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CO.STARTERS Canvas Explorer

Run the CO.STARTERS Canvas Explorer MicroSim Fullscreen
Edit in the p5.js Editor

About This MicroSim

The CO.STARTERS Canvas is one page with 11 blocks, and each block answers one plain-language question about a venture. This MicroSim lays the blocks out in the same four rows as the canvas sheet:

  • Customer and Problem across the top
  • Solution, Alternatives, Benefit, and Advantage in the second row
  • Message, Distribution, and Revenue in the third row
  • Startup Needs and Costs along the bottom

Click any block and the panel below the grid shows four things:

  1. The guiding question the block answers
  2. A one-sentence definition of the block
  3. Jordan's answer from the Session 1 draft of the mobile dog-grooming canvas
  4. The later chapter that covers the block in depth

Show All Answers writes Jordan's short answer inside every block, so the whole worked example can be read as one page. None of Jordan's answers runs longer than a sentence, which is the index-card size limit working as intended. Reading across the filled-in grid is also a first taste of canvas synthesis: the Customer, Distribution, and Message answers should all point at the same group of people.

On a phone-width screen the grid reflows into a single column in canvas order, and the answers appear beside each block label.

How to Use

  1. Click any block to select it. The block gets a fox-orange outline and the panel fills in.
  2. Click Next and Previous to step through all 11 blocks in canvas order. The left and right arrow keys do the same thing.
  3. Click Show All Answers to see Jordan's answer inside every block. Click Hide All Answers to return to the blank canvas.
  4. A check mark appears on each block you have explored. The counter at the bottom right turns green when all 11 have been explored.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/eight-hour-entrepreneur/sims/costarters-canvas-explorer/main.html"
        height="652px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Audience

Adult early-stage entrepreneurs and aspiring founders in a live virtual cohort.

Learning Objective

Participants will explain the guiding question each of the 11 CO.STARTERS Canvas blocks answers, and locate Jordan's example answer for each block, by clicking through the full canvas layout.

Bloom Level: Understand (L2). Bloom Verb: explain.

Duration

10-15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Chapter 1 reading on early-stage ventures and the idea trap
  • Chapter 3 reading through the "Jordan's Canvas So Far" table

Activities

  1. Guided walk (4 min): The facilitator shares the screen and clicks Next through all 11 blocks. Participants say each guiding question out loud before the panel shows it.
  2. Pair explain (5 min): In breakout pairs, one partner names a block and the other explains its guiding question in their own words, then checks the panel. Swap after five blocks.
  3. Read across the page (4 min): Turn on Show All Answers. Each participant reads Jordan's Customer, Distribution, and Message answers together and says whether they point at the same people.

Assessment

  • Can the participant state the guiding question for any block without clicking it?
  • Can the participant explain the difference between the Benefit block and the Advantage block?
  • Can the participant explain the difference between the Startup Needs block and the Costs block, using one of Jordan's answers as an example?
  • Given one of Jordan's answers read aloud, can the participant name the block it belongs to?

References

  1. Business Model Canvas - Wikipedia - The nine-block strategic-planning tool that the CO.STARTERS Canvas simplifies for ventures that have not started yet.
  2. CO.STARTERS - CO.STARTERS - The organization behind the canvas and the cohort program this course is built around.
  3. Lean startup - Wikipedia - Why each block is a first draft to test rather than a final answer to defend.
  4. Value proposition - Wikipedia - Background for the Benefit and Advantage blocks, which together make up a value proposition.