How to write an investor update email (even in a zero-revenue month)

01. Decide who the update is for before you open a blank email.

An investor update is a regular email from the founders to people who have backed the company. It is not a press release and it is not a pitch deck in disguise. Its job is to keep people who already care about you informed, and to make it easy for them to help. Aaron Harris, writing from his time at YC, describes the payoff plainly: investors who think about you often are more likely to help with specific requests and to point opportunities your way.

Many early founders have two audiences, though. There are current investors, who are owed the real numbers. And there are investors you met while raising who said “keep me posted.” They have not invested, they may never invest, and they did not sign up for your bank balance. Same habit, different scope. Write the investor version first, then cut it down for prospects (section 06 has that template).

Before you send anything, decide what you would be comfortable seeing forwarded. Label the investor version as confidential if it contains numbers you would not publish, and still write it as if it could travel. That is not paranoia. Emails get forwarded, and it is far easier to leave a sensitive detail out than to take it back.

• Current investors: full metrics, cash and runway, honest lowlights, specific asks.
• Prospects who asked to stay in touch: progress, one or two shareable signals, one light ask.
• Everyone: nothing you could not stand behind if the email were forwarded.

Sources: Aaron Harris: Investor Updates ↗

02. Pick the numbers once, then stop changing them.

Harris suggests deciding what you will report each month: growth in revenue or users, cash and burn, what you need from investors and a qualitative read on how things are going. Then stay consistent. In his words, adding a metric because it matters is fine; removing one because you missed a milestone is not.

YC group partner Tom Blomfield is even more direct about the top of the email. In his Startup School talk on metrics he names three numbers for every investor update: revenue, net burn and runway. If they are missing from the top, he says he assumes the founder has something to hide. He also tells the story of one founder who sent ten monthly updates in a row with a big zero as the headline number, and describes it as keeping her honest and focused.

So if you are pre-revenue, put “Revenue: $0” at the top anyway and add one progress metric that you define in writing. It might be weekly active teams, completed pilots or customer interviews done against a specific question. Blomfield’s advice is to agree on definitions and keep them stable, because changing what “active” means to make a chart look better only fools you. If you genuinely change the metric because the company has moved on, say so in one sentence and explain why.

• Revenue for the month, even when it is zero.
• Net burn: how much cash actually left the bank this month.
• Runway in months, or the month cash runs out at the current rate.
• One progress metric with a written definition that does not move.

Sources: Aaron Harris: Investor Updates ↗ Y Combinator Startup Library: Key Startup Metrics (Tom Blomfield) ↗

03. Do the math the way an investor will check it.

Most update mistakes are definition mistakes, not bad months. YC partner Tim Brady explains that burn rate measures cash, not profit and loss: cash going out minus cash coming in. A customer who agreed to buy but pays next year does not help this month’s burn. Runway is cash in the bank divided by burn. If $180,000 is in the bank and net burn is $15,000 a month, you have about 12 months. If revenue or costs are moving around, Brady recommends a month-by-month cash forecast instead of a single division.

Growth rates need care too. Brady’s example: revenue of $100 in January and $600 six months later is not “100% a month”; the compounded monthly growth rate is closer to 35%. Using the simple version in front of an investor, he says, makes you look either unsophisticated or like you are trying to sneak one past them. Neither is the vibe you want in your inbox.

The a16z “16 Startup Metrics” post adds a useful list of traps: letters of intent and verbal agreements are neither revenue nor bookings, cumulative charts can keep rising while the business underneath is shrinking, and “active users” means nothing until you define the activity. It also separates net burn from gross burn, so say which one you are reporting. Run your draft against the checklist below before it goes anywhere.

• Burn is cash out minus cash in, not expenses minus booked revenue.
• Runway equals cash divided by net burn; use a forecast if either number is moving.
• Growth is compounded month over month, not total growth divided by months.
• Call it MRR only if the revenue actually recurs.
• LOIs, pilots without payment and waitlists are progress signals, not revenue.
• Monthly numbers, not cumulative totals.

Sources: Y Combinator Startup Library: How to calculate burn rate, runway, and growth rate (Tim Brady) ↗ Andreessen Horowitz: 16 Startup Metrics ↗

04. Put the asks near the top and make them easy to say yes to.

Harris’s advice is to lead with your key metrics and then your requests, or even to lead with the requests, so investors definitely see them. Then make the whole thing shorter. If you have a lot of good news, he suggests an appendix or a quarterly note rather than a longer monthly email. The qualitative recap of the month can sit lower down.

A useful ask names a person, company type or decision, and says why now. “Any intros would be great” asks the reader to do your research. “An introduction to someone who runs operations at a 50 to 200 person logistics company, because we are testing whether the scheduling problem shows up there too” gives them something to search their memory for. Offer to write the intro blurb yourself, so helping costs them two minutes, not twenty.

Here is a plain-text template that reads fine in any email client. Harris says it does not matter whether an update is a fancy newsletter or a plain email; the act of thinking it through and sending it is what counts.

Subject: [Company] update, [Month Year] (confidential)

Hi all,

One line on the month: [the most important thing that changed, good or bad].

NUMBERS ([Month], vs [last month])
Revenue: [$] (was [$])
Net burn: [$] (was [$])
Cash in bank: [$]
Runway: [n] months at current burn
[Progress metric, defined as ...]: [n] (was [n])

ASKS
1. Intro: [the kind of person], at [the kind of company], because [what you want to learn or test this month]. If a name comes to mind, hit reply; I will write the blurb.
2. Help: [the decision you are stuck on or the hire you are making], ideally before [date].

WHAT WENT WELL
- [Concrete win, with who and what changed]

WHAT DID NOT
- [The miss, in plain words] / our fix: [action] / we will know by: [date]

NEXT MONTH
- [One to three priorities that would change next month's numbers]

THANKS
- [Person] for [specific help]

[Name]

Sources: Aaron Harris: Investor Updates ↗

05. A worked example: the month that did not go to plan.

This is a fictional company, invented to show the format; it is not a Solution member or a real update. Picture a two-founder team building scheduling software for small clinics. They have no paying customers yet, $180,000 in the bank, and they spent $15,000 net this month. Their progress metric is “clinics that booked at least 20 appointments in the product in a week.” Last month that number was three. This month it is two, because one pilot clinic paused while it changed receptionists.

The tempting version leads with a new feature and buries the drop. The useful version puts the two at the top, explains it in one line, and asks for exactly the help that would fix it. Notice that the zero revenue line stays in, the runway math matches the cash figures, and the asks are specific enough that an investor can think of a name before they finish their coffee.

Subject: ExampleCo update, October (confidential)

Hi all,

One line on the month: active pilot clinics went from 3 to 2 after one clinic paused during a staff change; we learned onboarding depends too much on one person.

NUMBERS (October vs September)
Revenue: $0 (was $0)
Net burn: $15,000 (was $14,200)
Cash in bank: $180,000
Runway: 12 months at current burn
Active pilot clinics (20+ bookings in a week): 2 (was 3)

ASKS
1. An intro to someone who manages front-desk staff across several clinics. We want to test a two-person onboarding so one departure does not stop a pilot.
2. Ten minutes with anyone who has sold software to clinics that share one receptionist: what made them stick?

WHAT WENT WELL
- The remaining two clinics moved all new-patient bookings into the product.

WHAT DID NOT
- One clinic paused. Fix: train two staff members per clinic; we will know by mid-November if the paused clinic restarts.

NEXT MONTH
- Restart the paused clinic and add one new pilot.
- Ask both active clinics whether they would pay, and how much.

THANKS
- Dana for the intro to the clinic group in September.

Maya

06. The prospect version: stay in touch without oversharing.

Investors who passed or said “too early” sometimes ask to hear how things go. A short, regular note turns a one-off meeting into a track record they can watch. Ask before adding someone to a recurring list, keep it shorter than the investor version and leave out confidential detail such as exact cash, runway and customer names unless you are comfortable with those details travelling.

Give them one or two signals you can stand behind, one thing you learned and one light ask. When the timing is right for a new round, your earlier notes have already done part of the work. If you need help reaching new investors, our guide on asking for a warm investor introduction has forwardable templates.

Subject: [Company], quick progress note ([Month])

Hi [name],

You mentioned you would like to follow along after we spoke in [month]. Here is a short note; tell me if you would rather not get these.

Since last time: [one or two signals you can share, with dates].
What we learned: [one honest sentence].
What is next: [the milestone you are working toward].

One small ask: [an introduction, a resource or a quick opinion].

Thanks,
[Name]

07. Send it on a fixed day, then make the next one easier.

Harris recommends sending updates monthly and calls it a forcing function, a bit like writing your growth on a whiteboard every month for everyone to see. Pick a day, for example the first business day of the month, and keep it. Before you send, reread the draft with his three questions: does it have relevant data, does it have your asks, and is it short? If not, rewrite it. Keep a running note during the month of wins, problems and help received, and the next update mostly writes itself.

Your asks only work if you know people who might say yes. Solution is a social network for the startup ecosystem, including founders, investors and mentors. You can use a clear profile to explain what you are building and what kind of help is relevant. Being connected in an app does not mean anyone has agreed to introduce you, invest or endorse your numbers. It does give your next specific ask a few more people who might recognize it.

• Same day every month, even when the month was rough.
• Numbers first, asks second, story third.
• A zero is a number. Report it.
• Thank people by name for specific help.

Sources: Aaron Harris: Investor Updates ↗ Solution: The Hub For Startups ↗