After your startup has closed a crowdfunding campaign, you may be wondering what best practices are for communicating with your new investors. How often should you contact your investors? What should you say to investors? Are there any other things I should be aware of now that I’ve raised through crowdfunding? In this blog, we’ll answer all these questions, discussing how to communicate with investors, what investor communications should outline, and the ongoing filing requirements post equity crowdfunding campaign.

Communicating With Your New Investors

If your startup raised capital on MicroVentures under regulation crowdfunding, you would have received an investor list if your campaign conducted an intermediate close (also known as a rolling close), and/or at the conclusion of your campaign once investor funds were wired. This investor list contains information like the name of each investor, their contact information included email, phone number, address, the date and time of their investment, and how much they invested.

Thank You

The first way you may want to communicate with your new investors could be to send out a simple thank you for investing! Your new investors are most likely excited to hear from you and know what your plans for the future are, so this can be a great opportunity to kick off the relationship. You could keep this email broad and send it out as a blast to everyone at once, or could email each investor individually thanking them by name for their investment.

Perks

After your campaign is closed, this would also be the time to fulfill any tangible or intangible perks you may have offered during your campaign. Tangible perks like free products, physical gift cards, or company swag can be directly mailed to investors now that you have their addresses. Intangible perks like one-on-one strategic founder calls or exclusive invitations to events or investor panels can be emailed out to investors.

Perk fulfillment can be a great communication touchpoint with investors, letting them know you are thankful for their investment and creating a line of communication between investor and startup.

Regular Updates

While not a requirement, it can be a good idea to communicate with your investors at a regular interval. These communications can range from company updates, product launches, sales or financial milestones, future plans, or just to check in and see if investors have questions about business direction and plans. A sample communication plan could look like:

Once a Month: Investor Email

It can be a good idea to send out an email once a month to your investor list. You may want to talk about any news that happened over the month, reaching specific sales goals, adding a significant number of new customers, or just progress towards scaling the business or where your startup stands in achieving objectives and key results.

Once a Quarter: Investor Call/Email

If you believe a once-a-month email is too frequent to contain enough information of value, you could send out a quarterly email update to your investors instead. These quarterly updates could contain a lot of the same milestone and goal information as monthly emails would, but you could also outline the goals you wish to achieve over the next quarter as your investors may have advice, suggestions, or connections that could help you achieve your goals. These could be sent out over email, or you could host a live town-hall style Q&A session with your investors to gain feedback in real time.

Once a Year: Investor One-on-Ones

If your schedule allows, you could also open up investor one-on-one meetings once a year. By enabling a direct line of communication with your new investors, you can help foster a sense of connection and deepen the relationships with those who are financially invested in the growth of your startup.

Sample Update Email

The following is a sample outline of what an update email could look like:

• High level overview of where the business is currently
• Sales & financial highlights
• Product roadmap and progress towards goals
• Short-term and long-term goals and objectives to achieve goals
• Marketing highlights or recent press about your company
• Financial health of the company
• Any asks of investors: connections, promotions, advice, etc

Ongoing Reporting Requirements

While investor communications are not required, but recommended for startups, there are specific ongoing reporting requirements for companies that have raised through equity crowdfunding.

Form C-AR

If your startup raised through equity crowdfunding, you are responsible for filing annual reports, also known as Form C-AR. These must be filed for the previous fiscal year within 120 days of the end of your fiscal year, regardless of whether you are still actively raising capital or your offering has closed. The Form C-AR must be filed on your website and with EDGAR, the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval online platform.

The Form C-AR is required to be filed annually, but there are a few circumstances where a startup is no longer obligated to file an annual report. In the case that one of the following conditions is met, the startup would file a Form C-TR, a “termination of reporting” form with the SEC within 5 days of when it becomes eligible.

A startup is no longer required to file a Form C-AR if one of the following situations occurs:

5. It is now required to file reports under Securities Exchange Act Sections 13(a) or 15(d)
6. It has filed at least one annual report and has fewer than 300 shareholders
7. It has filed at least three annual reports and has total assets less than $10 million
8. It has repurchased all of the securities issued or another entity has purchased all of the issued securities
9. It liquidates or dissolves its business in accordance with state law

Final Thoughts

While it can seem daunting to have a new list of investors to communicate with after your crowdfunding raise is complete, there are simple ways to establish communication channels, fulfill perks, and provide regular updates. Investors are generally excited to hear from the company they just invested in and like to receive regular updates on company progress. By setting regular communication intervals and outlining milestones and goals, startups can be equipped to communicate with their new investors.

Want to learn more about raising capital for your startup? Check out the following MicroVentures blogs to learn more:

• Up Your Game: Leveraging Social Media for Fundraising
• From Idea to Investment: How to Efficiently Manage Fundraising
• Democratizing Access: Role of Crowdfunding Platforms
• Finding the Right Fit: Tips for Building Your Network
• How to Raise Money for Your Startup in the Private Market

Is your startup ready to raise capital? Apply today to raise funding with MicroVentures!

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The information presented here is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be, nor should it be construed or used as, comprehensive offering documentation for any security, investment, tax or legal advice, a recommendation, or an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, an interest, directly or indirectly, in any company. Investing in both early-stage and later-stage companies carries a high degree of risk. A loss of an investor’s entire investment is possible, and no profit may be realized. Investors should be aware that these types of investments are illiquid and should anticipate holding until an exit occurs.