The investor update, finally a product —
so founders don’t have to struggle alone.
Frustration, Failure, Embarrassment, Disappointment are just some of the
feelings
that went through my head. I lost all confidence and didn’t know what to do.
I did
not feel that there was anyone I could turn to.
THEY WERE SUPPORTIVE, THEY BROUGHT ME BACK TO LIFE
Sorry it’s been so hard.
Can we talk this afternoon?
Don’t apologize. I wish you had come
to us sooner.
I didn’t know what to say.
That’s literally why we’re here.
We confuse silence with strength. Investors are there to
help. Our Updates
closes the gap between when founder needs help and when they finally ask
for it.
Late, sanitized,
or worse… never sent
Agonized over for hours, written as a chore, prepared to
highlight the positives and shield the negatives.
COST · TIME, TRUST, RUNWAY
Quarterly PDFs
and a guess
No common shape. No comparable signal across the
portfolio. By the time something shows up, the call is
reactive.
COST · SLOWER HELP, WORSE OUTCOMES
The best updates don’t start from a blank page. They start from sources of
truth and
let the founder provide necessary
context.
Cash position, monthly inflow vs. outflow,
current burn. Never transaction-level detail,
directly from the source.
$1.42M RUNWAY · 11 MO
Commit velocity, PRs merged, contributor
activity. Is the team still building, or has the
room gone quiet?
+18% VELOCITY · 30D
Aggregate team tone over time. Trends, not
transcripts. A weather report, not
surveillance.
−2pt TONE · 30D
Plaid, GitHub and Slack stream the
month’s ground truth. Founder logs
in to a half-filled draft.
A short, contextual AI driven
interview — “Velocity dropped:
holiday week, or something else?”
Real grounding, in the founder’s
words.
Direct, optimistic, measured.
Framing is welcome. Fabrication is
flagged. Data sits next to the
narrative. AI pulls it together for
review.
Founder dashboard and investor
view. Same signal, different surface.
Both versions, one click.
Cash extended to 11 months; shipping velocity is up
+18%;
team sentiment is down
−2 pt after a tough launch week.
Founder draft (excerpt) — “May was our biggest shipping month of the
year. The sentiment dip is real and tied to the
launch crunch; we’re rolling out a recovery sprint next week…”
Investors ask the hard question eventually. We surface the
misalignment while the founder is still drafting
so the update becomes a tool for trust, not a tattle-tale.
“The team is heads-down and energized after a great
shipping month — we are
firing on all cylinders.”
“The team shipped a record month; sentiment cooled
after launch crunch, and we’re running a recovery
sprint this week.”
SEED & SERIES A FUNDS ·
Funds pay per-seat and roll Our Updates out across their
portfolio. First comparable, structured signal across every
company they’ve backed.
TOP-DOWN · 1 FUND UNLOCKS 30 FOUNDERS
MANAGERS · 5–30 PERSON TEAMS
Same engine, retargeted. Manager-to-org update grounded
in shipping signal and team sentiment. Same job, different
audience.
BOTTOM-UP · SEAT EXPANSION INSIDE THE COMPANY
CPA and the founder of the startup that didn’t
make it. Owns the experience this product is
built from. Before that, founding CFO of a
venture-backed company through a
successful exit.
Veteran engineer with years of building
production AI. The hands on the keyboard
that turn integrations and the interview engine
into something founders actually use for 5
minutes every month.
Mental health awareness is at an all
time high. Being a Founder is a lonely
job. VCs want to help their founders.
a16z Speedrun S26 · $1M check,
program, network.
Plaid + GitHub + Slack live. AI interview
shipped. First fund deploys to 10
portcos.
3 fund design-partners ·
50 founders
sending updates through us.