Northstem Investor Update, August 2026
Investor update deck
The update a funded founder sends every month to the people already on the cap table. This one is month fourteen for Northstem, an invented Boston company selling procurement software to research labs, and it is not a fundraise. Revenue beat plan, an engineer resigned, one customer went quiet and runway is fifteen months. All four of those are on the slides, because an update that only carries good news stops being read.
Every slide, in order
The whole deck as it renders, one slide after another. Read it the way the audience would.
The structure
What each slide is doing, so you can reuse the order even with different content.
- Slide 1cover
- Names the period and the sender, so the update files itself in an investor inbox.
- Slide 2content
- The month in two paragraphs, so an investor who reads nothing else still knows how it went.
- Slide 3comparison
- Highlights beside lowlights, because an update that only carries good news stops being read.
- Slide 4metrics
- The same six metrics, defined the same way, against what we told you last month.
- Slide 5metrics
- Cash walked from the start of the month to the end, so runway needs no explaining.
- Slide 6process
- The pipeline as three lanes, so nobody has to ask what closed and what is still moving.
- Slide 7checklist
- What actually shipped, and what each thing changed, rather than a release note.
- Slide 8framework
- People, hiring, press and the market in one quadrant slide, kept short on purpose.
- Slide 9timeline
- What we will be judged on next month, written as targets rather than intentions.
- Slide 10takeaway
- Four specific asks, which is the only section of an update that asks anything of the reader.
What makes this deck work
Lowlights get equal space
Three good things on the left and three bad ones on the right, on the same slide, in the same type size. Investors read the second column first, and hiding it is the fastest way to lose the relationship.
The same six metrics, every month
Target, actual, variance and a one word status, with a footnote saying the definitions have not changed since March. An update is a serial document, and a metric that quietly changes definition is worse than a missing one.
The asks are small enough to act on
Four requests, each answerable in ten minutes: one hire, one introduction, one conversation and one opinion. A vague ask for help gets read and forgotten.
Questions people ask
What should an investor update include?
A two line summary, highlights, lowlights, the same KPIs as last month, cash and runway, pipeline, product, hiring, what happens next and your asks. Founder Collective calls the asks section the most important part of the whole document.
How often should I send one?
Monthly at pre seed and seed, quarterly once you are past a Series A. Consistency matters more than frequency: an update that arrives on the same date every month is worth more than a better one that arrives twice a year.
Should I share burn and runway?
Yes. These are the numbers a founder instinctively obscures during a raise and the ones an existing investor most needs. Give cash on hand, net burn and the months of runway both on plan and off it.
Should bad news wait until the next update?
No. Anything material goes out when it happens, and the update records it afterwards. The purpose of writing the lowlights down is that nobody is surprised later, which is the only reason an investor trusts the highlights.
How long should a monthly investor update be?
Ten slides, or about five minutes of reading. This one carries a two paragraph summary, the same six metrics defined the same way as last month, cash, pipeline, what shipped, people, next month's targets and the asks. The value comes from the fixed shape, because a reader who knows where each thing sits actually reads it.
How do I report a resignation or a customer going quiet?
Plainly, in the same size type as the good news. Slide three puts highlights beside lowlights, so an engineer resigning and a customer going quiet sit next to a revenue beat rather than in a footnote. Slide nine then turns each one into a target for next month, which is what stops a lowlight reading as a shrug.
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Sources
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .