Productivity
Write an investor update
The monthly email, short enough that people read it.
Fill it in
Whatever you track, however rough.
One thing that went well.
The single most useful thing they could do.
Say what went wrong. Updates without one stop being read.
Your prompt
Write an investor update. [the numbers] Win: [the win] Ask: [the ask] Short enough to read on a phone. The metrics up top in a scannable block, then one paragraph each: what happened, what is next, and the ask. An update longer than a screen gets archived unread, and an unread update is worse than none because it uses up goodwill. Include a lowlight, plainly. Updates that are all good news stop being read and stop being believed, and the first genuinely bad month then arrives as a shock. Make the ask specific enough to act on. "Intros welcome" gets nothing; "intros to ops leads at 200-to-1000-person fintechs" gets replies.
Use Write an investor updateOpens with everything above already filled in.
Why this works
An update longer than a screen gets archived unread, and an unread update spends goodwill. This keeps the metrics scannable, includes a lowlight so the thing stays believable, and makes the ask specific enough to act on.
Questions
- Should I really include bad news?
- Yes. All-good-news updates stop being read, and the first genuinely bad month then arrives as a shock.