As a founder, if I’m honest, I used to treat the shareholder update like a chance to prove we were busy.
That’s how you get a 50-page deck – and an angry cap table!
Now, as an investor, I look for the same ten things, every time, every month. If they were missing, I assumed the month was being ‘managed’.
When I say 9 things, I’m not talking about a board pack. It’s the ten lines that earn a place on one single page.
If a field is empty, leave it off. Don’t invent a paragraph to look complete; that’s important. Here are the 9:
1. Plan vs actual
The number you said you’d hit. The number you hit.
Revenue, pipeline, users, waitlist — whatever you actually forecast. Side by side. Same spot every month.
A sentence about “strong momentum” is not plan vs actual.
2. Why it moved
If you missed by about 10%, write one reason.
Not three. Not a lesson and a silver lining. One sentence they can believe.
Two enterprise deals slipped. One signed last week. One is still open.
Hiding the gap is how they stop trusting the rest of the list.
3. Cash
Cash in the bank. Runway in months.
Put it where they don’t have to hunt. This is the line they read even when they skim everything else.
4. Burn
What you spent. Whether burn moved.
If you don’t have a clean figure yet, say that — don’t invent one. Empty stays off the page. A guessed burn is worse than no burn.
5. Last month’s promises
Every item you said you’d do last month, marked done or deferred.
Deferred gets one line. Deleted because it’s awkward does not count.
This is the part that compounds. It’s also the part a new doc every month drops.
6. Next 30 days
Five lines, max.
What you will actually try to do this month. Not the roadmap. Not the vision slide. If it won’t fit here, it isn’t a monthly commitment.
7. Team
Who joined. Who left. The seat you’re hiring that changes the next 90 days.
Skip culture paragraphs. Skip “excited to welcome.” Names and roles. That’s the update.
8. What’s stuck
The problem that is actually in the way.
A lost deal. A hire that didn’t close. A product bet that isn’t landing. One or two sentences.
If the page is only wins, they will go looking for the miss themselves.
9. Ask for help
Intros to other investors or connections. A hire. Help on a deal.
If you don’t have one, write No ask this month. That’s cleaner and more meaningful than a vague “always happy to hear ideas.”
A fake ask trains them to ignore the real one later.
What never makes the ten
No puff opener.
No designed appendix.
No highlight reel to justify a late send.
No cover email that pastes the whole letter.
The cover note is three lines. The PDF is the page. You still approve every sentence.
How I do it now
I don’t start from a blank page. I fill a short form: numbers, what changed, last month’s list, cash, next 30 days, optional ask. OnRecord turns that into one page, in our logo and type. Empty fields stay off. Nothing is invented.
Why not run this update this afternoon? The investor update will include all 9 things investors look for. That’s a regular shareholder update.
I built OnRecord after years of doing this the hard way – putting investor comms off, then overbuilding them to compensate. What they wanted, and what I later understood as an investor myself, was a single-page update I could send without the drama – including just the essentials: last month still on the record, the key numbers (next to the plan), and nothing written to fill the space. That’s what OnRecord does. A monthly update for investors, shareholders and anyone else who needs the same picture – made in ten minutes. Try for 60 days free – that’s 2 free monthly updates. Your investors will love you for it!
All the info they want, nothing they don’t.
