How-to: write a knockout executive summary
One of the components of getting the attention of an investor is having a knockout executive summary.
“OK, Scott, how do you write an executive summary?”
Thanks for asking. Here’s what I see to be the key elements of writing a killer executive summary:
- It’s all about the customer pain: why does your business exist? It exists to change the lives of your customers. And for a customer to want to have his life changed, he’s got to have some problems that need solved. Make this the PRIMARY focus of your document! If there’s no pain to be solved, you’ve got nothing. Sorry kid.
- What’s your solution? How is it different and better than what’s out there? Be able to state this in one or two sentences. And don’t forget the overarching product vision — where do you want this go? How big do you want it?
- The current state: where are you now? What have you done to make traction towards the product vision? Do you have customers, and if so, how are they using it? If you have customers, make sure to highlight this as much as you can. You have a “proven concept” if people open up their wallets!
- The market opportunity: don’t be stupid here. Just because you sell software, for example, doesn’t mean that your potential market is every piece of software ever sold to anybody. Drill it down, but from the bottom up. Cut the pie in different ways. Figure out what piece of the segment of the niche you’re targeting. It’s better to understate than overstate your market.
- Your competitive advantage: what gives you special insight into your market, and what can you build that’s defensible and strategically different?
- The model: you want to start a business, and businesses need to turn profits. What’s your method? I recommend keeping this as simple as possible. Don’t be afraid to replicate, but put some creative thought into this. If you do replicate, have a good reason for doing so — don’t use it as a cop-out.
- The team: who’s working on this, what’s their background, and what are their qualifications? Provide a tiny bit of history here about the company and product.
- The promise: how much money do you want, and how are you going to provide a reasonable ROI to your investors? Why should they believe you?
Have you written or need help writing an executive summary? What’s your experience been?

