Tips Shareholder Meetings

Shareholder meetings are a time for founders to not only report to their investors but to also align with them on a way forward. While these meetings can be a bit nerve-racking for new founders, they should be come less so if you utilize some best practices.

Shareholder Meeting Best Practices

1. Schedule a time, date, location, and method of attendance. Try to avoid holidays, and be clear about methods of attendance (in-person, virtual, hybrid).
2. Send out the official invitation and calendar booking in a clear email distribution to all shareholders. Don't mix communication methods like texts or phone calls.
3. On the day of the meeting, conduct the full meeting and have a designated person draft the meeting minutes for record.
4. Following the meeting, companies like to send out a thank you to all attendees and any important information a founder wants to share.
5. The founder should schedule an executive team / board meeting to go over the shareholder meeting minutes and address any points that were brought up to discuss.
6. Make reports easy for shareholders to access and refer back to in the future. Hint: emails get lost, and PDFs/Slide Decks get deleted. Save time and back-and-forth by consolidating your reports into a single, secure environment that shareholders have unique access to.
7. Reporting on day-to-day activities is fine, so long as it’s concise and in an overview format. This can help shareholders get a view into the daily workings of the company. However, try to focus on larger financial, marketing, sales and overall trends so that shareholders can skip to the KPIs they’re most interested in.
8. Don’t hide poor performance or negative data, or you run the risk of damaging investor trust. Remember that your shareholders can help you, so showing pain points often can lead to greater collaboration and advisory.