
Ask HN: How to write a good executive summary? - Danilka
We are writing an executive summary for an angel round.<p>1. What are some good practices one should follow?<p>2. Good examples of early days summaries from successful companies?<p>3. Articles from notable people on the matter?<p>P.S. I know that usually it&#x27;s done at a later stage, but I feel like it would make it easier to warm up angels that we can&#x27;t meet in person.
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xivzgrev
In general, the purpose is to get a meeting. So it needs to be short and
exciting.

You very likely have little in the way of financials that's exciting. But, you
(hopefully) have exciting points in one or more of the following: 1) user
traction 2) Significantly better user experience / solving pain point in a
large market - like dropbox doing a demo of their product for YC. And the more
disruptive it is, the more proof you'll need that it's true 3) social proof

And then it all comes together in a concise story. You don't need anything
more than that.

So let's say you have come up with a low-calorie bacon-alternative that's just
as tasty. It could go like this:

"We have developed a low-calorie bacon that tastes like the real thing. It's
made from a blend of plant materials, and in blind taste tests against bacon,
93% of respondents were unable to tell a difference. We even did a taste test
on Oprah and she was unable to tell the difference.

Since appearing on Oprah a few weeks ago, we've sold 5,000 boxes through our
website, but we're quickly falling behind demand and are seeking the right
partner to grow with. We'd like to set up a meeting with you because of X & Y
- are you free next Tuesday at noon?"

Who wouldn't take a meeting with that story?

So that's ideal hyperbolic case. But the closer you can get to that, and the
more exciting you can make it, the better you'll be.

Note that in the above, I didn't explain why low-calorie bacon that tastes
like real thing is amazing - it's self explanatory for lay person. But if your
product satisfies a less obvious demand, it'd be helpful to include that.

~~~
Danilka
From my understanding, the executive summary is usually 3-5 pages long and
gives a fair understanding of what the company is. Is it not?

In our particular case, we need it for an investor in Europe that we cannot
meet in person. So it should give away most of the details. At best, we'll
have a call with him.

Yours seems to server a purpose of well polished email pitch that could be
forwarded along with an introduction.

Another point is startup's stage. In our case it's angel round. Even though,
we have a lot of technical progress and talking to users with mockups on hand,
we cannot yet brag about traction or physical unit sales.

P.S. Thanks a lot for the answer!

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tixocloud
Keep it really high level and use the same language as the audience.

If you can fit everything on one page, do it. If not, put the most important
material on the first few pages.

Since it's an angel round, you'll want to focus on your team, market size and
opportunity, and especially traction. Depending on who you're speaking with,
traction could mean different things to different people. But you will
definitely to show that there's a hint of interest from the market.

Talking to users is great but are they committed to buying? An investor is
looking to put money in and get more money out in the most blunt case. You
could also sell them on the idea and make them believe in your dream. But at
the end of the day, you're also trying to build a business and in business,
you have to make money to survive. (Although, these days, I feel like that's
not true. Seems like you can keep selling to the next fool who believes)

Good luck!

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Danilka
There is a good example from YouTube, but it's not exactly it.
[https://www.scribd.com/doc/214802896/Botha-on-
YouTube](https://www.scribd.com/doc/214802896/Botha-on-YouTube)

