If somebody else writes the investor update, whose name goes on the email?

Question

I do the construction reporting for a sponsor's LP letters. Photos, budget against contract, schedule slippage, that section of the update. Up to now I write it, he pastes it in, it goes out under his name.

Last week he asked me to just email the renovation section straight to the investors myself, so he stops being the middleman. And I stalled, because I don't know if that's a normal thing to do or a bad idea, and I couldn't say why it bothered me.

The case for me sending it: investors get it faster, questions come to the person who actually knows the answer, and the sponsor gets his week back. When somebody asks why the bathroom package is six weeks late, he doesn't know, I do.

The case against: LPs signed up with him, not with me. A second sender in their inbox muddies who's accountable. And if I write something imprecise about the budget in a hurry, it went out with no one reading it first, which is the part that actually worries me.

There's a middle version where everything goes from a fund inbox with no personal name attached, and you sign the section with your role. Feels tidy but also a bit faceless.

So where does the room sit on this. Who owns the send button.

nicole_adeyemi · Answer

Sponsor's name, always. He raised the money, he answers for what's said about it. Your section can carry a byline inside the letter and that gets you the credit without moving the accountability.

nataliehsu · Answer

The bit that jumps out is that nobody reads it before it goes if you send. That's not really a naming question, it's a review question, and you could send under your own name with the sponsor copied on the draft the night before. Two different problems got tangled together in your post.

angela_burke · Answer

We do the fund inbox version for three clients and it's fine, but it only works if replies land somewhere staffed. The failure mode is an inbox nobody owns, an LP asks a question on a Friday, and it sits until Tuesday. Faceless is survivable, unanswered is not. Also decide up front who gets to answer money questions from that inbox, because it will not be the person writing the renovation section.

brandonlee36 · Answer

I'd send under the sponsor's name until the day something goes wrong, and then find out that the day something goes wrong is exactly the day he wants your name on it. Watch for that. The offer to "stop being the middleman" arriving right when a schedule is slipping six weeks is worth a second look.

priya_n21 · Answer

From the receiving end, I like knowing which human wrote which part. I'm in one deal where the updates are anonymous and corporate and I have no idea who to reply to, so I never reply, so I never find out anything. A name and a role at the bottom of a section would have got a question out of me twice already.

mikeoconnell7 · Answer

I send under the sponsor's name and address, with a line at the bottom saying the construction section was prepared by me and replies about it come to me. Costs nothing, keeps the accountability where the money is, and it still routes the bathroom package question to the person who knows about bathroom packages. The only thing I insisted on is that he reads it before it goes, even if that's four minutes on his phone. Not because I expect him to catch errors, because it means he can't say later that he never saw it.

If somebody else writes the investor update, whose name goes on the email?

6 replies