Investor Management: Now that you have got funded, you need to manage your investors

Congratulations! On your funding (or commitment of funding) and great job on beating the odds! As you are now one of the very few companies which have managed to raise funds in this challenging economic scenario. Now the second part of your challenge awaits which is to manage your investor group. On many occasions it is seen that in the euphoria of securing equity / debt funding the promoters or entrepreneurs forget that they have taken on a huge fiduciary responsibility of not only ensuring that the investors money is not misused and giving them a return but also to make sure that the investor group knows what is happening at regular intervals. keeping them in the loop of what the company has achieved and failed to achieve is a very integral part of managing your investors and their expectations. Every quarter a financial and strategic report should go out to the investor group even if they have a representative on the board. The quarterly report should list down key financials, performance indicators, unit economics, capital expenditure, change in key personnel etc. This will ensure that all your investors are current on developments as well as failures and do not have any surprises when they check in on their investments. For a young company it is imperative that the peace be maintained between the people running the company and the ones who have backed it financially as the last thing any company needs is an altercation with the investor group as it can take away large amounts of resources.