As an investor and advisor to several startups in the past five years, I found differing degrees of communication. An angel investor takes a big risk in the founders of startups and bulk of the risk is based on the trust placed on the founders. I liked the founders who showed up periodically with a honest updates. I often found myself drawn to supporting them more. I heard similar inputs for my peer group of investors and stakeholders. Instead of showing up once in a blue moon to the investors, keeping a steady dialog ensures that the entrepreneur builds championships. Also the entire exercise to build a periodic update encourages one to retrospect and plan better.
One simple mechanism to stay in touch and build continued trust is with the periodic investor updates. So how does one do this?
Here are some quick tips to get started with these periodic updates.
Why: Informed and engaged investors mean positive traction for potential future investments.
Periodicity: At a minimum keep a quarterly updates flowing. Monthly update is much preferred as well. The update is a natural point of reflection for an entrepreneur to reflect on the progress and accomplishments over the past month as well as to plan out the coming month.
Length: 1-2 pages long
Format: directly include the details in email instead of as an attachment. Often the emails are read using mobile devices. So keeping the information short and focused is important. Include 1-2 pictures if relevant, but do not obsess over the visual appeal.
Template
<Intro / summary>
<Sales and Customer Metrics>
Key metrics are dependent on the type of business. Investors are interested in revenue metrics (MRR and ARR), Sales metrics (#customers, # organizations, # partnerships), and customer metrics ( # users, QAU, MAU, DAU). For each of these, include the metrics of the current period and past period. Include the % growth rate and do not make the recipient to compute it in their heads (they may get it wrong sometimes). For very early stage business, talk about the exploration, product market fit analysis, and prospecting results.
Below is an example of for ACME Inc.
| Metric | Current Period (March 2020) | Past Period (Feb 2020) | MoM Growth Rate | Notes |
| Customers | 120 | 100 | 20% | Added more New York City customers |
| Sales Pipeline | 390 | 300 | 30% | Social Campaign worked. |
| MRR | $1,280 | $1,000 | 28% | New premium feature is selling well |
| ARR | $15,000 | $12,000 | 20% |
<Marketing and Sales>
- Talk about marketing campaigns, CAC and LTV metrics
- Talk about Sales pipeline – be specific about prospects, trials, and conversions
- Partnerships
<Product>
- Learning from Customers
- Feature / product additions
- Upcoming features / requirements
<Asks>
Any asks for the investor community