Free startup one pager template: the eleven lines an investor checks
When a partner opens anything from a founder, deck or not, they look for the same eleven things. This one pager is those eleven things as a single page, one sentence each, with a small tick next to every line for how it is backed: sourced, claimed or missing. It is the venture profile that investors read first, written by you, before there is a deck.
Download the one pager template (PDF, 2 pages, free, no email required)
Would rather have it built for you? Start from your idea: describe it, link what exists, and Bizznote builds the same profile from your public pages, marks every line sourced, claimed or missing, and scores it.
What is inside
Eleven lines, in the order a partner reads them:
- Company name
- One liner
- Problem
- Solution
- Market
- Business model
- Traction
- Competition
- Team
- Financials
- The ask
The second page explains the three ticks and the cheapest ways to move a line from claimed to sourced: a page, a number, a name. The reasoning behind each line is in what investors want to see before a meeting and how to validate a startup idea.
How to use it
- Write one honest sentence per line. Stop where you do not know; write "not yet" rather than an adjective.
- Tick each line: S if a public page states it, C if only you say it, M if nobody has it.
- Move lines from C to S before you send it. A single page on your site, a waitlist with a count, three customer conversations in their words, a team line that links to real profiles.
- Send the one pager, not a deck, for the first conversation. The ten slide deck comes once there is traction to put in it.
Questions founders ask
What is a startup one pager?
A single page that states what an investor checks before a meeting: the company, the one liner, the problem, the solution, the market, the business model, traction, competition, the team, rough financials and the ask. One sentence each. At idea stage it replaces a pitch deck, because a deck built around traction and financials you do not have yet only exposes the gaps with more formatting.
Do I need a pitch deck to talk to an investor?
No. A pitch deck is one container for the same eleven answers. A one pager with sourced facts works for a first look, and the deck can come once there is traction to put in it. What investors fund is a team that can execute and one signal they can check, not slides.
What does sourced, claimed or missing mean?
Sourced means a public page states the line: your site, an app store listing, a press mention, a named customer quote. Claimed means only you say it. Missing means nobody has it yet. Investors sort every line into one of the three without being told to, so the template asks you to do it first.
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