This week we received emails from two individual startups. Among the hundreds of emails we get each week, these two stood out. They were very different in context and approach.
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Both were great to receive. Hearing from a Founder at the right moment makes a real difference, and these two both prompted us to act.
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The follow-up
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The first was a short, three-paragraph email from a startup we really liked earlier in the year. Their round closed with a single investor, so there wasn’t space for us, but if the timing had been different, we’d have been glad to be involved.
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In a few lines, they told us:

• They’ve started generating revenue and made progress on commercial deployment.
• Their manufacturing strategy has moved on, and they’ve substantially accelerated the scale-up pathway we discussed last year.
• Because of that progress, they’re opening a small additional equity tranche to develop and commercialise a closely related version of the product.
• Given our conversations earlier in the year and the time we’d spent reviewing the business, they wanted to see whether we might be interested in taking another look.
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It was short and to the point. It highlighted their progress and referred back to our earlier discussions about their route to scale-up. It recognised the time we’d spent getting to know the business, and it pointed us towards the opportunity.
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We booked a call.
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The newsletter
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The second was an investor update from a startup that has been raising a Series A round this year. It was very straightforward: formatted in Outlook and sent from the CEO directly to investors. No Mailchimp, no glossy images needed.
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We’d talked earlier in the year and had been waiting to hear how they were getting on, so it arrived at just the right time. We were impressed by the approach as well as the content. It reminded us they are still present and still making progress, and it prompted us to get back in touch.
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The structure they used in their email is worth sharing here:
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📊 Key numbers: contracted revenue, commercial partnerships agreed, and what that means for offtake/commercial agreements.

🎯 Commercial traction: progress since the last quarter, and what it will unlock.

🤝 New strategic partnerships: who they are with, why they matter, and what they’ll open up.

⚙️ Technology & operations: key developments from the previous three months, and how each one improves yield, cost or scalability.

🌱 Grants & team growth: what they’ve won, and what the grants will make possible.

💶 Fundraising: where the round stands, the expected close date, what’s still available, and where they’d welcome help filling gaps in the investor list.

📅 Where to meet them: upcoming events and conferences, with dates and locations, plus an open invitation to connect in person.
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It probably took two or three hours to put together and get the tone right. It was time well spent.
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We booked a call.
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Why these approaches worked
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What did these two emails have in common that so many others we receive don’t?
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They talked to us directly. Both felt personal and relevant, even though one of them went to a wider group of investors.
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They let their progress speak for itself. Both were inviting us to invest, but neither tried to oversell. They shared what had happened, what it meant for the business, and then asked whether we’d like to be involved.
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They picked up where we left off. The first email referred back to the scale-up conversation we’d had earlier in the year. It showed they’d listened to what mattered to us, and that the progress they were sharing answered some of the questions we’d had.
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They kept it simple. The emails weren’t long or over-designed, and they were easy to read and easy to act on.
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A few practical thoughts
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If you’re thinking about doing something similar:
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• Who to send it to: anyone you’ve had a real conversation with, including investors where the timing didn’t work out the first time, even if you didn’t get much feedback first time round – things do change.
• How often: monthly usually works well. If there isn’t much to report, a short note is still welcome, because it keeps you in mind.
• What to include: share genuine progress – within your startup, and even within the sector – if policy has changed, signpost it. That’s what makes an investor want to take another look.
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Both approaches rely on having had that first conversation, so the Founders were already familiar to us. What made the difference was that they kept the conversation going.
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Investors are often keen to hear how a company is getting on. Sometimes we’re just waiting for a reason to pick up the phone. A short, thoughtful update can be exactly that.
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Lucy Mortimer is a Founding Partner of Archipelago Ventures.

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