Lego for Entrepreneurs (Business Model Canvas)
Systematically breaking businesses down, building them up and spotting new opportunities.
As a recovering scientist, I’ve always been comfortable with frameworks, left brain thinking, logic and rationality, structured thought.
Many years ago, when I was studying innovation and entrepreneurship, searching for the secret sauce. Instead of some sort of magic, I was introduced to a book that opened my eyes.
I learned that whether I was building a business, investing in one, looking for opportunities or just curious about how one worked there was a systematic way of understanding how a business delivered value to customers and captured value through monetisation strategies.
Discovering Business Model Canvas blew my mind. It felt like discovering a superpower. The perfect intersection for a scientific mind with an insatiable curiosity for business.
Since then, its helped me understand why Amazon created AWS was an obvious move (resource driven). Why Oracle wanted to work with TikTok (Key Partner/Key Resource). And why Ancestry.com started offering DNA tests (a new customer segment). And many, many more.
Figuring out what fills each box feel like play, like Lego for Entrepreneurs. I love it!
And this newsletter is all about sharing that play time with you - breaking businesses down one business model at a time.
Definitions:
Customer Segments - the people your company serves.
Value Proposition - the products/services that create value for a customer segment.
Channels - how a company communicates, sells and distributes products/services.
Customer Relationships - the type of relationship a company has with specific customer segments.
Revenue Streams - the cash a company generates from each customer segment.
Key Resources - the most important assets to make a business model work
Key Activities - the most important things a company must do to make it’s business model work.
Key Partnerships - the network of suppliers and partners that make the business model work.
Cost Structure - all (the) costs incurred to operate a business model.