84% send,60% hear from under half
The monthly email
84% of seed founders say they send an update at least monthly. 60% of investors say they hear regularly from fewer than half their portfolio. Both are true if the update is sent and does not land.
Founders between rounds
The next round is won by the investors you already have.
A third of seed companies bridge from the cap table to reach Series A, and one in five venture deals is referred by another investor. Both decisions are made on current information, and most investors hear regularly from fewer than half their portfolio. Keep all of yours current, where they hold you.
Five minutes a month. Every investor on the cap table, not just the lead. Any of them can ask for the next one.
Illustrative sample data: the Updates tab of a deal page for Quillmoor, a fictional company, with a Q3 2026 update (north-star metric, cash, burn, runway, headcount, what went well, what did not, and two asks), and beside it an investor panel showing the same figure next to that investor’s own position, with a Request next update button.
The numbers between rounds
2.1 years
Median gap from seed to Series A, 2024, up from 1.5 in 2019
Carta
1 in 3
Companies raise a bridge before their next primary round
Carta
88%
Investors who rely on investor reports for their next investment decision
Wimbart, 2024, survey of investors in African startups
3.7x vs 1.3x
Angel return with monthly contact against annual contact, 1,137 exits
Kauffman/ACEF
The problem
You closed the seed. The next round is two years away, and the people who will fund the gap are not hearing from you.
Of US companies that raised a priced seed in 2022, 12% to 15% reached Series A within two years. The rest waited, bridged, or stopped. The bridge comes from the cap table. Here is where the information goes missing.
88% of pre-seed cheques
The cheque with no rights
88% of pre-seed cheques are SAFEs. The YC SAFE carries no information right. The standard term sheet gates it to Major Investors above a threshold a $25,000 cheque never meets. They cannot ask, so they stop expecting.
71%
The bridge decided on a guess
71% of investors say they would not follow on in a startup that fails to send regular updates. The follow-on window opens with ten days to decide. Whoever has not heard from you decides on a mark and a memory.
You are sending the update. It is not arriving where the decision is made.
Why it is like this now
Seven facts about the gap between rounds
Fact 1 of 7: The gap is two years and one in seven.
24-month seed-to-A graduation fell from 35% (2020 cohort) to 12% to 15% (2022). The median gap rose from about 1.5 years to about 2.1.
Carta.
Fact 2 of 7: The gap is funded from the cap table.
Bridges were 29% to 46% of seed and Series A rounds from 2023 to 2025. A seed bridge is, by definition, priced funding from insiders already on the cap table.
Carta.
Fact 3 of 7: Insiders decide on reports.
88% of investors rely on reports for the next investment decision; 71% would not follow on without regular updates. Angels in monthly contact returned 3.7x against 1.3x for annual contact.
Wimbart; Kauffman/ACEF.
Fact 4 of 7: The same investors are the introduction.
One in five closed venture deals is referred by another investor. Introduced decks are 82% of funded decisions; cold decks are 8%.
Gompers et al; British Business Bank.
Fact 5 of 7: Most investors hear from under half their portfolio.
60% hear regularly from fewer than half; 29% receive no periodic reports; in the one academic sample, 11 of 30 startups sent a single report in eight months.
Yin; Wimbart; ESMT.
Fact 6 of 7: A small cheque has no right to ask.
88% of pre-seed cheques are SAFEs with no information right; the term-sheet template gates it to Major Investors.
Carta; NVCA; YC.
Fact 7 of 7: The email is being sent.
84% of founders send monthly or more often. Business email open rates run 31% to 43%. The update tools charge $59 to $199 a month to reach an inbox the investor does not manage a portfolio from.
NFX; Mailchimp; MailerLite; vendor pricing.
So you have two paths.
The monthly email
- Monthly for a year, then every other month, then when there is news
- One of two hundred in an inbox, for an investor holding ten or twenty positions
- The $25,000 cheques have no right to ask and no system to ask from
- Eighteen months in, the Series A market says two years and one in seven
- You go back to the cap table; six in ten have not heard from you in a way they remember
The investors exist. They cannot act.
Current in the place they hold you
- A fixed, five-minute update format, inside each investor’s own portfolio view
- Next to the position they hold and the public record on your company
- The $25,000 cheque gets the same number the lead gets
- Any investor can ask for the next one with one click
- When the window opens, every investor is current, and the introduction to the next lead comes from someone who can say what you did last quarter
This is the Updates tab on a
listing.
The update
One update, every investor, in the format they decide on.
Four things the Updates tab changes about keeping investors current. The first is the one that matters: where the update lands.
It lands next to the holding
Your update appears inside each investor’s portfolio view, beside the position they hold in you, the public record on your company and the last update you sent. Not in an inbox. In the place the follow-on decision is made.
It is five minutes, not a newsletter
Period, one north-star metric, cash, burn, runway, headcount, what went well, what did not, your asks. The same structure every time, so an investor reads ten of them in the time one newsletter takes.
Any investor can ask
An investor on the platform can request your next update with one click, in the same format, whether their cheque bought information rights or not. You see the request on your dashboard and answer it in five minutes.
The record keeps going without you
Companies House and SEC filings, website changes and job postings reach your investors on the platform whether or not you reply. A quiet period is visible as quiet. Your update is what puts the number next to the signal.
You are not reporting to a platform. You are reporting to your own cap table, in one place.
How it works
Three steps from close to current.
- Step 1
Keep the listing live
After your round closes, your listing stays on the platform with the raise closed and the Updates tab open. Your investors on the platform see it as a position, not a deal.
- Step 2
Send the first update
The composer asks for the fixed fields and nothing else. You can forward a plain-text update instead and it is parsed into the format. Target: five minutes.
- Step 3
Answer the asks
Investors request the next update with one click; monthly prompts remind you on Growth and Featured. On Featured, a reviewer reads your update before it goes out and flags anything an investor will push on.
Investors who hold you but are not yet on the platform can be invited from your dashboard; they see your updates in a free portfolio view of the positions they already hold.
Pricing
The Updates tab is on Growth and Featured.
Already listed on Basic? Upgrade and the Updates tab opens on your existing listing.
Basic
$27
60 days
A reviewed listing for the raise. No Updates tab.
- Reviewed listing with deck score badge
- Deck score, valuation range, diligence briefing
- Thesis-matched alerts
Growth
$99
90 days
The listing, the leads and the Updates tab.
Everything in Basic, plus
- Investor leads delivered on every expression of interest
- Data room
Featured Featured
$199
120 days
Everything in Growth, reviewed and placed.
Everything in Growth, plus
- Verified traction badge, per metric, against evidence you upload
- Featured placement and badge
The investors
Your investors, in the tool they use to manage what they already hold.
TheAngel’s investor side is a portfolio tracker: positions, instruments, rights and deadlines in one register; the public record on every company pulled in; cash and paper value kept apart; every follow-on re-underwritten on today’s evidence. Your update is one of the inputs to that decision. Sending it is how you make sure the decision about you is made on your numbers.
The investor-side page says what they see. The short version: what you publish on the Updates tab is what they read beside your position.
20-plus
positions is the minimum a diversified angel portfolio needs
Farina et al; ACA
12 to 14 years
is how long each position now stays open
Ritter
Questions founders ask
Because the email is one of two hundred, and the investor side says most of them do not land: 60% of investors hear regularly from fewer than half their portfolio. The Updates tab puts the same information beside the position, where the follow-on is decided, and lets the investor ask for the next one. If you prefer to write the email, forward it and it is parsed into the format.
We do not publish a multiplier, because none exists outside vendors’ own marketing. What the data says: 88% of investors rely on reports for the next decision, 71% say they will not follow on without them, and angels in monthly contact returned 3.7x against 1.3x for annual contact. An investor who has not heard from you decides on a mark and a guess.
Invite them from your dashboard. They get a free portfolio view of the positions they already hold, including yours, and your updates arrive there. The tracker is free up to ten positions.
Nothing on the Updates tab is public. Listings never show amount raised, percentage of target or interest counts.
The monthly prompt reminds you; an investor can request an update at any time; and the public record keeps reaching your investors regardless. A quiet month is visible as quiet. That is better than silence, and it is honest.
No. You pay for the listing. No success fee, no carry, no equity.
Between rounds
Keep every investor current. The next cheque is on your cap table already.
Five minutes a month, in the format they decide on, in the place they hold you.
Updates tab on Growth and Featured. No fee on the round.
Figures on this page are from Carta, Crunchbase, Beauhurst, Wimbart, the Kauffman Foundation and ACEF, the Enterprise Research Centre, Gompers, Gornall, Kaplan and Strebulaev, British Business Bank, NFX, ESMT Berlin, Mailchimp and MailerLite. Full register on request.