Investor updates are a great way to maintain transparency and keep in touch with your investors. They also give your investors an opportunity to help out when needed. It’s in an investor’s best interest to see the companies they invest in succeed, and consistent insight into your company allows them to spot challenges—and sometimes even opportunities—sometimes before you do.
Writing an investor update can be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Founders who use purpose-built software like Visible can streamline the process, making it faster and easier than ever to stay on top of their investor relationships. Visible also gives you engagement tracking, real-time collaboration, and the ability to easily pull in metrics and charts from QuickBooks and Google Sheets.
The first section of your investor update should include a summary of the company’s highlights and lowlights. It’s important to share high points to let investors know what your team has been working on and to highlight major achievements that have helped the business. You can also use this section to ask for referrals, or even to pitch an upcoming funding round.
Sharing the lowlights is also important, as startup life can be tough and it’s always good to share these struggles so that investors are aware and can offer support if necessary. It’s not necessary to cover every problem, but it is helpful to lay out some of the major issues and how you plan to fix them going forward.