone as the good news. This is the section that earns trust.
- What is next. The two or three things you are focused on before the next update.
- Asks. Specific requests. See below.
Asks that get answered
"Let me know if you can help with hiring" gets nothing. "We are hiring a senior backend engineer in Berlin. If you know one, reply with a name and I will take it from there" gets replies. A good ask names the thing, makes the next step tiny, and can be answered in one line.
Limit yourself to two or three asks. More than that and none of them stand out.
What to leave out
- Long narrative. Bullets beat paragraphs here.
- Vanity numbers that do not connect to revenue, usage or runway.
- Adjectives. "Strong month" tells them nothing the numbers do not.
- Attachments nobody asked for. Link the deck if they want detail.
Bad news
If something serious has happened, do not save it for the monthly update. Tell your lead investor directly first, then include it in the update with what you are doing about it. Nobody should learn about a problem from a bullet point.
Make it repeatable
Keep last month's update open while you write this one, and reuse the structure. If you want a starting point, our founder investor update template has a worked example you can copy.
The update goes to several people, but replies come back one at a time, and each investor expects an answer that fits your history with them. That is where a tool that knows each relationship earns its keep. Pranan drafts those replies in your voice, with the context of what you last said to that person, and leaves them in Gmail for you to send.