[HN Gopher] What I Learned Reading 1k Investor Reports
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What I Learned Reading 1k Investor Reports
Author : gmays
Score : 297 points
Date : 2023-03-03 22:12 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (collabfund.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (collabfund.com)
| ThisIsTheWay wrote:
| I quite like the inclusion of the help needed section. I work for
| a publicly traded company so I don't know if it has much
| application for our size, but for a pre-IPO company it seems like
| a great opportunity to leverage the skills of their smaller
| investor base.
|
| I also like the transparency of sharing it with ALL investors,
| and would add that it needs to be shared with all employees as
| well. Our publicly traded company is in the midst of an
| acquisition and a lot of detail has been shared with our
| investors. The issue is that most employees are not signed up to
| our investor alerts or monitoring SEC filings. It has resulted in
| some employees remarking that they felt left in the dark by
| leadership because they hear about acquisition details from the
| press (who pay attention to IR and SEC docs) instead of their own
| company leaders.
| choppaface wrote:
| Some founders do actually share these updates with the
| employees! With some redactions of course. Wouldn't want the
| employees to know about impending layoffs or what inspired
| them.
| yodon wrote:
| Great template for regular update report to send to your
| investors
| KerryJones wrote:
| Reminds me of Paul Graham saying that it was the founders he
| stopped hearing from (when he was running YC) that he started to
| worry about. The ones that stopped sharing were usually in
| trouble -- which is the time that has the most potential to be
| gained so investors can help.
| bangelo wrote:
| read early amazon shareholder reports. contain none of these. the
| leaders that matter talk about the product 5-8 years from the
| time of writing. what differentiates a CEO from a leader
| mym1990 wrote:
| Survivorship bias.
| soerxpso wrote:
| What? That's literally the point. Why would you want to
| imitate startups that _don 't_ survive?
| relaxing wrote:
| What if their reports all said the same things?
|
| Or more to the point of survivorship bias, what if there
| were things in the failed reports you could learn to
| address.
| [deleted]
| moremetadata wrote:
| investor reports = structured blogs = 'asks' for investors.
| talentedcoin wrote:
| Why is notion the tool all the cool kids seems to like for this
| stuff? (Serious question)
| choppaface wrote:
| Because investors value their time very highly and using a
| single platform makes it easier for them to aggregate data and
| stack-rank the companies.
| amccloud wrote:
| Marketing?
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I really like Notion and use it for many scenario. However, I'd
| be very careful of not having your own format and/of the
| content that you should be able to walk out without much pain.
|
| I have heard of some people who have moved bag and baggage to
| Notion to even replace the likes of Dropbox and Google Drive.
| I'd be extra careful of being so tied to something you can't
| switch easily or walk out to another platform/tool.
|
| Please do keep in mind how Evernote went from a plan of a
| 100-year note-taking to "what went wrong with that company".
| daydream wrote:
| Notion has pretty extensive export options and the relatively
| new API is another way to get your data out.
|
| Do you have any concerns with either of these options?
| Genuine question - one reason I chose Notion was the ability
| to get my data out if I needed to.
|
| I agree that Notion isn't and shouldn't be used as a
| replacement for Dropbox or other file sync services.
| 1123581321 wrote:
| It's a nice mixture of text editor, wiki and low code app
| builder.
|
| Plus, it communicates to investors, candidates and other
| outsiders that "we're smart but too busy doing the important
| things to optimize our docs system."
|
| Five years ago Notion wouldn't have communicated that, but it's
| easier to reach for now so doesn't signal too much thought
| about which tool. If that makes any sense.
| umeshunni wrote:
| Presumably because they are all investors in Notion.
| mrcsno wrote:
| Just a guess, but I assume it's because of attractive UI/UX.
|
| Notion templates, and general interface, guides people into
| presenting information in a fashion that doesn't follow the
| utilitarian manner and standard practices of business centric
| software like Microsoft Office.
|
| Also, there's been a trend to "back to the basics" in
| information dissemination lately. Newsletters and static site
| generators have been making a comeback. In design, boutique
| firm architects I've spoken to have told me they've been moving
| away from fancy auto CAD renditions of projects to hand made
| watercolors and sketches. This unique approach has allowed them
| to bag contracts from under larger firms. In a way it mirrors
| the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century as a
| reaction to industrialization.
| csomar wrote:
| You can send a text email. But that's not "professional" enough
| because it's not about the text, it's about presenting it.
|
| So you can make a portal (ie: website behind auth) where you
| investors login to view their investors dashboard and update it
| regularly.
|
| But that's a lot of work and you barely have anyone in your
| "tech startup" that can setup such a thing.
|
| Notion helps here because you can add all the gadgets you want
| but you don't need to setup/host/code a website yourself.
| MuffinFlavored wrote:
| you can't make revisions to an email
| onos wrote:
| My favorite lines here:
|
| "I've got a 25 year operating background. Shit goes wrong all the
| time. I'm concerned if you don't have any lows."
|
| This is a helpful reminder that this is normal...
| FailMore wrote:
| Thank you for a concise article
| random3 wrote:
| I've been experimenting with a few different formats. Think the
| best updates don't take longer than a few hours to write because
| they should have been in the making for the whole time. It's like
| "closing the books".
|
| Need to wrap our next update. Think I'll start with this format.
| iamsanteri wrote:
| I guess you have to keep it ultra brief in order to not
| contribute towards over bureaucratization of everything. If
| investors don't "help you" after half a year of sending these
| monthly, you might as well stop sending them? Perhaps a quarterly
| meeting face-to-face would be more productive then...
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| Those founders who are so comfortable sharing their ups and downs
| and who desire discourse and advice across the cap table are
| clearly the ones who are in it to win it.
|
| So comfortable? Maybe. A start up is about leaving your comfort
| zone, whether you want to or not.
|
| Practical and smart? Absolutely. Aside from adding (experienced)
| voices to your talent pool, such "marketing" helps with any
| future needs for more money. Being less transparent and asking
| for more simply isn't a reasonable expectation.
|
| As a side note, this format reminds me of the comms framework in
| the book "Smart Brevity."
| drx wrote:
| Pretty good overview from the investor side. I find it's a
| helpful forcing function to be disciplined about retrospecting
| regularly - it's as much for the benefit of the investors, as you
| the CEO.
| paradox242 wrote:
| I would have learned that I wanted to kill myself rather than
| ever do that again.
| synergy20 wrote:
| Great template, will use it. Thanks!
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| This is awesome.
|
| Here is another good template -
| https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v6o_1QjEacnniHhPWWIPGuVy...
|
| A good article on why "regular updates" -
| https://www.fastcompany.com/90812499/how-to-turn-investor-up...
|
| Also, I really need robots that plant trees.
| choppaface wrote:
| The virtue-signaling in this article is pretty intense. It's like
| somebody tested all the burritos in Silicon Valley and wanted to
| remind founders to wrap their burritos in foil and serve them
| warm. I mean, I'm sure there are founders who absent-mindedly
| deliver burrito _bowls_ or the occasional tacos two days late.
| But near the end:
|
| > Never miss a date. (bold) The rigor of this commitment will
| have an outsized effect on your ability to manage the business
| and engage your investors to help you. > in his experience,
| founders who cc their entire investor list have proven to be more
| successful than those who don't.
|
| Translation: Please be prompt in generating high-quality reports,
| no matter if the news is good or bad. As an investor, I need to
| know as soon as possible if I'm going to need to sell for a loss,
| or if it's time to flip for a gain. I know what is best for my
| capital.
|
| Also, whenever I tell you a story that has clear survivorship
| bias, I am reminding you that my favorite founders are those who
| listen and tell me thanks for the very constructive feedback.
| Oras wrote:
| What is high quality in these few lines? I found it quite clear
| to follow, and it has value not just for investors but for
| founders, too. They are learning to summarize their month in a
| few clear lines. Isn't that the basics of communication?
| choppaface wrote:
| It's about investors hiding the consequences that are not
| visible to founders and/or whoever does not have access to
| these reports. Should all founders be capable of these
| reports? Yeah! I bet most non-founder employees could even
| write them too (and in fact do in most cases).
| yeknoda wrote:
| Chapter 1 of the Bureaucratic Startup.
| choppaface wrote:
| Investors like to see certain boxes checked. Best to get the
| chores out of the way so there's time to avoid being the
| Bureaucratic Startup.
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