📩 Founder-Investor Communications: Strategic Frequencies Yield Tangible Benefits📩 In the startup ecosystem, the cadence of founder updates is a critical component of investor relations. Empirical data reveals a distribution of communication preferences among founders: 🔸 60% of founders strategically opt for monthly updates. This frequency is statistically optimal for synthesizing progress and maintaining a steady stream of investor engagement without overwhelming stakeholders. 🔸 21% of founders deliver weekly updates, allowing for a continuous feedback loop and the agility to adapt strategies in near real-time, enhancing operational responsiveness. 🔸 A focused 3% communicate on a daily basis, providing granular insights and fostering an environment of immediate transparency and investor inclusion. 🔸 16% choose a quarterly update cycle, which can effectively condense strategic milestones and financial trajectories into a comprehensive narrative. The attached image exemplifies a concise yet detailed investor update illustrating the utility of structured communication in investor relations. 📊 The analytical conclusion: regular, well-crafted updates are a conduit for sustained investor confidence, risk mitigation, and collaborative growth. They serve as a barometer of a startup's health and a predictor of its future performance. 👉 Which frequency has transformed your investor relationships the most? #startups #entrepreneurship #venturecapital #investing #finance #crossborder #inovexus #startup #VC #earlystage
This is very much dependent on stage of company, the experience of the management team (the CEO in particular), and the personalities of the investors. First time founders need more oversight and tighter management in the beginning. Seasoned CEOs who are brought in to provide adult supervision should dictate what is the proper cadence and "manage the board" rather than having the board manage them. The amount of time it takes to prepare detailed investor updates can significantly detract from management's time running the company. Daily updates is patently absurd. Weekly written reports can work if they are based on automated dashboards that capture key metrics (like the example you showed) and keep custom updates to a minimum. I personally have found that monthly updates work well, particularly if the company is on a quarterly board meeting cadence. But there's no one-size fits all. As with most things in startup land, it just depends.
Regular and well-crafted updates are key to maintaining investor confidence and fostering collaborative growth. #InvestorRelations
Good practice for early stage ventures. Investor trust is important. In my opinion, the frequency of communication depends on VC investors (board or observers) and angels / friends and family Investors. Angels often want to be more emotionally involved so may need constant updates to follow the journey.
An excellent example, clear, understandable, short, without information noise. Without hiding the problem (well, probably not hiding it). And a beautiful example in this letter is the founder’s care for his employees.
Weekly I can get behind but daily investor updates? Surely not 😅
Philippe Roche Awesome sharing! Just curious - Daily sync up with granular updates ? Doesn't that sound more like micro-managing? Which type of companies and investor find the need of it, can you please share some examples?
Would Nikola Tesla have investors today?
Very useful example, thank you Philippe!
Very Helpful Philippe Roche!
serial tech entrepreneur, investor, advisor; I build and help build great digital companies.
9mohigh frequency: only if/when a crisis is around the corner. else bi-monthly / quarterly is enough in my experience. daily: laughable, what a waste of time imho. it takes time to retrieve all the data, crystallise its meaning, produce and write an intelligent summary + handle the unavoidable questions that follow. So much effort and time that could be better spent elsewhere. low frequency: recommended for most as long as the business hits its projects and board approved KPIs. but there's no rule, as the CEO, you get the Board you build. we teach how to build a productive one (extremely rare here in the EU).