I have posted about communication often.  Just type “communication” into the search field and see what pops up.  This morning I read Mark Suster’s post called “8 Tips To Get the Most Out of Your Investors and Board”.  It is all about communication with board members (a bunch of whom are often investors).  No surprise – I love what Mark wrote.

I thought it might be helpful to state a few reasons why it is just about impossible to over-communicate with your VCs:

1.  Our VC partners at a firm are constantly asking “what’s going on with XYZ company”.  Frequent communication from the CEO helps us give good answers to our partners.  You should assume that “update” type emails from CEOs are forwarded to partners inside our VC firms.

2.  Limited partners of a VC firm also ask the VCs “what’s going on with XYZ company”.  Nice to be fully loaded with information to give solid answers, even if the company is not doing that well.

3.  Doing inside rounds (which happen frequently) are way easier if the key constituents (board members and investors) are all on the same page.  Inside rounds are often done in pressure filled situations so not having to spend lots of time getting people up to speed is a huge plus for a CEO.

4.  A statement a CEO never wants to hear from a board member is “I did not know that…..”   Frequent updates solve that problem.  And, if a board member says that it is awesome to be able to say back “well, it was in the update email recently sent”.  You might be surprised how much time can be spent (sometimes wasted) dealing with a cranky board member who feels surprised by company developments.

Those are just a few of the reasons off the top of my head.  Hope you had a great long weekend…..