Investor Update

It's the 28th. Your investor update is due tomorrow. You've been putting it off all week.

You know what you're supposed to write—metrics, wins, challenges, asks. But you're staring at a blank email and your brain can't decide what to include. Do you mention the churn spike? How honest should you be about the hiring miss? Should you lead with MRR growth or bury it because it's slower than last month?

By 11pm you've written 900 words of narrative that reads like a blog post. Investors will skim past it. Or you've written 150 words of cheerful metrics with no asks. They can't help you because you didn't tell them what you need.

Most founders either skip updates entirely ("I'll send one next month when we have better news") or send something too long, too vague, or too optimistic. Both waste your most underused asset—your existing investor base.

This template turns 8 questions into a ready-to-send update. Company name, period, key metrics, wins, challenges, asks, priorities, tone. Takes 10 minutes. The output is under 500 words, follows a structure investors recognize, and includes the specific asks that actually get replies.

TL;DR up front. Metrics in a table. Wins without the hype. Challenges framed as learnings. Asks that are concrete enough for someone to act on. What's next. Done.

The structure is fixed—what changes is the content you put in. Pre-seed founder updating angels? Same template. Series A founder sending quarterly emails? Same template. The questions adapt to wherever you are.

500 words. Specific enough to be useful. Concise enough to be read.