Your investors shouldn't have to email you to see their investments
Forwarding PDFs and chasing certificates isn't a relationship strategy. It's just admin. And it's costing you more than you think. Your investors already know you're good at finding deals. That's why they back investments you present to them. What they're less sure about is whether working with you feels like a professional experience or a favour from a friend.
The personal touch in alternative finance does matter. This isn't about being cold or corporate, but there's a version of bespoke that starts to feel a bit disorganised or cumbersome.
The admin problem
You're running a deals business. Your time and energy should go on sourcing the next opportunity, not fielding emails from investors asking for a copy of the investment agreement, or processing a change of address, or tracking down the latest update that went to investors.
Phone calls, personal emails, individual updates can make investors feel looked after. It's difficult to maintain and grow though, and when people in your team are on holiday, or are distracted by competing priorities investors might end up being frustrated – chasing trivial matters.
Your investors aren't unreasonable. They may not be asking for it, but they could well be thinking it: I just want to be able to see my holdings, check my documents, and track my returns without always having to ask and wait for a response.
Most investors won’t tell you they want a portal. They’ll just quietly factor in how it felt to work with you when the next opportunity comes around.
The sledgehammer argument
We sometimes hear that a portal feels like overkill. If you've only got 10 investors in any deal, and you’re only doing a deal every few months why build out infrastructure for them?
It's a fair question. But the payoff isn't just in the admin saving it's in what happens next.
Investors who can log in and see their portfolio are more likely to invest again, simply because they're already engaged. The gap between awareness and action shrinks. They're not starting from cold, they trust the platform, and they're ready to move.
The alternative, an email sitting in their inbox alongside a hundred other things — doesn't compete. An email is easy to miss, easy to defer, easy to forget. A portfolio they can check on their terms is none of those things.
Looking the part is part of the job
Operating purely over email makes you look like dinosaurs. Even if your investors aren't particularly tech-savvy, they'll notice.
An investor portal doesn't need to shout. It just needs to exist. It signals that you're serious, that you're organised, and that you'll still be around in three years. This isn't a hobby.
Investors of course prioritise well-structured deals but the whole experience should feel considered. The portal is a small part of that. But it's a visible one.
Doing your duty
Expectations around investor communications and transparency are only moving in one direction. Self-service access to holdings, documents, and performance data means taking your duties seriously. Getting it in place now is easier than retrofitting it later.
ShareIn provides investment platform infrastructure for alternative finance.
If you're thinking about what this could look like for your organisation, get in touch.