Once you secure funding from investors, keeping a strong relationship with them where they trust you and the work you're doing becomes of utmost importance. For that, reliable investor updates and reports make a ton of difference. To help achieve that, we've described all key components of an investor update template. You can also get those vital templates for free with us in a downloadable or online form.
Investor updates are a way of keeping your backers informed of your company's processes and securing your startup's well-being. Sending regular investor reports allows you to be transparent about the work you do. It also keeps valuable insight in check by continually revising the big picture of what your company is doing and keeping track of your overall performance.
The idea of an investor update is for your financial backers to get steady glimpses at the company's performance over key indicators. They'll want to understand how your financials stand, how well you're doing concerning goals, and how well your teams and company are performing in alignment with those.
Of course, investors will want to see what's happened with the key metrics to your business. Include those as visually and clearly as possible in your updates. Focusing on a single KPI can also make up for a good strategy in this sense to then report your progress in that area throughout every subsequent report. Strategize this way to give a clearer vision of the way your startup is moving along.
If you've achieved a milestone or particularly significant achievement, highlight it on the upcoming update. It should support the notion that all your hard work and the trusted funds are paying off in more ways than once.
Be consistent in the format you choose for your initial investor report template. Then, keep using that structure for all subsequent renditions to make it easier for investors to follow you every period. This is where investor update templates lend a beautiful hand. Tracking differences and changes should flow when you stick to a particular structure and format every period.
How often you send out investor updates will depend on a series of factors. Take into account you want to nourish healthy relationships with your investors. To do that and overcome any challenges you face, you should establish a certain periodicity when investors would like to have an update from you in their inbox. Usually, these investor updates happen monthly, but large companies tend to reduce the frequency. You should check with your stakeholders to see if they wish quarterly or even bi-yearly reports from you. Also, suggest what makes you feel at better ease about the reality of how often you can sit down to comprise stunning summaries on your essential business areas. Bear in mind that updating your investors regularly can also translate in keener attention, which can eventually lead to even more funding. Don't make it come across as if you didn't want to deliver updates. The more frequently you report willingly, the better it is for your overall startup performance in many ways.
Whichever kind of agreement you reach on the regularity of your reports, every business should know how to nail an impressive investor's update. The key components of an investor update template we'll now give you should ease this process. They should also cut back on the amount of time it'll take to produce a well-designed and relevant presentation.
First of all, your reports need to reflect more than just data. Convey your brand and company spirit through them. Let them speak of the passion you have for your work. When you're writing an investor update, fill it with the same energy you have to develop your product or service. Look at it any way you can to translate your brand into your updates.
Let's go over our free investor update template slides now. We do that as a way to discuss the most critical slide content for every investor update you send.
First, kick off your update with the official company name, your personal details, including position and contact data, such as email address and phone number. Include the date, and think of this as the period you're presenting.
The second slide should have a brief executive summary that clearly shows your company's most significant accomplishments in a set period. Make this really concise. Only include your priority highlights for this report.
Devote the following three slides to presenting any new features or stand-out news you have for investors. Use a full slide to focus on your biggest highlight and use the others to break down news on any new features.
The sixth slide of your investor update should serve as a roadmap for the year. Present your company's evolution to date, along with any milestones you might have reached.
The next slide in this report should focus on metrics and KPIs. Follow this with a current annual run rate. Then, go into MRR growth for the past 30 days. What would be your tenth slide by now should show a graphic of your annual run rate's evolution. Next comes a monthly revenue graph. Do this overtime for the year. If yours is a SaaS business, let your subsequent slide describe your monthly recurring revenue churn.
Move on with this report with a focus on target markets and growth channels. Update any activity on your core acquisition channels, as well, before you continue with new information on your average customers, their acquisition cost, and lifetime value. From here, present your product and growth team. Add any highlights or changes in regards to the faces behind all your hard work.
As the last section to this, describe your financials. Title a slide to show you're getting there and display your figures on the subsequent one if you'd like. We suggest a revenue vs. spend graph for the year, which can be followed by a slide on your product's core features. Include any new milestones for which you're aiming next.
You can decide to wrap up with a reminder of your contact details as an invitation for investors to contact you on any needs that might come up as of their review of this report.
Remember to tailor all this thinking of your audience, right? You should know your investors well by the time you sit down to give reports on your startup. Let your slides speak of your brand and passion and highlight your good and could-do-better with select milestones for the near future, if possible. Hopefully, rather than stress over figures and rendition, these investor updates will be a reliable approach at steady growth for your company on diverse fronts.
