1. What are some good practices one should follow?
2. Good examples of early days summaries from successful companies?
3. Articles from notable people on the matter?
P.S. I know that usually it's done at a later stage, but I feel like it would make it easier to warm up angels that we can't meet in person.
You very likely have little in the way of financials that's exciting. But, you (hopefully) have exciting points in one or more of the following: 1) user traction 2) Significantly better user experience / solving pain point in a large market - like dropbox doing a demo of their product for YC. And the more disruptive it is, the more proof you'll need that it's true 3) social proof
And then it all comes together in a concise story. You don't need anything more than that.
So let's say you have come up with a low-calorie bacon-alternative that's just as tasty. It could go like this:
"We have developed a low-calorie bacon that tastes like the real thing. It's made from a blend of plant materials, and in blind taste tests against bacon, 93% of respondents were unable to tell a difference. We even did a taste test on Oprah and she was unable to tell the difference.
Since appearing on Oprah a few weeks ago, we've sold 5,000 boxes through our website, but we're quickly falling behind demand and are seeking the right partner to grow with. We'd like to set up a meeting with you because of X & Y - are you free next Tuesday at noon?"
Who wouldn't take a meeting with that story?
So that's ideal hyperbolic case. But the closer you can get to that, and the more exciting you can make it, the better you'll be.
Note that in the above, I didn't explain why low-calorie bacon that tastes like real thing is amazing - it's self explanatory for lay person. But if your product satisfies a less obvious demand, it'd be helpful to include that.
In our particular case, we need it for an investor in Europe that we cannot meet in person. So it should give away most of the details. At best, we'll have a call with him.
Yours seems to server a purpose of well polished email pitch that could be forwarded along with an introduction.
Another point is startup's stage. In our case it's angel round. Even though, we have a lot of technical progress and talking to users with mockups on hand, we cannot yet brag about traction or physical unit sales.
P.S. Thanks a lot for the answer!
If you can fit everything on one page, do it. If not, put the most important material on the first few pages.
Since it's an angel round, you'll want to focus on your team, market size and opportunity, and especially traction. Depending on who you're speaking with, traction could mean different things to different people. But you will definitely to show that there's a hint of interest from the market.
Talking to users is great but are they committed to buying? An investor is looking to put money in and get more money out in the most blunt case. You could also sell them on the idea and make them believe in your dream. But at the end of the day, you're also trying to build a business and in business, you have to make money to survive. (Although, these days, I feel like that's not true. Seems like you can keep selling to the next fool who believes)
Good luck!