startup-canvas

Generates a Startup Canvas, an alternative to the Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas that deliberately separates product strategy from business model. Created by Pawel Huryn, it combines a nine-section Product Strategy Canvas with a two-part business model (Cost Structure and Revenue Streams). The nine strategy sections are Vision, Market Segments (defined by problems and Jobs to Be Done rather than demographics), Relative Costs (low-cost vs unique-value positioning), Value Proposition (what-before / how / what-after / alternatives), Trade-offs (what you will NOT do), Key Metrics (a North Star plus a quarterly One Metric That Matters), Growth (product-led vs sales-led and preferred channels), Capabilities (build vs partner), and the Can't/Won't defensibility test.

The doc explains when to use each canvas: Business Model Canvas for established businesses and investor materials, Lean Canvas for quick hypothesis testing, and Startup Canvas for new products that need both strategic clarity and a business model. It argues why the alternatives fall short, noting that BMC lacks vision, a defensibility test, trade-offs, and key metrics, while Lean Canvas introduces redundancy (Problem vs Market Segments, Solution vs Value Proposition) and treats 'Unfair Advantage' too narrowly.

Use it when launching a new product or evaluating a startup concept. It takes inputs such as the product idea, target market and customer insights, the competitive landscape, and team constraints, then follows a structured output process: define the vision, identify 2-3 segments with JTBD, set cost positioning, develop value propositions, list explicit trade-offs, choose a North Star and quarterly OMTM, outline growth, document capabilities, explain defensibility, and estimate costs and revenue, before validating that all strategic choices reinforce one another. It closes by surfacing must-be-true hypotheses and suggesting low-effort experiments, and links to a PPTX template and further reading.