I’ve invested in about 30 companies over the last 6 years and received a lot of different investor updates. Some companies send few, sporadic (often too detailed), updates whereas others send updates with a fixed structure and on a predictable schedule.
I think the sweet spot for many micro vcs with a portfolio is quarterly updates which arrive on a predictable schedule – e.g. 2 Mondays after the end of Quarter. Founders who update investors on a predictable schedule generally build better companies, in my experience, as there is a correlation with discipline and organization.
Here is my suggested template for sending updates, although this is not meant to be prescriptive and more to summarize the bases covered:
Many startups often miss the ‘Metrics’ section and I think this is the area where most could benefit for improving their reporting.
Template (Quarterly)
Summary
- Key milestones hit/missed
- Important takeaways
Highlights
- Limit to <5 bullet points
- New customers, product wins, critical hires, geographical expansion
Lowlights
- Limit to <5 bullet points
- Lost customers, product failures, lost employees
Metrics
- Consumer: DAU/MAU, Revenue, Retention/Churn Metric, Employees, Cash, and Burn Rate
- Enterprise: # of customers, Revenue, New customers, Sales pipeline, Employees, Cash and Burn Rate
- I recommend showing the same metrics in a table Quarterly and then highlighting YoY and QoQ growth
Product
- New features or products shipped and a short summary of their impact / future impact
Team
- New hires / team changes
Other
- Anything that is not covered by the sections above e.g. Press coverage
Fundraising
- If fundraising add this section to show progress / any key milestones
- Also useful for converting existing investors for additional funding
Help
- Specific intros to investors or potential customers generally yield the best results
I know some founders feel like these updates don’t get noticed but I read every single one of the updates even when I don’t reply.
Aadil Mamujee 
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