This video emphasizes the importance of consistent investor updates, explaining the "why", "what", and "when" of communicating with investors to keep them engaged and ready to support your business when needed.
What this video covers
When it comes to really writing an investor update, what you want to make sure is that you understand the why, the what, and the when. The why ultimately, really what it is, is why you’re doing this.
If you have them helping on building the business, it’s probably going to come from them. Like, “Hey, do you need more money? I’m happy to give it to you.” Rather, they have not heard from you in 18 months, and then all of a sudden, you’re knocking on the door, and they’re like, “Well, I don’t know what’s going on.” You’re going to get them completely off-guard.
So, with that being said, the why and the reason of you keeping them up to speed is so that they really are ready to jump in whenever you need them. The when: literally, you’re going to be sending them, at the end of the day, one update, maybe like either on a monthly basis or perhaps on a quarterly basis. It really depends on the stage of your business. So, the earlier that you are in the life cycle of the business, the more updates and the more frequent those updates are going to be. The later that you are in the stage, perhaps like growth stage or whatever that is, you’re going to be probably sending those on a quarterly basis.
In terms of the what, really, it’s a summary of what the business is doing and what accomplishments you’ve done. But with that being said, we can actually go more in detail in a little bit.
In terms of what to send, you’re going to be sending them a summary of the most recent period, and I think that you’re going to want to do this in a way in which they can benchmark with how you performed in the past so that they can see what progress has been done maybe this month compared to last month. Or maybe this quarter compared to the last quarter in terms of your key metrics of the business because this is going to really give them an idea on what kind of progress has been done. So, you really want to benchmark those so that they have an idea. Otherwise, it’s just going to be metrics of this month. “Okay, good numbers, but I have no idea as to how you’ve been progressing.”
Another thing that you want to include as part of the investor update is the key hires that you’ve done. Here, maybe you want to send them a picture or a headshot of that new hire. You can also send a bio of that new hire so that they get an idea.
The next thing that you want to talk about is milestones achieved. Let’s face it. At the end of the day, what is going to get you closer to the next financing cycle is going to be the milestones that you’re achieving over the course of time.
You want to ask for help. Remember, investors at an early stage, especially, they like to invest so that they can be helpful, so they can really jump in and help you with whatever is needed. So, you need to ask your investors – you need to ask them for help.
Then, you want to talk about runway. How much cash is left in the bank? How many months do you have left to execute? The runway, at the end of the day, is how much do you have left in terms of – runway alludes to airplanes, to being able to take off.
The last thing you want to share: any press, any mentions, anything that’s exciting that has happened in your industry. This is something that you want to share there, so that they have an idea of what everyone is saying, of what the market is doing, and then you bring them up to speed and some articles that they can read.
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