Business Model Canvas + Lean Startup

Cover via Amazon

The third session for the grass root gathering of Entrepreneurs and learners of the Lean Startup book happened this evening in Cafe Solon @17:30. The topic of today's discussion was the Business Model Canvas from the Business Model Generation, the popular book written by Alexander Osterwalder which came out in 2010. The canvas is used by Innovit the incubator in Iceland. Kristjan, the CEO of Innovit gave a good description of how to use the canvas but it was all in Icelandic. The author of the book stresses that the directions, methods and the canvas given in the book can be used to create new business models for established businesses as well. I think if we have to slap the Lean Startup principle on top of this, I would just add one single question to each and every box in the Canvas:

How do you know? for example in the Value proposition box, once we enter the value proposition that we believe is created by our solution we need to ask the question how do we know that it creates that value? We need to ask our potential customers the question so we can have a validated learning on each of the elements of building the business model. We have the tools, techniques and measurements that are available that enables every business to experiment, create a hypothesis, test if that is true and then iterate over the Build-Measure-Learn cycle.

But overall a good turn out, good questions and good discussions. I was encouraged to see a lot of new faces. I think we are starting a movement right here in Reykjavik. Lets build sustainable businesses by sharing and learning together.

Related articles

• How to use the Business Model Canvas in a larger firm? (xn--savi-ota.com)
• Nick Marsh: How to innovate like a startup: use these tools (choosenick.com)
• About the book Book Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (xn--savi-ota.com)
• Second Step, Looking Outside (managementblog.org)