Investor updates are an opportunity to share context about business performance and plans in the time between board meetings. Doing them well allows you to unlock the value of investors beyond the capital they provide and builds trust to keep them engaged on your journey.
Investors are busy, so the best investor updates are pithy and clear. You should try to limit each update to three or four paragraphs, and use charts and graphs sparingly (to avoid information overload).
Highlight key metrics – Investors want to know the key metrics that are driving the company’s progress. This could include daily active users, revenue growth, or other metrics that reflect the company’s trajectory. This is also a great opportunity to highlight any new data points that may be of interest to investors, such as the number of customer wins or a positive quote from a happy customer.
Include a summary of financials – Investors want to know how much runway the company has before it needs to raise another round. This section can also include the burn rate from previous periods to help set expectations for future fundraising rounds.
Describe major requests for investors – If you have any key requests from your investors, this is the time to tell them. This can be as simple as “we’d love to talk to you about how we’re executing on our strategic plan” or it could be a more detailed request, such as “we’d like to speak with you about our approach to building a product that will be market-leading.” We’ve created an investor update template to get you started.
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