in Ontario, Resources, Startups, Toronto, Venture Capital

5 Steps to an Awesome Executive Summary

Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Massive Damage Inc. written by Ken Seto,  founder of @Massive_Damage & @EndloopMobile.  He is building @PleaseStayCalm, a location based game.. Follow him on Twitter @kenseto where he tweets about Apple, music, games, food, wine & movies. This post was originally published in February 21, 2012 on MassDmg.com.

Massive Damage Inc Header

We’ve finally decided to post our Executive Summary to share with other founders as we’ve always had compliments and great feedback from it.

Some folks wonder how best to use executive summaries.. basically you’ll give it to people who will be doing intros for you. That way, they can forward something that piques the interest of the potential investor without giving away the whole pitch. You don’t want your deck to do your pitch for you, you want to do the pitch.

Here are the following guidelines I followed to create ours:

  1. Keep it to one page if possible, it’s a summary, not a pitch.
  2. If you have no eye for design, hire one or get a designer friend to help out.
  3. If you have metrics, put the good stuff front and center. Feel free to use vanity metrics for big impact but make sure you also have engagement metrics.
  4. Leave enough room for your Team section. Use pictures and previous startups/accomplishments.
  5. Include awesome visuals. Sure you can’t use zombies for every startup but give it some personality. Use bold infographics or charts.

Here’s our Executive Summary:

Editor’s note: This is a cross post from Massive Damage Inc. written by Ken Seto,  founder of @Massive_Damage & @EndloopMobile.  He is building @PleaseStayCalm, a location based game.. Follow him on Twitter @kenseto where he tweets about Apple, music, games, food, wine & movies. This post was originally published in February 21, 2012 on MassDmg.com.

  1. This is the most beautiful executive summary I’ve ever seen! I’m inspired to create a more visual one for my startup as I actively look to raise a seed round in Toronto. Thanks Ken! 

  2. Excellent, I guess game developers are more talented visual designers. Nevertheless the structure and content are brilliant. Would you do mine please :)

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Webmentions

  • A Helpful Guide for Writing Your Startup’s Executive Summary — Global Nerdy March 21, 2012

    […] good ones such as The Art of the Executive Summary by Guy Kawasaki, local hero Ken Seto’s 5 Steps to an Awesome Executive Summary, and Marco “The Angel Pitch Guy” Messina’s executive summary template. […]