A Monthly Investor Update Template for Climate and Science Companies

An investor can read your update, think the company sounds busy and still have no idea how to help.

The email has a conference appearance, a promising conversation, progress in the lab and a team photograph. Near the end there is a request for introductions. What stays unclear is which milestone matters next, what is making it hard and who would be useful to meet.

A monthly update exists to fix that. Its job is to help people who already back the company see what changed since last time and act where their help is useful.

For climate and science companies, that means showing several kinds of progress at once. The technology can advance while a customer decision stalls. A new partner can be interested while funding for the first facility is still open. A technical result can raise confidence without changing commercial readiness. A good update keeps those threads connected and labels each one accurately.

Begin with the change that matters most

Open with a short account of where the company now stands. Name the most important advance, the main constraint and the next milestone.

An illustrative materials company might write this.

We completed the first customer-line trial and met the agreed strength specification. We still need to resolve colour consistency before a second trial. Next month’s priority is to agree the acceptance criteria and repeat the test under the customer’s normal operating conditions.

The reader gets a sequence. Something happened, a limitation remains and a next step follows. That is far more useful than announcing a successful pilot without saying what success meant.

Use the same discipline for commercial progress. An introduction, a signed trial agreement, an order and recognised revenue are different events. Each can matter. Call each one by its actual name.

Show the finances against the plan

State the cash position at a named date, the period the burn figure covers and the assumptions behind runway. Keep the currency consistent.

For a business with steady monthly spending, cash divided by average monthly net burn gives a rough runway. That shortcut breaks down when equipment payments, grants, milestone receipts or hiring change the pattern. In those cases, use the current cash forecast and state when a financing decision is needed. Kirsty Nathoo’s Startup School session on finance covers the same basics of burn and runway. ¹

Keep uncommitted fundraising out of the base case. If a grant or customer payment is conditional, show the condition. Readers should be able to tell the company’s present position from the outcome it hopes for.

A one-line explanation of a variance usually helps more than a bigger table. Say whether runway moved because of planned spending, a delay, a new commitment or a change in expected receipts.

Make the request easy to recognise and forward

“Introductions to strategic partners” leaves most of the work with the investor. They have to guess which organisations, which people and what the conversation is for.

A usable request names a role, a reason and a first step. An illustrative example follows.

We would value introductions to operations or packaging-development leads at chilled-food manufacturers that already run paper-based trays. We want a technical conversation about line requirements before agreeing a trial. A three-sentence introduction is below.

What makes it work is the specificity and the small first step. Add a deadline only when there is a real one, and include a short paragraph the investor can forward without rewriting your company description.

The copy-and-use monthly template

Replace the brackets and delete any section that does not apply. Keep definitions the same from month to month so readers can compare.

Subject: [Company] | [Month Year] | [Most important development]

Hi everyone,

This month, [most important development]. The main constraint is
[issue and why it matters]. Our next milestone is [outcome] by
[date], subject to [important dependency, if any].

WHERE HELP WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE

1. [Specific person, expertise or introduction needed]
   Why now: [What the help would unlock]
   Useful next step: [Small, concrete action]
   Timing: [Real deadline, or omit]

2. [Second specific request, if needed]
   Why now: [Reason]
   Useful next step: [Action]

PROGRESS AGAINST OUR PLAN

Milestone: [What we said we would achieve]
Current position: [Achieved / partly achieved / delayed]
Evidence: [Result and link to supporting material]
What it means: [What we can now do or decide]
Next step: [Owner and date]

[Repeat only for the few milestones that matter most.]

COMMERCIAL POSITION

Customers and orders: [Status, value and period where relevant]
Paid trials or pilots: [What is agreed and what is still open]
Partnerships: [Confirmed commitment and each party's next step]
Pipeline: [A clearly labelled view of potential business]

The main commercial question we need to resolve is [question].

TECHNICAL AND DELIVERY POSITION

What was tested or delivered: [Specific result]
Conditions: [Scale, setting and other relevant boundaries]
What remains unproven: [Important limitation]
Next test or delivery milestone: [Outcome, date and dependency]

CASH AND RUNWAY

Available cash at [date]: [Currency and amount]
Restricted cash, if any: [Amount and restriction]
Net cash burn for [period]: [Amount and definition]
Forecast runway: [Months or expected cash-out date]
Forecast basis: [Key assumptions and committed receipts]
Change since last update: [What moved and why]

Financing or spending decision ahead:
[Decision needed, timing and what happens if it is delayed]

IMPACT EVIDENCE, WHERE RELEVANT

Measured this period: [Metric, boundary and comparison]
Estimated or modelled: [Separate figure and assumptions]
Evidence still needed: [What would improve confidence]

RISKS AND DECISIONS

The most material issue is [issue].
Its effect on the plan is [effect].
We are responding by [action].
We will know more by [date or milestone].

NEXT MONTH

Our priority is [one main outcome], supported by
[two or three necessary actions].

Thank you to [people and the specific help they provided].

[Name]
[Role and company]
[Contact details]

Forwardable introduction, if useful:
[Company] helps [specific audience] do [specific job].
We have [relevant evidence at its actual strength].
We are looking to speak with [role] about [limited next step].
[Direct contact details]

Let evidence show progress without inflating it

For a pre-commercial company, learning can count as progress. A test that reveals a limitation can stop the team pursuing the wrong application. Say what changed in your judgement and what the team will do about it.

Keep environmental performance just as precise. A modelled reduction at a future plant, a measured result from a pilot and a verified outcome from an operating project are three different kinds of figure. State the boundary and the comparison beside each number. The labels in Where the Evidence Sits Matters apply here.

Some months there will be no new impact result. Say so. The update can report the measurement work still needed and the decision that depends on it.

Write the difficult update while people can still help

A delayed milestone or shrinking runway deserves a clear explanation now. Waiting until the problem is solved takes away the moment when investors’ expertise or relationships could have made a difference.

Say what has been achieved, which milestone has moved and the cause as far as it is known. Then give the effect on the plan, the response under way and the date of the next update. Any revised date carries the assumptions it depends on. Customers and partners waiting on the same milestone should hear the same facts, with the detail their own role needs.

In a Y Combinator interview, Poppy founder Avni Patel Thompson described how her record of open monthly updates helped her investors understand the situation when the company later closed. That is one founder’s experience. It shows a practical use of the habit, which is that a hard decision does not arrive as a surprise. ²

Investors say the same about the stage before they commit. Carlota Ochoa Neven Du Mont of Extantia Capital told us, “A deal usually only falls apart at the post-term sheet stage if the founding team hasn’t been open with us. So, it’s really not worth hiding things or not being straightforward.” A company that already reports its setbacks plainly each month has less to explain when diligence starts. Her full interview covers how her fund ran that process.

Use the update for material developments, and handle anything urgent or sensitive in a direct conversation first. The reporting rhythm exists to support the relationship.

Before sending, read the first paragraph and the requests on their own. A busy investor should be able to tell what changed and whether there is something useful they can do. Then check that the evidence, the finances and the next milestones support that account.

Brighter Future works on investor stories and decision materials, connecting the proposition, the evidence and the next step, so the company’s progress is easier to evaluate.

Sources and further reading

1. Y Combinator, Startup School Week 5 Recap, Kirsty Nathoo and Kevin Hale
2. Y Combinator, What Shutting Down Your Startup Feels Like, Avni Patel Thompson with Kat Manalac
3. Brighter Future, Where the Evidence Sits Matters

First published 14 October 2024, revised and restored at its original address.