Canada's Top 10 Program - Invest without the guesswork

Tips for a Successful Executive Summary

The executive summary of your business plan should answer the question, "Why would I want to invest in this company?" To answer this question, potential investors (and the Canada's Top 10™ Jury) will likely be looking for information that answers many of the following questions:

What does your company do and why does it matter?
What are the products, services, or processes your company offers?
What is the market opportunity and who is your target market?
What does the industry look like? Are there trends you are capitalizing on? What is the size of the market and where do you fit?
Describe your technology platform including its current state of validation. Include any third party validation, intellectual property, term of proprietary protection and ease of duplication
Who is your competition? Include any leading competitors (numbers, size, strengths, weaknesses), barriers to entry, substitute products, source of sustainable competitive advantage, bargaining power of customers and suppliers, dependence on other industries
Who is on your management team? Your Board of Directors or Advisory Board? Your Scientific Board?
Are there any significant risks to your company or products? What plans have you put in place to mitigate these risks?
Describe any regulatory issues, technological issues, economic or social issues may arise as a result of the entry of your product or service into the market
What are your financing and/or partnership requirements?
Describe the use of proceeds, any terms and conditions, investment liquidity, rate of return, exit strategies, existing investors, covenants, strategic partners
Provide 3 years of Financial Projections (tabular form)
Describe your assets, liabilities, shareholder equity, revenues, gross margin, pre-tax profit (loss), after-tax profit (loss), capital requirements and expenditures

Remember that this executive summary will be used by the jury in the judging process so ensure it is concise, accurate and presents a fair description of the opportunity you hope to seize in your identified market.

Still have questions?
Contact Marco Fiori at (613) 828-6274 x133 or mfiori@ocri.ca for assistance.