Your executive summary should include a very short overview of your funding status.  This section should include four pieces of information: how much you have raised to date, who made that investment (e.g., founders, angels), how much you are raising in this round and the very high-level intended uses of this capital (e.g., complete technology, increase sales staff).  This section should be kept very brief, integrated into 1 to 3 sentences or a few bullets.

If you're not exactly sure how much you are raising put a range in the executive summary.  This isn't an issue as VCs understand that there are always different scenarios - more/less staff or a longer/shorter period before your next fundraising.

Do not put a valuation of the company in the executive summary.  Including a pre- or post-money valuation can appear to be presumptuous and if your expectations are too high it can make investors lose interest before your first meeting.  Remember, the purpose of this document is to get a meeting, not close the whole deal.

It's good to be forthcoming about your financial requirements; investors are comfortable talking about money.  Keep this section very simple and you'll be one step closer to landing a meeting.

Comments

[Ernstjan Albers]

Hi Mark,

Im currently writing a management summary for our new company. And I have the following question regarding the funding status. How do you reflect the time you put into the company? And the difference in wages between countries?

Our out of pocket cost are low, $25.000 till now, but this largely due to the fact that the founders a free and we pay our programmers up to 10 dollars an hour. (but they get hugs too)

[Mark Davis]

EA-

The best way to reflect your time invested into the company is to include an estimate of foregone wages in the overview of funding status. It's most appropriate to use your most recent salary as the basis for estimating the value of your time.

Converting this between currencies is merely an exercise in using exchange rates.

-MD