Investor updates are the key to deepening transparency and trust with your investors, building confidence that you can steward their investments and help the company thrive. They’re typically sent on a monthly basis by early-stage companies, and quarterly by growth or late-stage founders.
Investors want to know how the company is performing, what challenges it faces, and where they can offer support. Providing them with consistent, detailed, and straightforward information is the best way to keep them engaged in your business.
The structure of your investor update should include an overview section that gives a snapshot of the health of your business and the highlights or lowlights from the previous month. It’s a good idea to use bullet points to keep this section short and easy to read. Highlights may be anything from a new customer win to a successful round of funding to hiring a new team member to a product launch. It’s also a great place to give shout-outs for individual accomplishments or thank any stakeholders that helped your business succeed.
A recurring section should focus on your core metrics, with one sentence summarizing each metric. This allows investors to easily compare your performance over time and will help them understand when you might need a little extra assistance. Finally, you’ll want to include a “needs” section that allows your investors to send you a bat signal for things they can help you with.
With Visible, it’s easy to streamline the process of creating and sending investor updates. Our communications platform provides you with a best-practice template, and the ability to import a one-time snapshot of your cap table and valuation directly from your accounting software. You can also manage stakeholder access permissions and track engagement from within Carta’s Communications Center.