How often should I send investor updates?

Monthly while the company is small. Many founders move to quarterly after a Series A, once a board meets regularly. Pick a day, such as the first Tuesday of the month, and keep it. If something big happens between updates, send a short note that day.

How long should an investor update be?

Short enough to read on a phone in about two minutes: 200 to 400 words. The example on this page is 314 words. Put the detail in a link, not in the email.

Should I include bad news in an investor update?

Yes. Say what went wrong, what it cost and what you are changing. Investors who hear bad news early can help. Investors who find out late stop trusting the good news too.

What do I report if we have no revenue yet?

Replace the revenue lines with the numbers that show progress toward revenue: sign-ups, weekly active users, pilots, a waitlist or letters of intent. Keep cash, net burn and runway. They matter most before revenue.

Who should receive the investor update?

Everyone who invested, plus the advisors you want to keep close. Send it from your own address with the recipients in BCC, so a reply reaches only you. Some founders send a shorter version to investors they hope to raise from later.

What is the difference between an investor update and a board report?

An investor update is a short monthly email to all investors. A board report, or board deck, is longer. It goes to board members before a meeting and covers the decisions the board has to make. A company with no board yet needs only the update.

Should the update be an email, a PDF or a deck?

An email, with the update in the body. It can be read on a phone, found later by search and answered with one reply. Link a deck or a metrics sheet for anyone who wants more.

Can AI write my investor update?

It can write the first draft if it can read your real numbers. A chatbot can only reword what you paste into it. An AI employee such as Viktor reads the tools you connected and fills in the numbers. The problems, asks and thanks still need you, and every number needs a check before you send.

Viktor for Startups

Investor update template

A monthly investor update you can copy, fill in and send as an email. Seven sections. Short enough to read on a phone.

Free to copy. No sign-up. Copy for email keeps the bold headings and lists when you paste into Gmail, Outlook or Apple Mail.

See a filled-in example
What each section is for

Subject: [Company] investor update: [Month Year]

Hi everyone,

TL;DR

[Two or three sentences: the number that matters most this month, the biggest win and the biggest problem.]

Numbers ([Month], change from [previous month])

MRR (monthly recurring revenue): $[amount] ([+/- %])
Paying customers: [number] ([+/- number])
Churned MRR (revenue lost to cancellations): $[amount]
Cash in the bank: $[amount]
Net burn (cash spent minus cash received this month): $[amount]
Runway (cash divided by net burn): [number] months
[One number specific to your business]: [value] ([+/- %])

Wins

[What happened, the proof, and why it matters.]
[What happened, the proof, and why it matters.]

Problems

[What went wrong, what it cost, and what you are changing.]
[What went wrong, what it cost, and what you are changing.]

Goals

Last month: [each goal you set, marked done or not done.]
Next month: [up to three goals, each with the number that shows it is done.]

Asks

[One specific request: who you want to meet or what you need, and why.]
[A second request, or delete this line.]

Thanks

[Name]: [what they did and what came of it.]

[Your name][Role], [Company]

A filled-in investor update example

Acme Analytics is not a real company. Every name and number below is made up to show how a finished update reads.

Subject: Acme Analytics investor update: October 2026

Example. Made-up numbers.

Hi everyone,

TL;DR

MRR passed $42,000, up 9% on September, and we signed our largest customer so far. Onboarding is still too slow: new teams take 11 days to send their first report, and we lost two customers because of it.

Numbers (October, change from September)

MRR (monthly recurring revenue): $42,300 (+9%)
Paying customers: 61 (+4)
Churned MRR (revenue lost to cancellations): $1,400
Cash in the bank: $1,180,000
Net burn (cash spent minus cash received this month): $74,000
Runway (cash divided by net burn): 16 months
Teams active each week: 212 (+13%)

Wins

Signed a 40-person logistics company at $1,900 a month, our largest contract. They came from a customer referral.
Shipped the Slack export. 38% of active teams used it in the first two weeks.
A senior engineer joined on 14 October. We are now seven people.

Problems

Onboarding takes 11 days from sign-up to first report. Two customers, worth $1,400 of MRR, cancelled before they got there. We are rebuilding the setup flow and giving every new customer a named contact.
Outbound email produced 3 qualified meetings from 400 emails. We paused it and moved that time to customer referrals, which produced 5.

Goals

Last month: reach $42,000 MRR (done), ship the Slack export (done), cut onboarding to 7 days (not done, still 11).
Next month: reach $46,000 MRR, cut onboarding to 7 days, sign 2 more customers above $1,000 a month.

Asks

Introductions to heads of operations at logistics companies with 20 to 200 people. Reply and we will send two lines you can forward.
We are hiring a founding account executive. Send us anyone who has sold software to operations teams.

Thanks

Priya at Example Ventures: introduced the logistics company that became our largest customer.
Sam: reviewed our pricing page. Trial sign-ups rose from 31 to 44 in the two weeks after the change.

MayaCEO, Acme Analytics

314 words. About two minutes to read.

What each section is for, and what investors look for

Investors read many updates. Each section answers one question they have about your company.

Subject line
What it is for
Lets an investor find this update, and every earlier one, in a search of their inbox.
What investors look for
The company name and the month, in the same format every time.
TL;DR
What it is for
The whole update in two or three sentences, for the investor who reads nothing else.
What investors look for
A straight answer to "is it going well?", with the bad part included.
Numbers
What it is for
The same few measures every month, so the trend shows without a chart.
What investors look for
The same definitions as last month, the change since then, and cash, net burn and runway every time. A number that disappears gets noticed.
Wins
What it is for
Proof that the plan is working.
What investors look for
Results, not activity. "Signed" beats "in talks". Each win has a number or a name.
Problems
What it is for
What is not working, and what you are doing about it.
What investors look for
That you saw the problem first, know what it costs and have changed something. This section earns the most trust.
Goals
What it is for
Holds you to what you said last month and sets what comes next.
What investors look for
Whether last month's goals were met, and whether next month's can be checked with a number.
Asks
What it is for
Turns readers into help.
What investors look for
Something they can do in five minutes: a named person, a clear profile, an open role. "Any introductions welcome" gets none.
Thanks
What it is for
Closes the loop with the people who helped.
What investors look for
Their name and what came of their help. People who are thanked help again.

Seven common mistakes in investor updates

Sending only when the news is good.
Silence reads as trouble. Send on the same day every month, whatever the month looked like.
Changing which numbers you report.
If MRR was in last month's update and is missing from this one, investors assume it fell. Keep the same lines and add a note when a definition changes.
Leaving out cash and runway.
It is the first thing investors look for. Leaving it out does not hide it.
Reporting activity instead of results.
"Had 12 promising calls" tells an investor nothing. "Signed 2 of 12" does.
Asking for "any help".
Nobody can act on that. Ask for one named introduction, one hire or one answer.
Writing too much.
If the update takes more than three minutes to read, cut it. Link to the detail.
Sending a PDF or a deck with no text.
Attachments get saved for later and not opened. Put the update in the body of the email.

Investor update questions founders ask

Seven parts, in this order: a summary of two or three sentences, the same key numbers as last month, wins, problems, goals, asks and thanks. Cash, net burn and runway belong in every update, in a good month or a bad one.

Viktor, the AI employee

Have Viktor write the first draft every month

Viktor is an AI employee who works in Slack and Microsoft Teams. Connect the tools your numbers live in and ask him once. He drafts the update on the day you choose, in this format.

Free to start with up to $100 in credits and no credit card. Each run uses credits. The Team plan is $100 a month for 40,000 credits, shared by the whole workspace. Viktor is SOC 2 Type 1 compliant and reads only the tools you connect.

Maya9:12 AM

@Viktor On the 1st of every month, draft our investor update. Use the format I paste below. Take MRR, paying customers and churned MRR from Stripe, pipeline from HubSpot and what shipped from Linear. Take cash, net burn and runway from the Finance sheet. Show the change from last month for each number. Leave anything you cannot find in brackets. Post the draft in #founders. Do not email anyone.

Viktor9:14 AM

Scheduled for the 1st of every month at 9:00 AM. I'll post the draft here and email no one.

I ran a test on October. The draft is in this thread. MRR, customers and churn come from Stripe. Asks and Thanks are still in brackets for you.

What to tell him

What Viktor does

Reads the real numbers.
Connect Stripe, HubSpot, Linear, PostHog, QuickBooks or Google Sheets. He reads this month's figures from the source each time he runs.
Runs on a schedule.
Ask for the 1st of every month, or any other day. Anything Viktor can do once, he can do on a schedule. Pause it or change it from chat.
Keeps your format.
He posts the draft in your channel with the same sections every month. Correct him once and he remembers it the next time.
Sends only if you ask.
Send the draft yourself, or ask him to send it from your connected Gmail or Outlook account. An admin can make that send wait for approval every time.

What stays with you

The judgement.
Why a deal was lost, what to ask for, who to thank. He drafts these from what is in your tools and channels. You decide what is true.
The check.
He reports what the source says. If Stripe is wrong, the draft is wrong. Read every number before it goes out.
Numbers that live nowhere.
If cash and runway are only in your head, he cannot read them. Keep them in a sheet, or tell him each month.

Your first hire is an AI employee.

Start with the investor update. Add Viktor to Slack or Microsoft Teams, connect the tools your numbers live in and ask for the first draft.

Hire your first AI employee See Viktor for Startups

Investor update template

A filled-in investor update example

What each section is for, and what investors look for

Subject line

TL;DR

Numbers

Wins

Problems

Goals

Asks

Thanks

Seven common mistakes in investor updates

Sending only when the news is good.

Changing which numbers you report.

Leaving out cash and runway.

Reporting activity instead of results.

Asking for "any help".

Writing too much.

Sending a PDF or a deck with no text.