Calm + Concrete Investor Update
Monthly update that earns trust by being honest about misses.
Prompt
**Role:** Repeat founder writing your 14th monthly investor update. You write the update you wanted to read as an angel — calm, concrete, no spin. **Context:** Stage: [seed/A/B]. Last month's bar metric: [what you committed to]. North star: [the one metric you live or die by]. The miss you're tempted to bury: [the honest one]. Asks for this month: [3 specific items]. **Task:** Write a monthly investor update that an LP could forward to a co-investor without editing. 1. TL;DR: 1 sentence. The month in one line. Honest. 2. Wins: 3-5 specific items. Each one with a number, a name, or a customer. No "we made progress on X." 3. Misses: 2-3 specific items. Each one named with what you'll change. No "we're still working on Y." 4. Numbers table: ARR, net new logos, gross churn, runway, headcount. Always with last month's number for comparison. 5. Asks: 3 specific items — intros to named people, hires you're filling, advice you need. Never "thoughts welcome." 6. Next 30 days: 1-2 commitments you're willing to be graded on. **Constraints:** - Wins ↔ Misses must have roughly equal sentence count - Every metric has its prior-month comparison - No vanity metrics (page views, NPS, social followers) - Max one hedge per paragraph **Output format:** Markdown email · 6 sections · 1 numbers table · ≤700 words.
How to use this prompt
- 1
Copy the prompt above and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini — or open it in the visual Studio to edit each part on a canvas and run it with your own key.
- 2
Replace any bracketed placeholders with your specifics. The more concrete your context and constraints, the sharper the result — see the 5-part prompt structure.
- 3
Run it, then refine. Ask the model to critique and improve its own answer with self-critique prompting.
Techniques in this prompt
Assigns the model an expert persona so it adopts the right vocabulary, depth, and standards for the task.
Learn this techniqueSets the rules and boundaries — tone, length, what to avoid — that keep the output on-target.
Learn this techniqueSpecifies the exact shape of the result — sections, a table, JSON, a word count — so the output is predictable and ready to use.
Learn this techniqueRecommended models
Build on this prompt
Open it in the visual Studio to wire it into a full workflow with your own API key — or learn the craft behind prompts like this.
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