Day: October 30, 2025

Investor updates are a key part of maintaining transparency and trust with investors. The goal is to give them a holistic view of your business, including highlights, lowlights, and core metrics. These are typically emailed once or twice per month but can also be sent via PDF, deck, or link.

The best way to create your investor update is to use a template that focuses on a clear structure with consistent sections, visuals, and personalization. It is a good idea to start by reviewing the previous month and gathering all of your key performance indicators (KPIs). Make sure that you have access to these from your sources of truth like accounting, marketing, CRM, and project management systems. It is important to share these metrics with context in order to help your investors understand any shifts in metric trends.

You should focus on sharing highlights that include everything from a new customer onboarded or partnership formed, to the number of product releases completed, and any notable wins in marketing, sales, or engineering. It is helpful to use bullet points and short sentences to keep your update navigable and easy for investors to skim.

It is also important to share the lowlights and challenges in your business. It is a normal part of the startup process to have rough patches and it is important that your investors know about these issues in order to better support you when needed. Ultimately, it is in the best interest of your investors to see your startup succeed, and consistent insights into your company can put them in a more helpful position when they are asked to make an introduction, recommend a new employee, or even invest further capital.

Unless Congress passes and President Trump signs budget legislation that covers all of the discretionary spending for the next fiscal year (typically 12 appropriations bills) or a stopgap bill, the federal government will be forced to shut down. During shutdowns, agencies are required to cease all non-essential operations, but those considered “essential” continue operating as usual, including border protection, law enforcement, in-hospital medical care, air traffic control and many other services. Mandatory programs, such as Social Security checks and Medicare card issuance, also continue.

Many federal workers have been impacted by the shutdown, with employees deemed “non-essential” temporarily placed on unpaid leave. This has impacted the Smithsonian museums, the National Park Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention among others. While some museums and other cultural institutions have tapped their reserves to remain open, the longer this goes on the more strain it will put on those reserves and the more reliance there will be on future congressional funding appropriations.

In addition, families are facing a real financial impact from missed paychecks. This is particularly true for vulnerable families, such as those with disabilities or who are on fixed incomes, who have limited resources to cope with the disruption in their lives. Beyond that, the political brinksmanship around a government shutdown hurts morale for those working in the federal workforce. These are people who have devoted their lives to the missions of the agencies they work for, and they feel like their hard work is being devalued by the partisan squabbling that leads to a government shutdown.