We plan to bring eChai across 100 cities in India. The next eChai Startup Demo Day is on 29 August in Bengaluru and Pune. The next after that is on 26 September, all in person. 11 cities confirmed, 346 founders registered. Any city that reaches 20 interested founders is on too. See your city
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Founder Institute

2 resources from Founder Institute we point founders to, and the questions each answers.

📋 Template
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

A copy-and-fill template built for exactly the founder in this question: it is structured around a five-minute read (matching our 'key metrics, one win, one lowlight, one ask' rule) with an Overview, a Performance snapshot, Economics (runway, burn, MRR), and a Needs section split into asks, referrals, and funding. It gives a first-time founder with three angels a skeleton to send this week instead of a blank page, and it explicitly frames the update as a short CEO email, not a board deck.

The 5-Minute Investor Update Template

From Founder Institute by Founder Institute template

  • Four sections keep it to a five-minute read: Overview, Performance, Economics, Needs
  • The Needs section forces a specific ask (advice, an intro, or funding) into every update
  • Report the same handful of metrics every month so investors can track your trajectory at a glance
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Answers Do I really need to send investor updates if I have only raised a small angel round and have no formal reporting obligation?
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

This lays out the practical etiquette for exactly your worry: how to ask without overdrawing the people who show up for you. Its core rule, give, give, give, then ask, reframes each launch request as one small withdrawal against a much larger balance of help you have already given. It is a starting point for pacing your asks, not a rule that you can never ask again.

9 Tips for Startup Founders to Build A Stronger Network

From Founder Institute by Maria Dykstra Short read (about 8 minutes)

  • Treat your network like a karma bank: make more deposits (helping others) than withdrawals (asking for shares).
  • The two failure modes are asking too soon and never asking at all, so timing and relationship depth matter more than frequency alone.
  • Support others as a regular habit first, which makes the occasional launch ask feel earned rather than draining.
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