CEO & co-founder at Nume & Scaleup Finance | Driving the digital transformation of Financial Management
Oh boy this got me. The past 5 years has never seen more capital deployed in innovative companies. However, at the same time it has never been easier to start a company, develop a product and launch, increasing the threshold for securing funding. As a startup, you are essentially in relative competition with other startups for investor's money. Sharing a monthly update is probably one of the most underated and easiest actions to make sure you secure next round of funding.
Alexander Wulff having a solid traction > sharing monthly update though.
I was just thinking that something else I would love my own portfolio companies todo besides giving a great written data heavy monthly update is an actual picture/photo of what is happening atm so that you tie the written stuff with a milestone or just something fun or a win that happened throughout the month, it would make it more top of mind for me and would give me a literal image in my head of who the team really is and If someone new joined and just generally what’s going on.
I personally write to mine every 6-8 weeks, which is when I think I can write 1,000 words on “what has happened since the last update”. As we move towards launch I can see there being a case for a pure ‘numbers’ update each month, without too much commentary, and sticking to my current cadence with things of note / interest.
I think a strong communication strategy for all stakeholders from the outset will build trust and engagement. Being consistent builds that trust over time. Sometimes easier said than done but it will stack the cards in your favour if you adopt that strategy from the fund raise
Or execute on sales, revenue and profit and the FOMO of investors would warrant the attention / prospects of follow-on rounds. I suspect if a company is growing revenue 70% YOY with 20-30% gross margin, with a slight profit the monthly updates are less relavant. It would at minimum be the case for my wife Maya Elz Davis and I’s Family of Fimrs.
I disagree. The best way to retain the support of existing investors is to make it rain ?. At the end of the day, you can send all the updates you want, but if your business / execution / traction is poor, then don't expect more funding.
??true and as soon as the cadence drops you know it’s heading the wrong way where they should be raising the flag for more help.
Always one of the things that fell to bottom of list as ‘non-fatal’ but really useful to know impact ??
Chief Product Officer at Huuuge Games
1 年Good to examine why this would be the case. For instance it’s been discussed a lot that the main reason founders stop sending updates is because things are going poorly. It may be that the companies that send regular updates have a better run in the first place which makes follow-up investment more likely. This is probably most of the cases But ofc another explanation is that sending continuous updates allows you to enlist the help of investors when you need it and improve circumstances even when they are not ideal. Which would also lead to better outcomes. In any case the idea is that it’s not just the updates themselves. It’s using them to ask for help when needed that is likely to make a difference.