I am a huge fan of weekly updates and receive many of them from entrepreneurs. They really can help your target audience (investors, supporters, team) stay up-to-speed and find places to help. More importantly though, they help the writer provide better clarity of thought on what matters and what decisions to take - I didn’t appreciate this until the first time I started doing updates. Here are a few other things that I think make good updates.

Right timing

Some updates appear as if it is the same update every week. If that is the case, then space out your updates (i.e. bi-weekly, monthly) to be timed when enough new information is valuable to include (or you may need to be moving faster). Also be consistent on sending updates; don’t skip them without notice.

Style matches founder

Some founders prefer words or memos, some prefer bullet points/lists, some prefer graphs. It doesn’t really matter, other than I find the best updates tend to match the style of the founder so they appear more natural instead of forced. I can imagine the founder telling the story.

Key metrics

I see some updates that have crystal clear focus on key metrics that matter for the business, and how they compare to last week/month/quarter/year. I read other updates where it is unclear which metrics matter and how they are doing.

Balanced view of what is working and not

The best updates describe both what is working and what is not. Any founder knows there are always things not working. If you only share what is working, you miss opportunities for people to help as well as risk losing trust in how things are going if someone finds out later there was a major issue.

Specific asks

I love updates that have specific asks (and even for specific people). It makes it very clear how I can be helpful. There are other updates that each week usually say “no asks” That may be true, but likely missing an opportunity for someone to be helpful.

What else makes good weekly updates from founders?