Jessica Nguyen

Write a Monthly Investor Update From Rough Bullet Points

Turn messy notes into a skimmable monthly investor update: subject line, TL;DR with the bad news, a metrics table and asks investors can act on.

At a glance

Best for: Early-stage founders who send monthly or quarterly updates and want them honest, skimmable and more likely to get useful help back.
Tested on: Claude · Opus 5.5
You fill in: companymonthnotesasks
You get: Subject: Tallyroom update - August 2026: MRR up 10% to £14.2k TL;DR MRR grew 10% to £14.2k, and we're now HMRC-recognised Making Tax Digital… (full result below)

Prompt

Write my monthly investor update from these rough notes. Investors skim, so structure matters more than prose.

Company and stage: {{company}}
Month: {{month}}
Raw notes (unordered, may include bad news): {{notes}}
Specific asks: {{asks}}

Format:

• Subject line: "[Company] update - [Month]: " followed by the single most important fact, in under 10 words.

• TL;DR: 3 bullets. If something went badly, at least one bullet must say so.

• Metrics: a small table with this month, last month and change. Only metrics I gave you.

• Highlights and lowlights: 2-4 bullets each. Each lowlight says what we're doing about it.

• Asks: numbered, specific enough that an investor can act in one reply (who, what, why).

• Sign-off: one line.

Rules: plain language, no adjectives like "incredible" or "massive". Don't hide bad news below good news. Don't round numbers in our favour. Under 350 words.

Fill in

{{company}}: Company name, what it does, and funding stagee.g. Tallyroom, AI bookkeeping for UK sole traders, pre-seed
{{month}}: The period the update coverse.g. August 2026
{{notes}}: Your raw notes, in any order, including the bad newse.g. MRR 14.2k from 12.9k, churn 3.1% to 4.4%, lost bank partnership...
{{asks}}: What you want investors to help withe.g. Intros to accountancy firms; a part-time CFO

Example input

company: Tallyroom - AI bookkeeping assistant for UK sole traders. Pre-seed, £600k raised Feb 2026.
month: August 2026
notes: MRR 14.2k up from 12.9k. paying customers 1,030 (was 960). churn went up 3.1% -> 4.4%, mostly people who signed up in the June TikTok push. HMRC recognition for Making Tax Digital done - we're on the list of recognised software now. hired Priya as senior eng, starts 1 Oct. runway 11 months at current burn (£38k/month). lost the bank partnership we were negotiating, they chose a competitor. launched receipt-matching agent, 38% of active users used it in first 2 weeks.
asks: intros to accountancy firms with 200+ sole-trader clients (we're testing a referral scheme); anyone who has run a UK referral scheme with accountants for a 20 min call; candidates for a part-time CFO.

4000

Generated Outputs (1)

2 hours ago

Claude

Opus 5.5

2 hours ago

Generated Output

Subject: Tallyroom update - August 2026: MRR up 10% to £14.2k

TL;DR

• MRR grew 10% to £14.2k, and we're now HMRC-recognised Making Tax Digital software.

• Churn rose from 3.1% to 4.4%, driven by June's TikTok sign-ups.

• We lost the bank partnership we were negotiating; runway is 11 months.

Metrics

| | August | July | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MRR | £14.2k | £12.9k | +£1.3k (+10.1%) |
| Paying customers | 1,030 | 960 | +70 (+7.3%) |
| Monthly churn | 4.4% | 3.1% | +1.3 pts |
| Net burn | £38k | - | - |
| Runway | 11 months | - | - |

Highlights

• We're on HMRC's list of recognised software for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which is a requirement for many of our target customers.

• The receipt-matching agent launched: 38% of active users used it in its first two weeks.

• Priya joins as senior engineer on 1 October.

Lowlights

• Churn is up. Most of the increase is from June's TikTok cohort. We're comparing that cohort's onboarding with our referral sign-ups and will pause TikTok spend until we know whether it brings in the wrong customers or just onboards them badly.

• We lost the bank partnership; they chose a competitor. We're asking them for feedback and moving that effort to accountant referrals (see asks).

Asks

1. Intros to accountancy firms with 200+ sole-trader clients. We're testing a referral scheme and need 5 firms to pilot it. A one-line email intro to the partner is enough.

1. A 20-minute call with anyone who has run a referral scheme with UK accountants. We want to get the incentive structure right the first time.

1. Part-time CFO candidates, ideally someone who has taken a company from pre-seed to seed. We'd start at 2 days a month.

Thanks for reading. Replies go straight to me.

[Your name]

Why it works

The rule that at least one TL;DR bullet must carry the worst news fixes the most damaging habit in investor updates: burying problems until they surprise someone. "Only metrics I gave you" and "don't round in our favour" keep the table honest. The asks format (who, what, why, one reply) matters most, because vague asks like "any intros welcome" rarely get answered. Banning hype adjectives keeps the tone of a founder who can be trusted with numbers.

When not to use it

Don't use it for a crisis update such as missed payroll or a co-founder leaving. Those need a direct, personal message and often a call, not a template. It also won't fix unclear metrics: if you don't know how you calculate churn, sort that out first. Board packs need far more depth than this.

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