Investor update template: the monthly email that works

A monthly investor update has one job beyond keeping people informed: it is the mechanism by which your investors can help you, and it only works if you ask for something specific. "Let me know if you can help" produces nothing. "Do you know anyone running RevOps at a 200-500 person insurance company" produces introductions. The six sections below take well under an hour a month, and the discipline of writing the bad month plainly is what makes the good months believable.

The template

Send it as an email, not a link — a link is a click, and the open rate on a click is not what you want to find out. Keep the appendix for anyone who wants it.

Subject line

[Company] — [Month] — [the one number], for example Acme — August — $41k MRR, +9%. The number goes in the subject every month including the months it goes down. Assume the subject line is read every month and the body is not. A subject line with no number in it invites the reader to guess, and they will guess badly.

1 — The headline, two sentences

[What happened that mattered]. [What it means for the next month.] Written before the numbers, because it is what people remember. If nothing happened that mattered, say that in two sentences too — it is a legitimate month and pretending otherwise is expensive later.

2 — The numbers, same ones every time

[Metric]: [this month] ([last month], [3 months ago]). Four to six metrics, unchanged month to month. Changing which metrics you show is read as selecting the flattering ones, and it is usually read correctly. Include the one you are least pleased with.

3 — What we shipped

Three bullets maximum, written in terms of what a customer can now do rather than what was built. "Customers can export to their own warehouse" rather than "completed the warehouse connector work". Investors cannot evaluate your roadmap, and they can evaluate whether customers got something.

4 — What went wrong

[What happened]. [What we think caused it]. [What we are doing about it, with a date]. This section is the one that builds credibility, and leaving it out repeatedly is noticed. Report a problem while you still have options and the rest of your update gets taken at face value. Report it only once it is unavoidable and your investors start reading everything else for what you might be leaving out.

5 — The ask, specific

Asking for: [exactly what]. [Why this month.] [How to help in one step.] Name the company, the title, the geography — whatever makes it answerable from memory. One ask, occasionally two. Five asks is a list to come back to later, and later does not arrive.

6 — Cash

[Cash in bank]. [Net burn]. [Months of runway at current burn]. Every month, without being asked. It is the number they will work out anyway, and volunteering it is the difference between a founder who is on top of the business and one who is being asked.

Writing the bad month

Lead with it, name it plainly, and put the date you will know more. Do not bury it under a shipped-features list — everyone reading has seen that structure and knows what it means. The update after a bad month that was reported honestly is read carefully; the update after one that was buried gets read sceptically for a long time afterwards.

Questions

What should an investor update include?

A two-sentence headline, the same four to six metrics every month, what shipped in customer terms, what went wrong, one specific ask, and cash plus runway. Under a screen, with any detail in an appendix.

How often should you send investor updates?

Monthly, on roughly the same date. Consistency carries more signal than length — a short update every month beats a thorough one each quarter, and missing months are noticed and interpreted.

Should you report bad news to investors?

Yes, early and plainly, with what you are doing about it and by when. Reporting problems early is what makes your good news credible. Investors who find out late generally discount everything you have told them before.

How do you ask investors for help?

Name exactly what you want: the role, the company profile, the geography. "Let me know if you can help" is a closing pleasantry and gets treated as one. One specific ask a month outperforms a list of five.

Should you include cash and runway every month?

Yes, unprompted. It is the first thing an investor calculates anyway, and volunteering it signals you are managing it rather than avoiding it.

Email or a link to a document?

Email. A link costs a click, and the fraction of people who take it is lower than you would like. Send the body as an email and attach or link the appendix for anyone who wants the detail.

Written from watching this go well and badly rather than from a study, so treat it as a practice rather than a finding. We are a company that sends one of these; the format above is close to what we send.