How to write an investor update

Use the same six parts every month: one line on what the company does, what you need help with, the money, your key numbers, the month's highs and its lows. Craig Dalton of Collaborative Fund, who read 1,000 investor reports in one year, puts the asks near the top, where they are most likely to get answered.

Why do the asks go at the top?

Because investors want to help and need to know how. Dalton writes that when the asks are clear and near the top, they are most likely to be acted on. Name the kind of person you want to meet, in place of a vague request for intros.

Monthly burn, cash in the bank, runway in months, headcount and revenue, then two or three numbers that measure your progress, reported the same way each month. Dalton says that with under 12 months of runway, a company enters his "will be raising soon" radar, and gets more of the fund's attention.

Should you include bad news in an investor update?

Yes. Dalton writes that things go wrong all the time, and that he worries when an update has no lows. What he wants to see is the lesson: the hire that fell through and what you changed, the deal that stalled and why.

Monthly, on the same day. Dalton's advice is to pick a day of the month you can always keep and never miss it, and he says that habit helps you run the company as well as keep investors close. Send it in the body of the email, with every past update on one linked page.

Who reads an investor update?

More people than the partner who invested. Dalton says people on the fund's finance and platform teams read them too, and any of them might help. An update also keeps the company in mind when the fund decides on follow-on rounds.

Should you send the update to all your investors at once?

Most founders do. Dalton passes on an observation from his fund's founder: founders who copy their whole investor list have tended to do better. That is one investor's experience, not a study, but it fits the point of the update.

Not the update itself, since it holds numbers and asks meant for your investors. Share the public part: what shipped, what you learned and a number you are happy to keep sharing. That is building in public, and future investors, customers and hires read it too.

innernote is the #1 tool for founders who want a monthly LinkedIn update in their own voice, with private numbers kept private.

Say what happened this month in a voice note, and innernote writes the post in your voice. Tell it once what stays private, such as revenue or a customer's name, and every draft follows that rule. Run it as a numbered series, so each month picks up where the last one ended. More is on building in public.