The StartUp Founder’s Guide To Investor Updates
The downsides of writing an investor update are, (checks notes), zero — unless there’s something to hide.
Dear Reader,
You are your startup’s first, largest, and most activist investor. Your duty to yourself, your alter ego (your startup), and external stakeholders is to ensure transparency, progress, and growth.
It’s called an Investor Update. (𝕏 Tweet This)
Write it to yourself weekly and your investors monthly; this habit will shift your perspective on your business.
TLDR; Download the Investor Update Guidebook & Template here.
STARTUP FRAMEWORK DOWNLOADS:
- 1.2 Why Does My StartUp Exist: Problem Validation
- 1.3 Does The Market Care: Problem Impact Analysis
- 1.4 Investor Update Template: You Are The First Investor
- 1.5 The StartUp Value Chain: Where Do You Fit In?
- 1.6 StartUp Founder Tribe: Cultivating Your Circle
- 1.7 Solution First Glance: Reality Check
- 1.8 The Minimum Delightful Product: Creating Delight
- 1.9 The 5 Pillars: Empathetic Thinking
- 2.1 Market Sizing: Is The Market Big Enough?
- 2.2 Breaking Into Your Market: Barriers To Entry
- 2.3 Your Atomic ICP: Looking For Nemo
- 2.4 Leadership Principles: Your Modus Operandi
- 2.5 Activating Your ICP 5:5:5: Colliding With Reality
- 2.6 Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean: Create or Steal
- 2.7 Ecosystem Mapping: Partners
LETS GET INTO IT:
Forget the investors for a second, you might not even have any.
The weekly investor update that you send to yourself, your co-founder, and perhaps your founding team, forces you to articulate your business, have a true handle on your metrics, vocalize your challenges, and place some bets on the future. It’s part of your CEO journey and evaluation of your weekly progress. It levels up your communication style, helps with being succinct, and forces you to accurately gauge the performance of your startup.
For your investors don’t think of it as a formality; it’s a tool, that only has upside, keeping them aligned with your vision, progress, and challenges. You get to tell the story of your startup, show your commitment to driving it forward and most of all it is the builder of trust, relationships and your ability to ask for help & support (especially when its not-so-good news).
Here is the guidebook. It’s not just a template; it’s designed to help you start somewhere and make it yours.
Why Investor Updates Matter
- Clarity of Vision: Regular updates force you to step back and evaluate the big picture. It’s so easy to get lost in the day-to-day, it’s a weekly pause and forced reflection.
- Accountability: The rhythm of accountability is a learned skill. Knowing that you’re due to report on progress keeps you and your team focused on the metrics that matter.
- Trust and Transparency: Consistent communication builds trust with your investors and team. Transparency, fosters a culture of honesty and resilience that will pay dividends when you need it most.
- Problem-Solving: Sharing challenges or making “asks” will lead to unexpected assistance. More than being a source of funds; investors have a broader market view, you have no idea what they know, or who they know…. Manufacture kismet.
Good luck. Keep scaling. Keep communicating. Feel free to add me to your investor update.
As always, you are welcome to grab time with me.
— James