Monthly investor update

Q: What should be in a monthly investor update?

A short summary, two to four specific asks, key metrics with month-over-month deltas, three to five highlights, two to three lowlights, hiring updates, and a closing call-to-action. Investors prefer short and honest over long and polished.

Q: How long should a monthly investor update be?

Under one screen on a laptop — typically 400 to 700 words. The Sam Altman / Jason Calacanis format keeps it short on purpose. Long updates get skimmed; short updates get read.

Q: When should I send my monthly investor update?

First week of the month, covering the previous calendar month. Pick a date and never miss it — predictability matters more than precision.

Q: Should I list lowlights in an investor update?

Yes. Investors trust founders who name what isn't working. Two to three candid bullets build credibility and often surface useful help from the network.

A free monthly investor update template. AI pulls your metrics, highlights, lowlights, and asks into a single email — written in your voice, ready to send.

Use this template How automations work

Runs monthly Scheduled Delivered to Email

Monthly investor update

Active

Trigger

Runs monthly

Instructions

Write a monthly investor update for the past calendar month, modeled after the Sam Altman / Jason Calacanis format. Keep it short. Investors skim.

Delivery

Example output

A realistic sample of what this automation delivers — your version draws on your data.

Monthly investor update Runs monthly · Sent to Email

Sample output

Month-end snapshot

ARR

$2.4M +11% ($2.16M)

Net new logos

38 +9 (29)

Net revenue retention

118% +2 pts (116%)

Runway

21 mo -1 mo (22 mo)

March was a good month — best new ARR since last summer, runway extended by a quarter, and our first enterprise pilot started.

Asks

Warm intro to anyone at $RetailerName — Acme’s CTO will sponsor a pilot if we get to the right team.
Two open senior engineering roles. Referrals welcome.
Looking for a part-time security advisor with SOC 2 experience.

Key metrics (vs. February)

ARR: $2.4M, +11% MoM.
Net new logos: 38, +31%.
NRR (rolling 12-mo): 118%.
Cash: $14.2M. Runway: 21 months at current burn.

Highlights. Closed our first six-figure deal. Shipped the multi-source automation editor. Two senior engineers started.

Lowlights. Churn on the SMB tier ticked from 4.1% to 4.6%. Onboarding NPS dropped after the redesign — we have a fix landing this week.

The prompt

Copy, paste, customize.

Drop this into a Basedash automation. AI fills in the numbers from every source you've connected.

Instructions

Write a monthly investor update for the past calendar month, modeled after the Sam Altman / Jason Calacanis format. Keep it short. Investors skim.

Open with a single sentence summarizing the month's overall trajectory.

**Asks.** Two to four specific, actionable requests. Names of intros, hires we're closing, recruits the network can refer.

**Key metrics.** MRR/ARR with month-over-month %, new logos, net revenue retention, cash balance, runway in months. Always compare to last month and last month last year.

**Highlights.** Three to five bullets covering the biggest customer wins, product launches, hires, or press.

**Lowlights.** Two to three honest bullets covering what didn't work or what worried us.

**Hiring.** Open roles, recent starts, recent departures, recruiting funnel health.

**Closing.** One-sentence wrap with a call-to-action.

Voice: confident, candid, not promotional. Numbers over adjectives. No emoji.

Data sources