A quarterly-cycling investor update workspace where the monthly draft takes 30 min instead of 4 hours, asks are tracked across updates, KPIs roll forward without manual aggregation, and quarter-end produces honest data on which investors actually engage.
A quarterly-cycling investor update workspace where the monthly draft takes 30 min instead of 4 hours, asks are tracked across updates, KPIs roll forward without manual aggregation, and quarter-end produces honest data on which investors actually engage.
TimeOngoing, ~1 hr/month + 1 hr at quarter endDifficultybeginnerForPre-seed and seed founders sending updates to 5-30 investors.
How this works
Open it, hand it to your agent, walk the steps.
Paste this to your agent (Claude / Cursor / Codex)
You are the agent running on the "Investor update cadence" template workspace. The user (founder) has connected you via MCP at your-org/investor-update-cadence.
Your job: operate the quarterly cycle. Compile monthly KPIs, draft the update, track engagement, draft quarterly retro.
User-loop protocol:
- You propose. The user decides the final voice + the actual send. Never edit the founder's voice in the final draft beyond fixing typos. Never auto-send the update; the founder always sends from their inbox.
- First business day of each month (or "compile KPIs"), for each metric in the KPIs schema, fetch this month's value from the connected source (or ask the founder for the value). Append a KPIs row: month, metric, value, delta_pct (vs. last month).
- When the founder says "draft this month's update", read: this month's KPIs rows, the founder's bullet notes (paste or in a "this month's notes" doc), last update, Asks log status. Draft Latest update doc following the canonical 6-section structure: (1) Headline (1-line + tagline), (2) The numbers (KPIs table or 3-5 metric callouts), (3) Wins this month (3-5 bullets), (4) Lowlights / risks (1-3 honest bullets), (5) Asks (specific, named, time-bound), (6) What's next month. Surface to founder.
- When the founder pastes investor replies in (via comments or an "incoming replies" doc section), update Investors.last_replied + Investors.reply_count. If the reply addresses an ask, update the Asks log row with the response + outcome.
- At quarter-end (or "quarter retro"), read 3 months of KPIs + Asks log + Investors. Draft Quarter retro: KPIs trend (table + 1-paragraph narrative), asks delivered (count + which investors delivered), most-engaged investors (top 5 by reply_count), recommendations for next quarter's update strategy.
- End of every working session, write 1-paragraph Status note: what you compiled, what's pending, what to pick up next.
Don't touch:
- The founder's voice in the final draft beyond typos.
- KPIs rows once compiled (they're historical).
- Investors.firm / Investors.check_size (those are static facts).
First MCP tool calls:
1. list_surfaces(workspace_slug="investor-update-cadence")
2. list_rows(workspace_slug="investor-update-cadence", surface_slug="kpis")
3. list_rows(workspace_slug="investor-update-cadence", surface_slug="investors")
4. get_doc(workspace_slug="investor-update-cadence", surface_slug="status")
Top to bottom. Each step has tasks, pointers, gotchas.
01 / 05
Decide your KPI schema
30-60 min
The KPIs schema is the 5-8 metrics you'll report every single month. Lock it now and don't change mid-cycle: investors notice when KPIs disappear because the number got bad. Standard pre-seed: MRR, paying customers, runway, active users, signups, key activation metric. Standard seed: add net retention, CAC, gross margin if revenue model supports.
Tasks
List the 5-8 KPIs you'll report every month
For each, define: source (where the number comes from), formula (how it's computed), unit (currency / count / %)
Add KPIs rows for the past 3 months as baselines (pull from past updates if you have them)
Lock the KPI list; tag it 'KPI schema v1' in the doc and don't change mid-cycle
Gotchas
Don't pick metrics you can't actually measure consistently. 'NPS' sounds good but if you don't run NPS surveys monthly, skip it.
Don't show vanity metrics that don't tie to the business. Twitter followers is not a startup KPI.
02 / 05
Seed Investors with your distribution list
30 min
Populate Investors with everyone who gets the update. For each: name, firm, check_size (if known and you're tracking), source (warm intro? cold? alum?), last_replied (if you have history), notes (anything you should remember about them). The point is to make engagement visible: who actually replies vs. who silently reads.
Tasks
Create one Investors row per recipient
Fill: name, firm, check_size, source, last_replied (best guess if no history), reply_count
Tag highest-conviction investors (your lead, board members) with role=Lead
Don't add 'maybe future investors' — only people who actually get the update
Gotchas
Limit PII to what's in your CRM already. Don't add personal email or phone here.
If you have a 'BCC' list of 30 investors but only 5 ever reply, that's signal worth surfacing in the retro.
03 / 05
Lock the update structure
30 min
The structure of every update is the same: Headline, Numbers, Wins, Lowlights, Asks, Next month. This template ships the canonical structure as a section in the Latest update doc. Some founders prefer different structures (5 bullets, no narrative; or all-narrative, no metric callouts). Decide once, lock it, and let the agent draft against it consistently.
Tasks
Read the default structure in Latest update doc
Decide if you want to modify (more sections? fewer? different order?)
Lock the structure in a 'Update structure v1' section of the doc
Note: investors prefer consistent structure month-over-month so they can skim
Gotchas
Don't drop the Lowlights section. Investors who get only good news lose trust over 6-12 months.
Don't make Asks vague. 'Intros to fintech founders' is bad. 'Intros to series-A fintech CEOs in NYC who'd take a 30-min call about partnerships' is good.
04 / 05
Walk one update with your agent
1-2 hr (calibration)
Trigger a draft on the first business day of a month. Compile the KPIs row, paste your bullet notes, ask the agent to draft. Read the draft. Calibrate the voice (too formal, too casual, too data-dump-y). The first draft takes an hour to tune; subsequent months take 30 min.
Tasks
First business day of the month: compile KPIs row(s)
Write 5-10 bullets of your real this-month thoughts (wins, blockers, things you want to tell investors)
Ask your agent: 'Draft this month's update'
Read it, mark up: voice (too startup-bro, too corporate), missing context, redundant numbers
Re-ask: 'Apply comments and replace the section'
Send from your inbox (the agent never sends; you always do)
Gotchas
The agent's first draft will sound like the agent. Push back on the voice; the next 5 drafts will sound more like you.
Don't let the agent write the Lowlights section without your input. Honest acknowledgment of misses requires human judgment about how much to share.
Agent prompt for this step
Read this month's KPIs rows. Read the founder's bullet notes (in the "this month's notes" section of Latest update doc, or wherever they're pasted). Read last month's update (previous Latest update doc, archived). Read Asks log status (which asks from previous updates have been responded to or remain open).
Draft Latest update doc following the locked Update structure (default: Headline / Numbers / Wins / Lowlights / Asks / Next month).
Voice rules:
- First-person plural ("we shipped", not "the team shipped")
- Honest, not promotional. If something didn't work, say it.
- Specific. "MRR up 12%" is good; "MRR strong" is bad.
- Asks: specific, named, time-bound. Each ask becomes an Asks log row.
Length: 400-600 words. Investors should read in 3 min.
When done, surface to founder for review. Don't auto-send.
05 / 05
Run the quarter retro + fork
1 hr drafting + 30 min review + 30 min forking
Last month of the quarter, ask the agent to draft the Quarter retro. The honest data here is: which asks delivered (which investors actually came through with intros), which KPIs moved meaningfully, who's most engaged. Use this to decide what to ask next quarter and which investors to focus relationship-building on.
Decide: which asks worked, which didn't (and why), what to ask next quarter
Fork the workspace, name it 'Investor updates, $next-quarter'
Confirm fork carried Investors + locked structure + seeded Status with retro
Gotchas
Don't let the engagement data become aggressive. Investors who don't reply still might be quiet champions; the data informs strategy, not blacklists.
If the engagement is uniformly low, the update isn't bad — your asks are likely too vague. The retro should surface this.
Agent prompt for this step
Read 3 months of KPIs + Asks log + Investors.
Compute per KPI: month-over-month delta, quarter-over-quarter trend.
Compute per investor: replies this quarter, asks delivered (asks where their reply led to outcome).
Compute per ask category: ask_count, response_count, outcome_count.
Draft Quarter retro doc:
1. **Quarter at a glance** (KPI trend + 1-paragraph narrative)
2. **Asks scorecard** (table: ask category | asked count | responded count | delivered count)
3. **Most-engaged investors** (top 5 by reply_count + delivered_count)
4. **What worked in update format** (bullets if any pattern emerged)
5. **What to change next quarter** (proposals: change ask format, drop quiet investors, add new metric)
Stop before "Decisions made". The founder makes those at retro time.
FAQ
Common questions on this template.
Should I include all the bad news?
Yes, with judgment. Investors who get only good news for 12 months and then a 'we're shutting down' email feel betrayed. Investors who hear about the hard quarters along with the good ones trust you and lean in when things get hard. The Lowlights section forces this discipline; don't skip it.
What if my KPIs aren't growing?
Show them anyway. Stagnation is data. Investors will infer that you're hiding worse data if KPIs stop appearing. The honest framing is: 'MRR flat at $12k for the third month, here's what we're trying'. That's a stronger update than 'big things coming next month' for the third month in a row.
Can my agent send the update?
No, by design. The send is the highest-stakes step in the cycle: voice, recipient list, BCC vs To, attachments. Agents don't send; founders send. The agent's job is to make the draft 80% done so your 20% is the high-judgment part.
Should asks go in every update or just sometimes?
Every update. Asks are the value exchange: investors get insight, you get help. Vague asks ('intros to good people') get ignored. Specific named asks ('intros to head-of-payments at fintech series-B companies in NYC') get delivered. The Asks log forces you to track which asks deliver, so over time you learn what to ask for.
How do I track replies if investors reply to my email?
Two patterns: (1) Forward each reply to a workspace-monitored email address (Dock can read that surface), or (2) paste reply notes directly into Latest update's 'incoming replies' section. The agent reads either and updates Investors.last_replied + relevant Asks log rows. Replies in your inbox stay in your inbox; the workspace tracks the metadata.
Open this template as a workspace.
We mint a fresh copy in your org with the steps as table rows, the pointers as a separate table, and the brief as a doc. Bring your agents, start checking off boxes.