Founders often assume that buyers will read the entire Information Memorandum from front to back. After all, you’ve spent weeks crafting it. Why wouldn’t they?
The reality is: most don’t.
Buyers are busy. They’re reviewing dozens, sometimes hundreds of deals each year. They rarely read more than the first page of your IM, and in many cases, their decision to keep going happens within the first paragraph.
Page one matters more than anything else in the document. If it doesn’t land, nothing else gets read.
Here’s what to focus on, and what to avoid.
Lead With Strategy
Forget the backstory. Buyers don’t need to know how you started the company, what problem first inspired you, or what your early pivots looked like. That may be interesting later in the process, but it won’t get you a second look now.
What buyers want on page one is clarity. They want to know what your product does, who it serves, and why it matters. Right now.
The best opening pages focus on strategic value: how your business fits into a buyer’s roadmap, how it helps them enter a new segment or geography, or how it would take them years to build what you’ve already done. Don’t assume they’ll piece it together. Make the case clearly and concisely.
Don’t Skip the Numbers
One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is omitting financials on page one. Founders sometimes worry that showing early-stage numbers or moderate revenue will make them look small.
Leaving numbers out entirely is worse. Buyers will assume you’re hiding something (low traction, high churn, weak margins) even if that’s not true.
You don’t need to open with a full P&L, but you do need to show metrics that suggest momentum. Revenue, year-on-year growth, NRR, pipeline coverage, contracted ARR, churn trends. Pick a few that tell the right story.
Even small companies can show a strong trajectory. But if you don’t give buyers anything, they’ll move on fast.
The First Page Is a Filter
The front page doesn’t need to sell the deal. It just needs to get the buyer to page two. If they can understand what you do, see why it’s valuable, and believe there’s more worth learning, you’ve done your job. At Hemisphere, we treat page one like a pitch in itself.
For most buyers, that’s exactly what it is.