Monthly Investor Update

Write the update investors read to the end: metrics with context, honest lowlights, specific asks, and a runway number stated plainly.

Write my monthly investor update.

Period: [MONTH]
Metrics this month and last: [REVENUE, GROWTH, CUSTOMERS, CHURN, PIPELINE, BURN, CASH, HEADCOUNT. Include the numbers you have and skip the ones you do not.]
What went well: [SPECIFICS]
What went badly: [THE REAL LIST]
What we shipped: [FEATURES, LAUNCHES]
Team changes: [HIRES, DEPARTURES]
Decisions I made this month and why: [THE CALLS]
What I am worried about: [HONESTLY]
What I need from investors: [INTROS, HIRING HELP, ADVICE, WITH NAMES OR PROFILES]
Last month's stated priorities: [WHAT I SAID I WOULD DO]

Structure:

1. **TL;DR**: 3-4 lines. The number that matters most, the biggest thing that happened, the biggest problem, and the ask. Assume half the readers stop here.
2. **Metrics**: a compact table with this month, last month, and change. Add one line under it explaining what changed and why, in causal terms rather than description. "Signups fell 12% because we paused paid spend on the 8th", not "signups declined".
3. **Highlights**: 3-5 items, each with the number or the concrete outcome attached.
4. **Lowlights**: 2-4 items, stated plainly, each with what we are doing about it and by when. Do not soften these; investors discover problems eventually, and the update where you named it first is the one that buys you credibility for the next one.
5. **Last month's priorities**: each one marked done, in progress, or dropped, with one line on any drop.
6. **Next month's priorities**: 3 at most, each measurable.
7. **Runway**: cash on hand, monthly net burn, months remaining, and the date. State it every month even when it is comfortable.
8. **Asks**: numbered, specific, and small enough to act on. "Intros to heads of ops at logistics companies with 50-500 employees" beats "introductions would be helpful."

Rules: use only my numbers, and if a metric is missing say "not tracked" rather than estimating it. Keep it under 800 words. No adjectives on the metrics; the numbers carry themselves.

How to use

The lowlights section is the whole reason investors read these carefully, and the instinct to trim it is what turns updates into press releases that nobody opens. Reporting last month's stated priorities against outcomes is the second habit worth keeping: it is the only thing in the update that measures you rather than the business. Keep the runway line in even in good months, because the month you drop it is the month everyone notices.

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