Monthly Company Progress Updates

Before this morning, the last company progress update we sent out was December 31st, 2013 (also published on the Customer.io blog). Over the past couple of years, I’ve built a list of about 120 people who are investors, other tech company founders and some close friends.

Earlier this year since we were growing healthily and we weren’t planning to raise any more money for the business, I stopped sending out these updates.

That was a mistake.

The cost of sending the update is transparency about our business. The return of sending the update is big. At a a very basic level, sharing this info gives other people the knowledge to help you – whether that’s by being an evangelist for your business or looking a your business and giving you feedback.

Within a few minutes of sending the email today I received a bunch of replies from some friends, some other CEOs and some investors thanking me for the update, offering encouragement, and giving advice.

The response to that email was probably the best part of my day today. I was glad to finally share with people the milestone that we crossed at $1mm in ARR and get feedback on our metrics and advice on some of my challenges today.

As a founder you need a support network. Make sure you have a few people you keep in the loop on the phone or in person. If you don’t do one now, consider starting a monthly email update to a few select people too.