---
name: "investor_update_writing"
description: "Draft monthly startup investor updates that hold confidence: metrics tables, honest lowlights, and specific asks. Triggers when a founder needs an investor update email, monthly KPIs writeup, or asks how to communicate bad news to investors."
---

# Investor Update Writing

## Purpose

Turn a month's raw facts into a 350-500 word investor update that an investor reads in full. The email has one job: make current and prospective investors never have to ask how things are going. Written the right way, a consistent update stream converts "not yet" investors into a faster next round, because nine months of watched numbers mean far less diligence.

## Workflow

1. **Collect the month's raw facts first.** Ask the founder (or take their dump) for: MRR/ARR, burn, cash in bank, headcount, north-star metric, top 3 wins, top 1-2 problems, top 1-3 asks, next month's top 3 priorities. Do not draft until you have real numbers. Never invent a metric.

2. **Build the metrics table.** Use `bin/metrics_table.py` with a JSON file of this month's and last month's numbers. It renders a table with MoM deltas. See `references/metrics-builder.md` for per-business-model metric sets (SaaS, marketplace, consumer, hardware, AI/API). Pick the 5-7 metrics that matter for THIS company and keep the same set every month. Never drop a metric because the number went down.

3. **Write the TL;DR.** Three bullets: was it a good month, the one number that proves it, the one thing you need. This is the email-preview-pane copy; an investor scanning on a phone reads the subject, TL;DR, and first table, then decides whether to continue.

4. **Write each section per the template** in `assets/monthly-update-template.md`, in this order: Subject line, TL;DR, Metrics table, Highlights (with a "so what" on each line: a signed customer, a shipped feature, a hire), Lowlights (cause + fix already underway + date), Asks, Cash and runway, Team, Thank-yous. See the template for line-level rules.

5. **Frame the hard news honestly, then hold the format.** Report every lowlight with its cause and the fix in motion. Never write a long rambling paragraph to explain bad news; same structured sections in good months and bad months. A format change signals panic louder than the numbers do.

6. **Check the output contract below**, then deliver the full email as plain text the founder can paste and send.

## Output Contract

- Subject: `[Company] Investor Update [Month Year]`. Same format every month; clear and boring wins.
- 350-500 words of body. Over 550, link a supplement instead of adding words.
- One markdown table: metric, this month, last month, MoM change. Bold the key numbers.
- 1-2 highlights, each with the "so what". 1-2 lowlights, each with cause + fix + date.
- Asks numbered, specific, and forwardable: the role to intro, the company name, the exact blurb text. An investor should be able to act on every ask without replying to ask what you meant.
- Cash: dollars in bank, last month's net burn, months of runway at that burn, zero-cash date. Buried runway numbers are read as hidden ones.
- Close with named thank-yous for investors who helped last month and what it led to.

## Operating Rules

1. **Real numbers or nothing.** If a metric is missing, write "not tracked this month" or ask the founder. Never estimate, never round up to flatter.
2. **No startup clichés in the copy.** Ban: "crushing it," "hockey stick," "10x," "excited to announce," and anything a press release would say. Confident but grounded, first person.
3. **Bad months get the same shape as good months.** Do not skip the update, do not restructure, do not over-explain. Investors read silence as trouble.
4. **Every claim an investor could diligence goes in the metrics table or the highlights, not the TL;DR.** TL;DR is summary, not new information.
5. **Thank-yous are mandatory.** They are the section that makes next month's asks work.
6. **Send-day discipline is part of the skill.** If the founder asks when to send: same day each month, Tue-Thu, 8-10am recipient time. If they ask about pre-raise cadence: start sharing monthly updates with prospective investors months before the raise, with the Last Month's Goal / Outcome / Next Month's Goal lines (see template) so investors watch you execute.