I generally think it is a good idea to nicely remind folks that this isn’t to be shared especially if you have a large investor list.

This first sentence is key. Don’t bury the lead. It has four components:

 increased in the time since the last update. That is net new ARR.

The YoY and QoQ growth. In one sentence you have given them a sense of performance relative to plan and over some time period. 

 to establish consistency and familiarity.

This second sentence summarizes progress on big initiatives which are detailed more below.

Feature and product launches, fundraising, new big exec hires, etc are all good examples.

Always repeat the vision and mission statement. This reminds them of the bigger picture you are working towards and the “why” behind all of your efforts.

🔑 This is probably my most important suggestion. Busy people don’t read. They scan and look at visuals. So you need one visual, that summarizes the most important metric/s, that you repeat on every message.

For a subscription business it would be something like this that shows ARR broken down into retained, new, expansion, and churned.

Bonus Tip: Include annotations for unusual bumps, seasonality, etc.

This section provides a summary of the highlights for the time period.

My suggestion is that if you have more than 5, you are being too detailed. Remember, busy people don’t in detail. If you are too long and verbose they will tune out your updates.

Every update should include a list of asks for help. After all, that is what investors are supposed to do. The most common ask is around hiring. As an investor, I find it really hard to contribute to hiring asks for a host of reasons. It is very hit or miss.

Instead, always try to think about what other things investors can help you accelerate. Some ideas:

1. Customer Intros (provide a specific list)

2. Re-sharing content the company has published.

3. Intros to customers for customer feedback.

4. Intros to people that are great at some topic/problem you are facing to get some quick advice.

5. Host events and give your investors +1’s.

Get creative here to get the most out of your investors.

I always like to end by summarizing what to expect next.

This is especially important in times of bumpy roads. If you think some bad news might be ahead, you want to preview it and plant the seeds so that it’s impact is dampened when it hits.

Kristi Jackson

Brian Balfour

I used this update for Series B investors not on the Reforge board to share company highlights, asks, and things I wanted to note when looking ahead to the company's roadmap.

 for reading. Please keep confidential (do not forward), reply with any questions, and thanks again for your help!

We ended the quarter at [redacted] ARR, +[redacted] net new ARR which represents[redacted]% YoY, [redacted]% QoQ growth, and [redacted]% plan

We launched our Spring cohort with four new programs, [redacted]K participants, closed our Series B, and a lot more

We continue to make progress towards our vision of building a new type of professional network and marketplace that helps people build their careers

We officially closed our $60M Series B with Insight Partners, a16z, True Ventures, NextView, TCV, Long Journey Ventures and ≈200 leading operators. We are excited to have all of you aboard.

 by Crystal Widjaja (CPO at Kumu, ex-Gojek) and Shaun Clowes (SVP Product at Mulesoft, ex-Metromile, Atlassian)

 by John Russ (Ex-Marketing Leader @ Coinbase, Zapier, Nerdwallet) and Martina Tam (COO at Brightwheel, ex-Masterclass and Eventbrite)

 by Nick Caldwell (GM Core Tech at Twitter, Ex Looker, Reddit) and Heidi Williams (Head of Eng at Grammarly)

 by Mark Fiske (Operating Partner, Marketing at H.IG., ex- Credit Karma) and Brittany Bingham (VP Marketing at Guru, Ex-SurveyMonkey)

Kicked Off Spring ‘22 Cohort w/ >8K Participants

We kicked off our Spring 2022 cohort with over 8K people enrolled. Fun fact, our first ever cohort was about 200 people.

We Welcomed Four New EIRs (Executives In Residence)

We welcomed 4 new Executives In Residence

, Former VP Marketing at Klaviyo, formerly Campaign Monitor, Carbonite

, Former VP Product NBC News Digital, formerly Amazon, AMC

, Former Head of Consumer Marketing at Houzz, ex Spotify, YikYak, Netflix

Note: EIR roles are for VP and C-Level leaders figuring out what is next. If you or another leader is considering a transition period, we’d love to chat.

Completed A Small Acquisition of Marketing Tech Academy

 of Marketing Technology Academy to fill a much needed topic space for our marketing audience. If you know anyone with a course or email newsletter around professional topics, we might be interested.

Intros to VP/C-Level operators in Data, Design, Sales, Customer Success For 30 Min Research Call

We are researching new domains and are looking to connect with VP/C-Level operators for a 30 min research call around the core challenges and career unlocks.

As we laid out in our Series B story, Reforge is building a new type of professional network and marketplace around expertise. We’ve started to take some large product steps in this direction that we will announce in more detail later this year. We are excited to have you on the journey.

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