The Beauty of a Single Page - Your Executive Summary

One of the last things for a startup to prepare is the executive summary. Well, not actually the “last” thing. Why? Because it needs to be a living, breathing document that is constantly in a state of renewal. Nothing frustrates me more than a founder that sends me a six-month old, or even a year old, executive summary. That implies to me that no progress has been made since they last updated the damn thing!

As an investor, I need to see the latest, greatest and most up-to-date recap of what a startup is up to. And, since it is most often the first contact or information I get on a company, I want it to be clear, concise and brief. All you want to achieve with your executive summary, at least in my case, is to get me to ask for more. More information. More detail. More knowledge. And that, in turn, you must hope turns into a first meeting.

Why does it have to be brief? There are two reasons I can think of. First, as an investor I don’t want to waste my time wading through detail when all I am trying to do is determine if there is enough interest on my part to warrant a further look. And second, and maybe more importantly, it tells me a whole lot about the founder. Is the founder willing to take the time to write a strong one-page summary that captures the essence of their innovation? I once had a boss who insisted we never do a data-dump on him. That was too easy. Instead, he said, show me that you’ve taken the time to render something into an elegant and purposeful summary. For, he said, it takes longer to write a single page of valuable information than to write multiple pages of needless detail.

The metaphor here is one of an iceberg. Huge, immutable, powerful, yet only a small fraction is visible. And of that fraction above the waterline, there is only a single tip. Make your executive summary the tip of the iceberg. Entice me to ask for what’s under the waterline.

Go to www.nrpworldsos.com and register for free access to the NRP Vault to see our executive summary template and to access more helpful content to help you along your entrepreneurial journey whether you are a founder, a supporting organization or even a potential investor.

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