fundraise-comms

Investor Communications

Every investor interaction is an opportunity to build trust. This skill provides a communication framework that strengthens investor relationships from initial contact through regular updates.

Connectors (Optional)

Connector	Additional Features
CRM	Investor relationship history, prior communication context
Email	Draft directly from inbox, track response rates
Data Enrichment	Latest investor activity, portfolio news
Knowledge Base	Monthly update history, metric trends

No connectors? Web research and user input alone create excellent investor communications.

---

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  FUNDRAISE COMMUNICATIONS                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Core Features (works standalone)                               │
│  ✓ Investor context (thesis, portfolio, recent activity)        │
│  ✓ Scenario email templates (warm/cold/follow-up/update)        │
│  ✓ Day 5/10/21 follow-up cadence                                │
│  ✓ Monthly investor update template                             │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Enhanced Mode (with tool connections)                          │
│  + ~~CRM: investor relationship history, communication log       │
│  + ~~email: draft from inbox, auto-track responses              │
│  + ~~data enrichment: auto-collect latest investor activity     │
│  + ~~knowledge base: reference past updates, metric trends      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

---

Getting Started

"Request intro email to [Connector] to introduce us to [Investor]"
"Cold email to [VC Fund] [Partner] - [Sector] investment"
"Follow-up after meeting with [Investor] - share data room"
"Monthly investor update - [Month] performance"

---

Output Format

Investor Outreach Output

# Investor Outreach: [Investor Name] @ [VC Fund]
**Date Generated:** [Date] | **Scenario:** [Warm intro/Cold/Follow-up] | **Stage:** [Pre-seed/Seed/Series A]

---

## Investor Context

**Target:** [Name], [Title] at [VC Fund]
**Thesis Fit:** [GREEN/YELLOW/RED] - [sector], [stage], [geography]
**Portfolio:** [Similar companies, 2-3]
**Recent Activity:** [Latest investment or news]
**Approach Path:** [Warm intro/shared portfolio/cold]

---

## Email Draft

**To:** [Email]
**Cc:** [Connector email — warm intro only]
**Subject:** [Personalized subject]

---

[Email body]

---

**Subject Alternatives:**
1. [Option 2]
2. [Option 3]

---

## Rationale for This Approach

| Element | Based On |
|---------|----------|
| Opening | [Thesis fit or shared portfolio] |
| Hook | [Market opportunity + our traction] |
| Evidence | [Key metrics or milestone] |
| CTA | [Clear ask: meeting or data room] |

---

## Follow-up Communications

**Day 5 — Soft Reminder:**
[Brief, new angle]

**Day 10 — Add Value:**
[New traction or news]

**Day 21 — Final Touch:**
[Respectful closing]

Monthly Investor Update Output

# Investor Update — [Month]
**Sent:** [Date] | **Audience:** [Existing investors / Prospects / All]

---

## TL;DR

[3-line summary]
- [Key achievement 1]
- [Core metric 2]
- [This month highlight 3]

---

## Key Metrics

| Metric | This Month | Last Month | Change | vs Target |
|--------|-----------|-----------|--------|-----------|
| [Metric 1] | [Value] | [Value] | [+X%] | [90%] |
| [Metric 2] | [Value] | [Value] | [+X%] | [105%] |
| [Metric 3] | [Value] | [Value] | [-X%] | [85%] |

**Interpretation:** [Brief explanation]

---

## This Month's Highlights

1. **[Category: Product/Customer/Team/Funding]**
   - [Specific achievement]
   - [Impact or meaning]

2. **[Category]**
   - [Achievement]
   - [Impact]

3. **[Category]**
   - [Achievement]
   - [Impact]

---

## Challenges & Learning

- **[Challenge 1]:** [Situation] → [Our response] → [Result]
- **[Challenge 2]:** [Situation] → [Our response] → [In progress]

**Transparency:** [Honest about tough situations, but clear on resolution]

---

## Asks for Help

[Concrete, actionable requests — 2-3 items]
- [ ] [Intro request: specific person/company]
- [ ] [Advice request: specific area]
- [ ] [Hiring support: specific role]

---

## Next Month Goals

- [Goal 1] by [Date]
- [Goal 2] by [Date]
- [Goal 3] by [Date]

---

## Thank You

[Genuine gratitude + next update preview]

**Next Update:** [Next month, Day X]

---

Execution Flow

Step 1: Identify Scenario

Analyze input pattern:
- "introduce us to [Investor]" → Warm intro (forwardable blurb)
- "cold email to [Investor]" → Cold outreach
- "follow up with [Investor]" → Follow-up (post-meeting / no response)
- "monthly update" → Monthly investor update

Step 2: Investor Research (for outreach)

Internally uses investor-research skill:

1. Web search investor background
2. Thesis match (sector/stage/check size/geography)
3. Portfolio analysis (similar companies)
4. Confirm recent activity (investments, news, tweets)
5. Identify approach path (warm intro potential)

Must confirm before writing:

• Investor's investment thesis
• Similar companies in portfolio
• Recent investment activity
• Personalization hook

Step 3: Template Selection & Personalization

Templates by scenario:
1. Warm intro request → Forwardable blurb for connector
2. Cold outreach → Thesis fit + traction
3. Post-meeting follow-up → Discussion recap + next steps
4. No-response follow-up → Day 5/10/21 cadence
5. Monthly update → 7-section structure

Step 4: Message Composition

Investor outreach structure (AIDA + investor context):

SUBJECT: [Personalized, thesis-related, <50 characters]

[Opening: Thesis fit + hook]

[Interest: Market opportunity 1-2 sentences]

[Desire: Our traction + differentiation]

[Action: Clear CTA — meeting or data room]

[Signature]

Monthly update structure:

1. TL;DR (3 lines)
2. Key metrics table
3. Highlights (3-4 items)
4. Challenges & Learning
5. Asks for Help
6. Next Month Goals
7. Thank You

Step 5: Email Delivery

When email connector available:
1. Generate draft with to, subject, body
2. Suggest optimal send time if scheduling available
3. Return draft link

When unavailable:
1. Output email text
2. Note: "Copy to your email client"

---

Template Library

1. Warm Intro Request (Forwardable Blurb)

Email to Connector:

Subject: Quick intro to [Investor Name] at [VC Fund]?

Hi [Connector Name],

Hope you're doing well! I'm reaching out because we're raising [Amount] [Round]
for [Company], and [Investor Name] at [VC Fund] would be a perfect fit given
[Specific reason: thesis, portfolio similarity].

Would you be open to making an introduction? Happy to send over a forwardable
blurb to make it easy.

Thanks for considering!
[Signature]

Forwardable Blurb:

[Connector Name],

I wanted to introduce you to [Founder Name], founder of [Company].

[Company] is [one-sentence description]. They've achieved [key traction] in [timeframe] and
are currently raising [Amount] [Round].

Given [VC Fund]'s investments in [similar portfolio companies], I thought this
would be highly relevant to your thesis on [Sector].

[Founder], meet [Investor]. [Investor], meet [Founder].

I'll let you two take it from here!

2. Cold Outreach

Subject: [Company] - [Sector] opportunity [thesis keyword]

Hi [Investor Name],

[Personalized opening - mention their recent investment or content].

We're [Company], solving [Problem] for [Customer]. The market is [market size/opportunity],
but current solutions [limitations of existing solutions].

Early traction: [2-3 key metrics] in [timeframe]. We're backed by [existing investors]
and raising [Amount] to [specific goal].

Given [VC Fund]'s thesis on [Sector] and investments like [Portfolio Company],
would love to share more details.

Open to a 15-min intro call this week?

Best,
[Signature]

3. Post-Meeting Follow-up

Subject: Thanks for the meeting - [Company] follow-up

Hi [Investor Name],

Thanks for taking the time yesterday. Great to discuss [Discussion topic].

As requested, here are the materials we discussed:
- Data room: [Link]
- Financial model: [Link]
- [Other requested materials]: [Link]

Quick recap of your questions:
- [Question 1]: [Brief answer + location of detailed materials]
- [Question 2]: [Answer]

[Add any new traction or news mentioned in the meeting]

Looking forward to next steps. Happy to set up a follow-up call or connect
with other partners at [VC Fund].

Best,
[Signature]

4. No-Response Follow-up Sequence

Day 5 — Soft Reminder:

Subject: Re: [Original Subject]

Hi [Investor Name],

Following up on my email from last week. I know you're busy, but wanted
to make sure this didn't get buried.

[One sentence with new angle or update]

Still interested in exploring this together?

Best,
[Signature]

Day 10 — Add Value:

Subject: [Company] update: [New Traction]

Hi [Investor Name],

Quick update since my last email: [Specific new achievement or news].

This reinforces the [market opportunity or our differentiation] we discussed.

If the timing's better now, I'd love to reconnect. If not, happy to keep
you posted on future milestones.

Best,
[Signature]

Day 21 — Final Touch:

Subject: Last follow-up - [Company]

Hi [Investor Name],

I know you're likely swamped, so this will be my last follow-up for now.

If timing doesn't work right now, totally understand. Happy to reconnect
when [specific milestone - e.g., "we hit Series A metrics" or "we launch in Q2"].

Feel free to reach out anytime.

Best,
[Signature]

5. Monthly Investor Update (Full Template)

Subject: [Company] update - [Month] | [Key highlight one-liner]

Hi everyone,

Here's our [Month] update. TL;DR: [3-line summary].

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📊 Key Metrics
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

| Metric | This Month | Last Month | Change | vs Target |
|--------|-----------|-----------|--------|-----------|
| [Metric 1] | X | Y | +Z% | 90% |
| [Metric 2] | X | Y | +Z% | 105% |
| [Metric 3] | X | Y | -Z% | 85% |

[Brief interpretation 2-3 sentences]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🚀 Highlights
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Product
   - [Specific achievement]
   - [Impact]

2. Customers
   - [Achievement]
   - [Impact]

3. Team
   - [Achievement]
   - [Impact]

4. Funding
   - [Current runway]
   - [Burn rate]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ Challenges & Learning
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

- [Challenge 1]: [Situation] → [Response] → [Result]
- [Challenge 2]: [Situation] → [Response] → [In progress]

[Transparent but clear on resolution]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🙏 Asks for Help
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[Concrete, actionable requests]
- [ ] [Intro: specific person/company]
- [ ] [Advice: specific area]
- [ ] [Hiring: specific role]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎯 Next Month Goals
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

- [Goal 1] by [Date]
- [Goal 2] by [Date]
- [Goal 3] by [Date]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thanks for your continued support. Always happy to discuss any of this
in more detail.

Next update: [Next month Day X]

Best,
[Signature]

---

Communication Cadence

During Active Fundraise

Week 1: Initial Outreach
  Day 0: Send first email
  Day 5: First follow-up (if no response)
  Day 10: Second follow-up (if no response)

Week 3-4: Meeting Phase
  Day 0: Follow-up immediately after meeting (within 24 hours)
  Day 3: Additional materials or answer questions
  Day 7: Partner meeting or propose next steps

During Due Diligence (DD):
  - Requested materials: provide within 24-48 hours
  - Weekly: check-in on progress
  - Important news: share immediately

Post-Investment

Monthly Updates:
  - Same date each month (e.g., first Friday of every month)
  - Maintain consistent format
  - Transparent on both wins and challenges

Quarterly Deep Dives:
  - Once per quarter: strategy review, OKR check
  - 1 week before board meeting: share materials

Ad-hoc Communications:
  - Major milestone: share immediately
  - Crisis: notify within 24 hours
  - Good news: share immediately (morale boost)

---

Email Style Guide

Investor Communication Principles

1. Concise but specific — Busy investors skim. Lead with highlights, detail via links.
2. Data-driven — Concrete numbers and metrics over subjective claims.
3. Transparent — Share good and difficult news honestly. Trust is built on candor.
4. Actionable asks — Specific requests over vague "help us out."

Tone & Style

Good Example:

We hit $50K MRR this month (up 40% MoM). Key driver: enterprise upsells
from 3 existing customers ($15K → $30K ACV).

Challenge: Sales cycle for new logos stretched to 45 days (vs 30-day target).
Testing new demo approach with [specific action].

Poor Example:

Things are going great this month! We're seeing really strong growth and
customers love the product. A few challenges here and there but we're
working hard to solve them.

Language to Avoid

Phrases to skip: "explosive growth", "game-changer", "revolutionary", "in progress", "coming soon" Use instead: Concrete numbers, dates, growth rates, customer quotes, comparative metrics

Formatting Rules

1. No markdown in email — No asterisks (bold) or headers (##) in email. Plain text only.
2. Short paragraphs — Max 2-3 sentences per paragraph. Whitespace aids readability.
3. Visual separators — Use Unicode or plain-text dividers (━━━━).
4. Tables for metrics — Organize metrics in simple text tables.

---

Stage-Specific Considerations

Pre-seed/Seed: Vision + team focus, early traction, relationship-driven Series A+: Emphasize data + metrics, unit economics, consistent format Korean VC: Slightly formal tone, warm intro preference, expect quick responses

---

What Not To Do

Mistakes to avoid:

• Lengthy company introduction, excessive technical detail
• Only highlight wins, make excuses or shift blame
• Pushy follow-ups ("need decision by end of week")
• Multiple CTAs at once, vague "in progress" updates

Recommended instead:

• One-sentence company description + 2-3 key traction points
• Balance wins and challenges + learning and response plan
• Add-value follow-ups + respectful tone

---

Related Skills

Skills that pair well with this one:

• investor-research — Write customized email after investor research
• deal-sourcing — Cold outreach after discovering new investors
• fundraising-process — Communication timing across entire fundraising process
• pitch-craft — Use pitch deck content in email summaries
• financial-modeling — Extract metrics for monthly updates

---

Examples

Example 1: Warm Intro Request

Input: "Request intro to Partner Kim Chul-soo at Seoul Investment Partners - our co-investor Lee Young-hee is the connector"

Output:

# Investor Outreach: Chul-soo Kim @ Seoul Investment Partners

## Investor Context
**Target:** Chul-soo Kim, Partner at Seoul Investment Partners
**Thesis Fit:** GREEN - B2B SaaS, Seed stage, Korean market
**Portfolio:** Similar Company X, Similar Company Y
**Recent Activity:** 3 B2B SaaS investments in Q4 last year
**Approach Path:** Warm intro (co-investor Lee Young-hee)

---

## Email Draft (to Connector)

**To:** lee.younghee@earlystage.vc
**Subject:** Introduction request to Partner Kim Chul-soo

---

Young-hee, hello!

We're raising 2 billion won for our Seed round, and Partner Kim Chul-soo at Seoul Investment Partners
seems like a perfect fit. Your portfolio includes [Similar Company X] in a similar sector, and
this aligns perfectly with your B2B SaaS investment thesis.

Would an introduction be possible? I'm attaching a forwardable blurb below.

Thanks!

---

## Forwardable Blurb

Young-hee,

I'd like to introduce you to [Founder Name], CEO of [Company].

[Company] is [one-sentence description]. They've achieved [key traction] over the last 6 months and
are currently raising 2 billion won for their Seed round.

Looking at Seoul Investment Partners' investment in [Similar Portfolio Company], this is
a perfect match for your B2B SaaS thesis.

[Founder], meet Partner Kim Chul-soo.
[Founder], meet Lee Young-hee.

I think you two should take it from here!

Example 2: Monthly Investor Update

Input: "Create November investor update - MRR 50M won (+25%), DAU 12K (+18%), 3 new enterprise customers"

Output:

Subject: [Company] November Update | MRR 50M Won Achieved 🚀

Hi everyone,

November update. TL;DR:
- MRR 50M won achieved (+25% MoM)
- 3 new enterprise customers (total 8)
- 2 engineers joined (team now 12)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📊 Key Metrics
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

| Metric | November | October | Change | vs Target |
|--------|----------|---------|--------|-----------|
| MRR | 50M | 40M | +25% | 100% ✓ |
| DAU | 12K | 10.2K | +18% | 95% |
| Enterprise Customers | 8 | 5 | +60% | 110% ✓ |
| Churn | 2.5% | 3.1% | -19% | Improving |

MRR target achieved. DAU expected to accelerate next month with new feature launch.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🚀 Highlights
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Product
   - Enterprise dashboard launch → 3 enterprise customers converted immediately
   - API performance improved 40%

2. Customers
   - [Large Company A] pilot confirmed (starts January)
   - NPS improved from 65 to 72

3. Team
   - 2 senior backend engineers joined (ex-Naver, Kakao)
   - Final interviews underway with 3 CTO candidates

4. Funding
   - Current runway: 14 months
   - Burn rate: 50M won/month (stable)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⚠️ Challenges & Learning
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

- Enterprise sales cycle longer than expected (45 days → 60 days):
  → Standardizing POC process, implementation starting next month

- Early user activation 70% → target 80% shortfall:
  → Started A/B testing onboarding flow, results expected in 2 weeks

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🙏 Asks for Help
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

- [ ] Recommend Head of Sales candidate with enterprise sales experience
- [ ] Intro to [Large Company B] decision maker (POC pitch in progress)
- [ ] Series A prep: mentoring or mock pitch opportunity

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🎯 December Goals
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

- MRR 65M won by 12/31
- [Large Company A] pilot kickoff
- CTO hire completed

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thank you for your continued support. Always happy to discuss any of this in detail.

Next update: January 5

Thanks,
[Founder Name]

---

Tips

1. Consistency builds trust — Send monthly updates on the same date, in the same format.

2. Transparency is not a double-edged sword — Share challenges honestly, but always include your response plan.

3. Data is story material — Don't just list numbers; provide context on why they matter.

4. Make asks specific — "Can you help?" is less actionable than "Can you intro me to person Y at company X?"

5. Good news immediately, bad news even faster — Fast communication during crises maintains trust.

6. Follow-ups add value — "Did you see my email?" is less effective than "New traction update to share."

7. Day 5/10/21 rhythm — Don't follow up more than 3 times on no response. Timing may not be right.

8. Use CRM — When ~~CRM is connected, track all communications to maintain relationship history.

9. Email is the tip of the iceberg — Investor relationships are built beyond email. Events, intros, and consistent updates are key.

10. Templates are starting points — Adapt these templates to your style and company context.