Capture Your Business Model in 20 Minutes - Lean Canvas

Summary

In this video, Ash from Spark 59 explains how to create an initial business model canvas in just 20 minutes. He emphasizes that perfection is not the goal, but rather creating a snapshot of current thinking. By identifying customer segments, problems, solutions, and key metrics, the process focuses on empirical testing rather than seeking the perfect plan. Using his own product, Cloudfire, as an example, Ash provides guidance on filling each section of the canvas. The video encourages a quick and efficient approach to avoid analysis paralysis, setting the foundation for further testing and refinement.

Takeaways

• ⏳ Time-boxing: The perfect plan is a myth; aim to create a business model canvas in 20 minutes to avoid analysis paralysis.
• 🛠️ Empirical Testing: Success comes from testing and refining plans through real-world feedback, not just planning on paper.
• 📊 Start with Customer Segments: Identify and split broad customer segments into smaller verticals, and focus on a specific customer segment for your initial canvas.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Early Adopters: Narrow down customer segments to early adopters, those who need the product most, to drive early success.
• ❓ Problem Identification: Clearly outline the top three problems faced by early adopters to build a strong foundation for the business model.
• 🏗️ Solutions: Link your product's top three features directly to the problems identified to ensure your solution addresses real needs.
• 💡 Unique Value Proposition: Craft a compelling value proposition based on the number one problem you solve, avoiding vague terms like 'simple' or 'easy.'
• 💰 Revenue Streams: Define pricing and revenue models early, considering how alternatives in the market influence customer perception.
• 📈 Key Metrics: Identify key actions that create value and establish success metrics for tracking product growth and impact.
• 🛡️ Unfair Advantage: Focus on building long-term differentiation that cannot be easily copied or bought, even if it emerges over time.

Q & A

Question 1: Why does the speaker recommend creating the business model canvas in just 20 minutes?

The speaker recommends creating the business model canvas in 20 minutes to avoid analysis paralysis and emphasize that perfection is not the goal. Instead, it's about sketching a baseline of current thinking and refining it through empirical testing.

Question 2: What is the key difference between successful and unsuccessful products, according to the speaker?

The key difference is not starting with a perfect plan, but finding a plan that works before running out of resources. Successful products are developed by stress testing and refining initial plans, rather than aiming for perfection from the start.

Question 3: How does the speaker suggest splitting broad customer segments?

The speaker suggests splitting broad customer segments into smaller verticals, each representing a different business model. This helps in narrowing the focus and tailoring the business model to specific customer needs.

Question 4: Why is it important to focus on early adopters in the business model?

Early adopters are important because they are the ones who need the product the most, and the early success of the business is highly dependent on defining and qualifying these early adopters. They help validate the product before expanding to a broader audience.

Question 5: What techniques does the speaker recommend for uncovering good problems to address?

The speaker recommends using the 'Five Whys' technique and the 'Job to be Done' concept to uncover deeper problems. The Five Whys help refine surface problems, and the Job to be Done concept identifies the key tasks customers want to accomplish with the product.

Question 6: How should a unique value proposition be crafted?

A unique value proposition should focus on the main problem the product addresses and the finished story benefit, which is the value customers derive after using the product. Avoid using vague terms like 'simple' or 'easy' and instead focus on specific, compelling promises.

Question 7: What is the purpose of a high-concept pitch, and how is it different from a unique value proposition?

A high-concept pitch is used to distill the product into a memorable sound bite, often used to spread the word about the product. It differs from a unique value proposition in that it isn't used on landing pages but is helpful for word-of-mouth marketing and quick explanations.

Question 8: Why is pricing considered part of the product solution?

Pricing is part of the solution because it influences how customers perceive the product's value. Even if two products are similar, different price points can suggest different levels of quality, which affects customer decisions.

Question 9: How should key metrics be identified, and why are they important?

Key metrics should include the key customer actions that drive value (e.g., publishing a blog post for a blogging platform) and a success metric (e.g., a revenue target). These metrics are important because they guide decision-making and measure the product’s impact.

Question 10: What defines an 'unfair advantage' in a business model, according to the speaker?

An unfair advantage is something that cannot be easily copied or bought, such as proprietary technology, unique relationships, or a strong brand. It’s important because it provides long-term competitive defense against rivals.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Introduction to Creating a Business Model Canvas

Ash from Spark 59 introduces the concept of creating a business model canvas, emphasizing the importance of doing it quickly to avoid analysis paralysis. The script mentions that successful companies often change their plans significantly, and the goal is to find a workable plan before resources run out. Ash suggests that 20 minutes is enough time for the initial pass of creating a canvas and directs viewers to leancanvas.com to start creating their canvas. The process begins with identifying customer segments and naming the canvas accordingly, using the example of a product called Cloudfire aimed at parents sharing photos and videos.

05:00

👪 Defining Customer Segments and Early Adopters

The script explains the importance of defining customer segments and early adopters for a business model. It discusses the need to avoid being too broad or too narrow when identifying these segments. The example of Cloudfire is used to illustrate how to break down a broad category into more specific customer segments. The concept of differentiating between customers and users is introduced, with a focus on identifying the early adopters who need the product the most. The script also discusses the importance of understanding the problems that the early adopters face, which is crucial for the success of the business model.

10:02

🔍 Identifying Problems and Solutions

Ash continues by guiding viewers on how to outline the top three problems their product addresses for the early adopter. The script suggests using the 'five whys' technique to uncover deeper problems and the 'job to be done' concept to understand customer needs better. It also touches on how customers currently solve these problems and the importance of this information for product positioning and pricing. The example of Cloudfire is used to demonstrate how to fill out the problem box on the canvas.

15:29

💡 Crafting the Unique Value Proposition

The script moves on to discuss the creation of a unique value proposition, which is critical for getting noticed by customers. It advises focusing on the intersection of the problem and the solution to craft this proposition. The importance of avoiding empty words and providing a compelling offer is stressed. Techniques for creating a unique value proposition are provided, including a formula by Dane Maxwell. The script also introduces the concept of a high concept pitch for spreading the product's meme through word of mouth.

20:29

💸 Revenue Streams and Pricing Strategy

Ash explains the importance of considering revenue streams and pricing as part of the solution. The script emphasizes that pricing can define a product in the customer's mind and suggests using existing alternatives as anchors to determine starting prices. It also discusses the challenges of pricing in multi-sided business models and the need to understand the tipping point for such businesses. The example of Cloudfire is used to illustrate how to fill out the revenue streams box on the canvas.

📈 Channels, Key Metrics, and Cost Structure

The script covers the channels or path to customers, emphasizing the importance of building and testing channels from the start. It suggests starting with outbound channels and considering scalable channels for the future. The concept of key metrics is introduced, which represents the key numbers that indicate how the business is doing. The script guides viewers on how to identify key customer actions and success metrics for their product. It also discusses the importance of estimating the cost structure and the number of customers needed to break even and achieve success.

🛡️ Building an Unfair Advantage

Ash concludes the script by discussing the concept of an unfair advantage or competitive advantage. The script clarifies misconceptions about what constitutes an unfair advantage and provides examples of real unfair advantages that cannot be easily copied or bought. It emphasizes the importance of having an unfair advantage story and suggests that some advantages may be revealed over time. The example of Cloudfire is used to illustrate how to fill out the unfair advantage box on the canvas.

Keywords

💡Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic tool used to outline and visualize the essential elements of a business model. In the video, it's described as a framework for sketching the current thinking of a business idea in a snapshot form. The speaker emphasizes using a 20-minute time-boxed session to create an initial version, preventing over-analysis and encouraging quick iterations.

💡Customer Segment

Customer Segment refers to the different groups of people or organizations a business targets with its product or service. In the video, the speaker highlights the importance of narrowing down broad customer segments into smaller, more specific verticals, which could lead to distinct business models. For example, the Cloudfire product initially targeted 'parents' as a key customer segment.

💡Early Adopters

Early adopters are those individuals or groups who need the product the most and are likely to be the first users of a new product or service. The video stresses the importance of identifying early adopters, as they play a crucial role in the initial success of a business. The speaker uses Facebook's early days as an example, where their first early adopters were Harvard college students.

💡Problem

The problem box in the Business Model Canvas outlines the top issues or pain points that the business aims to solve for its customer segments. The video suggests identifying the top three problems for each customer segment, using techniques like the 'Five Whys' to uncover deeper root problems. For Cloudfire, the problems included difficulties parents faced in sharing photos and videos of their children.

💡Solution

Solution refers to how the business intends to address the key problems identified in the customer segment. The video encourages outlining the top three solutions that align with the core problems, such as the software features Cloudfire used to solve parents' photo and video sharing problems. This section is crucial for matching the solution to the identified needs of the target customers.

💡Unique Value Proposition

The Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is the distinct promise or benefit a product offers to its customers that sets it apart from competitors. In the video, the speaker stresses crafting the UVP around the primary problem, focusing on the 'finished story benefit'—what value the customer receives after using the product. For example, Cloudfire's UVP was based on the convenience of sharing memories with loved ones.

💡Revenue Streams

Revenue Streams describe how a business will earn money from its customer segments. The video explains that pricing should be based on the value customers perceive and compares Cloudfire’s pricing against alternatives like Facebook and Apple’s mobile services. Revenue streams may vary depending on the business model, especially in multi-sided businesses, where some users might not directly pay for the service.

💡Channels

Channels refer to the ways a business reaches and communicates with its customer segments. The video categorizes channels into two types: outbound channels (direct approaches to engage customers, such as cold emails) and scalable channels (long-term methods for customer acquisition, such as social media marketing). For Cloudfire, a combination of both outbound and inbound channels was used to grow its user base.

💡Key Metrics

Key Metrics are the important data points that reflect how well a business is performing. The video outlines two types of metrics: the key customer action that drives value (e.g., sharing content for Cloudfire) and a success metric that defines what would make the business worthwhile (e.g., acquiring 100,000 paying customers for Cloudfire). These metrics help assess whether the business is on track to achieve its goals.

💡Unfair Advantage

An Unfair Advantage is a unique, hard-to-replicate factor that gives a business a competitive edge. The video emphasizes that many first-time entrepreneurs misunderstand this concept, citing examples such as being first to market, which is not a true unfair advantage. Instead, it should be something that competitors cannot easily copy or buy, such as a strong community or network effects, as Cloudfire aimed to build over time.

Highlights

The perfect plan is a myth, as most successful companies have drastically changed their original plans along the way.

The goal of creating a business model canvas in 20 minutes is to avoid 'analysis paralysis' and create a snapshot of current thinking.

Time is the scarcest resource in a startup, which is why time-boxing the initial canvas to 20 minutes is recommended.

It's important to focus on empirical testing by getting outside and stress-testing your plan rather than seeking a perfect solution on a whiteboard.

Start by naming your canvas based on the customer segment you’re addressing, as the customer segment drives the rest of the canvas.

Narrowing down broad customer segments into smaller verticals is critical for identifying different business models.

Select the strongest customer segment to focus on, which could be based on familiarity, passion, or the most direct channel to reach.

Define early adopters—people who need your product the most—as the early success of your business is heavily dependent on them.

Uncover key problems for early adopters by using the 'Five Whys' technique, which helps refine surface problems into deeper, more impactful ones.

Customers 'hire' products to get a job done, and identifying this 'job to be done' is crucial for defining the problem and solution.

Craft a unique value proposition (UVP) around your number one problem and focus on the 'finished story benefit' to the customer.

When pricing your product, remember that price defines perception, and use alternative solutions as pricing anchors.

Channels are critical for reaching customers and should be tested early, with both outbound and scalable inbound channels considered.

Key metrics should focus on measuring value and success. Identifying key actions (e.g., sharing photos for Cloudfire) helps track product value.

An unfair advantage is something that cannot be easily copied or bought, and may not be apparent initially but can develop over time.

Transcripts

hi this is Ash with spark 59 today I'm

going to show you how to create your

initial business model canvas in 20

minutes you might be wondering why just

20 minutes after all a business model is

a pretty complicated and critical thing

to get right surely you should spend a

lot more time on this but here's the

thing the perfect plan is a myth Studies

have shown that most successful

companies report having drastically

changed their original plans along the

way companies like Groupon PayPal Flickr

are all examples of this what really

separates successful products from those

that don't make it isn't necessarily

starting with a perfect plan but finding

a plan that works before running out of

resources the way you do that isn't

through rhetorical reasoning on a

whiteboard in pursuit of that perfect

plan but rather through empirical

testing getting outside the building and

stress testing and then refining your

plan time is the scarcest resource in a

startup which is why it is important to

time boox your initial canvas so you

don't fall into the analysis paralysis

trap I find that 20 minutes is enough

time for the first pass Perfection is

not the goal here but rather the goal is

to sketch or Baseline a snapshot of your

current thinking with that out of the

way let's get started if you haven't

done this already head on over to lean

canvas.com and click to create your

canvas button to sign up for a free

account after creating your account you

will be prompted to name your first

canvas I like to name my canvases by the

customer segment they address because I

find that the customer segment box

drives the rest of the canvas you

probably already have an inkling of

possible customers your product

addresses in your head but the first

step is splitting these broad customer

segments into even smaller verticals

each of these vertical segments

potentially represents a different

business model and should ideally have

its own canvas this is sometimes hard to

see so it might help to consider an

example this is an actual product I

built in my last company cloudfire was a

service that helped people share lots of

photos and videos easily with each other

the really broad category here was

anyone that shares lots of photos and

videos while I would have loved to

service that market it's not specific

enough when you try to Market to

everyone especially as a startup you end

up marketing to no

one down below you'll see a number of

more specific and possible customer

segments that I then created sometimes

the split won't be perfect for instance

photographers videographers and graphic

designers may share enough common

attributes to be lumped together as a

creative segment I wouldn't worry too

much about that right now the most

important thing though is not going too

broad like using the anyone that shares

lots of photos and videos or going too

narrow where you shrink the market size

too

much the next step is to pick your

strongest customer segment for your

canvas this might be one you most want

to service know the most about or have

the strongest channel to reach whatever

your reasons start with a single

customer segment and use that as the

name of your

canvas for the cloudfire product I

decided to use parents as my first

customer segment mostly because I had

recently become a parent around that

time frame and observed several problems

that I was motivated to

explore after doing this you should then

see the canvas screen you you can simply

click in any of the boxes to start

typing the blue numbers indicate a

suggested order for traversing the

canvas this order is only a

recommendation even I'm going to deviate

from it slightly in this video based on

a newer flow I have been more recently

using for the rest of the video I'm

going to walk the canvas and show you

how to fill each section using the

cloudfire product as a concrete example

you can reference it is most effective

to complete your canvas as I cover each

section while the content is still fresh

in your mind so I'll have you pause the

video after each section before moving

on so my preferred flow these days is to

complete the canvas in a set of blocks

the first block that I like to tackle is

the problem customer segment quadrant so

much of your business model is dependent

on the proper identification of

customers and their problems that a

solid footing here creates a very strong

foundation for the rest of your

canvas you've already identified your

main customer segment from earlier which

goes in the customer segment box it's

common to have multiple participants or

user roles in your business model I

would next go ahead and list all of them

out here but you should distinguish

between customers and users when you do

so that distinction is pretty simple

customers pay you and your users do not

for most products that distinction is

also pretty straightforward in a

software as a service product for

instance you attract leads or users and

aim to convert some or all of them into

paying customers in a multi-sided

business like the one driven by

advertising for example Google search

you have users who create value through

participation that you then monetize

through ads here the advertisers are

your customers and the users are those

that are doing searches for these types

of products I recommend keeping both

users and customers on a single

canvas Marketplace businesses however

are a lot more complicated

here you often have two or more parties

that simultaneously work to create value

classic examples are eBay Airbnb where

you need both buyers and sellers to make

the business work additionally each

party often has a different incentive

Channel and other elements on the canvas

that you also need to understand so for

these types of businesses I recommend

creating a separate canvas for each

party

involved as a slide aside there is a

hashtag feature in l lean canvas tool

that lets you visually group different

customer segments on the same canvas in

the screenshot above you'll notice

different colors for buyers and sellers

on the canvas based on the hashtags that

are reused in multiple sections this is

a nice feature that lets you quickly

keep all your customer segments on a

single canvas and toggle them on and off

but if you're more comfortable creating

separate canvases do that

instead now it's time to get even more

specific with your customer segments and

further narrow them down into early

adopters early adopters are those people

that need your product the most and the

early success of your business model is

going to be highly dependent on how well

you can Define and qualify your early

adopters while we all would like to

build a product like Facebook that is

used by practically everyone on the

planet even Facebook started with a very

specific early adopter which happened to

be a college student and not just any

college student but a college student on

the Harvard campus

here's a customer segment box for the

cloudfire product I've listed parents as

the primary customer and their family

and friends as viewers down below I

further qualified my early adopters to

be parents with younger kids because I

felt that they would need my product

more than parents with older

kids pause the video here and complete

your customer segment box before moving

on with your customer segments and early

adopters defined we'll now move on to

the problem box outline the top three

problems your product addresses for this

early adopter you can have less than

three problems but try not to list more

than three a helpful technique for

uncovering good problems at this stage

is using a five wise you start with a

customer problem which is usually a

surface problem or symptom you then ask

yourself why this is a problem and do

this five times each time refining the

list of problems till you have a list of

deeper problems that you can put on your

canvas here's an example example of this

technique applied to the cloudfire

product another useful technique is

using the job to be done concept

popularized by Clayton Christensen the

basic idea here is that customers hire

your product to get a job done this is

often something they have already been

trying to do but probably unsuccessfully

once you correctly identify that job

you're in a much better position to

identify underlying problems and

eventually Define a solution for that

this idea also ties nicely into the next

quadrant where you ask yourself how your

early adopter solve these problems

today here you want to be able to

describe your customer's current reality

what existing Solutions or alternatives

are they using today to get the job done

doing nothing by the way is also an

alternative as we'll see shortly this

information will be invaluable in

properly positioning and pricing your

product here is my filled out problem

box for the cloudfire

value which is just a fancy way of

saying it gets you

paid until you gain a deep understanding

of your customers and their problems you

cannot really Define the right solution

that said I'm sure you have an inkling

of what you'd like to build anyway so

let's list those but still constrain

them around the top three problems you

listed earlier so for each problems that

you listed earlier briefly outline how

you envision solving them using your

solution here is my fill out solution

box for the cloudfire product I Envision

solving these problems with software and

list the top three features I would need

to include in my minimum viable

product again pause the video here and

complete your solution box before moving

on next we turn to the unique value

proposition not only is this one of the

hardest things to get right but it's

also the most critical at least

initially when you first introduce a

product the initial battle is all about

getting noticed by customers it's

getting a chance to have a meaningful

dialogue with a prospect you get this

chance by making a compelling offer or

promise represented by your unique value

proposition the good news is that like

everything else on your canvas your

unique value proposition is also a guess

or hypothesis you'll have lots of

opportunity to test and refine it later

here are some techniques for getting

started your unique value proposition is

derived from the intersection of your

problem and your solution solution so

craft your unique value proposition

around your number one problem and

instead of just thinking in terms of top

features and benefits think in terms of

your finished story benefit your

finished story benefit is the value a

customer deres after using your product

so if you have a job board service for

instance your unique value proposition

isn't the cool resume building feature

you have but rather the promise of

helping job Seekers find their dream

job next avoid the use of empty words

like simple fast or easy yes I know

Apple uses these all the time but you

are not Apple they can get away with it

because they have built a reputation and

brand around Simplicity you haven't and

need to be a lot more specific with your

unique value

proposition here's a formula by way of

Dane Maxwell for creating a compelling

unique value proposition that uses three

fragments the first is the end result

the customer wants which is like the

finished story benefit the next is

constraining that with a specific period

of time when they would see these

results and then finally you want to

address any objections they might have

the second and third items in the

formula are great if you can fit them

into your unique value proposition

without sounding overly salesy otherwise

leave them out down below are several

examples of unique value propositions

that use a finished story benefit with

some or all of these

elements and finally it's a good

exercise to work on your high concept

pitch the high concept pitch is

something Hollywood producers use all

the the time to distill the script of a

new movie they are pitching into a

memorable sound bite so for instance

instead of describing the movie Aliens

they might just say it's like the movie

Jaws only in space you can do the same

thing with products for example when

YouTube first launched the founders were

describing it as flicker for videos it's

important to recognize that the high

concept pitch is not a unique value

proposition it's not something you'd put

on your landing page but it is valuable

nonetheless it's valuable for helping

spreading the meme of your product By

Word of

Mouth here is my filled out unique value

proposition for the cloudfire product

you'll see a couple of unique value

propositions here along with a simple

high level concept pause the video here

and complete your unique value

proposition box before continuing

on next we're going to cover your

revenue streams or pricing box at first

glance this might seem a little out of

place since we have mostly been

considering aspects around your solution

but pricing is very much part of your

solution it's very much part of your

product I often use an example to

illustrate this imagine you have two

bottles of water in front of you one is

priced at a doll and the other at $3

which one do you think is

better even though both bottles would

probably be indistinguishable in a blind

taste test here price alone has the

power to define the product in your mind

the next question which bottle water

would you

pick not only is price

price aimed at your early adopters and

keep their existing Alternatives in mind

in the case of a multi-sided business

model even though you aren't directly

charging your users you are still

building an asset the challenge with

these business models is that this asset

isn't worth anything until you pass a

certain threshold or Tipping Point find

out what that Tipping Point is and get

some ballpark numbers on the value of

that asset by looking at comparable

advertising rates and or Acquisitions

depending on the type of business you

building here is my filled out revenue

streams box for the cloudfire product I

use my existing Alternatives as anchors

which range from $0 with Facebook all

the way to $99 for the Apple mobile Mi

service I use these alternatives to come

up with my starting price of $49 a year

pause the video here and complete your

Revenue Stream box before moving

on next we're going to cover channels or

your path to customers your channels or

path to customers are one of the more

riskier items on your canvas you might

be able to identify a problem worth

solving build out a solution and even

get a small group of customers to derive

value from it but if you can get your

product in front of enough customers

none of that might matter channels

aren't something to defer to later but

rather something you should start

building and testing from day

one the good news is that you don't need

to build scalable channels from day one

it's okay to start with a handful of

outbound channels to jump start your

learning first here are some possible

outbound Channel suggestions that might

help at the same time take a step at

identifying where your scalable channels

might come from these typically take

time to build so it helps to think about

them now versus later here's a list of

some possible scalable channels that you

might be able to employ later

on now here is my filled out channels

box for the for the cloudfire product

you'll find a combination of outbound

and inbound channels listed here pause

the video here and complete your

channels box before moving

on now we're going to move on to how you

measure success using key metrics key

metrics represent the key numbers that

tell you how your business is doing a

startup is inherently chaotic but at any

given point in time there are only a few

key actions or metrics that matter these

will change as your product moves

through various stages but at this point

in time I'd like you to identify two key

metrics the first is identifying the key

customer action that drives value in

your product in other words ask yourself

what key activity would you use to

measure your value proposition so for

example if you were building a blogging

platform publishing a blog post would be

the key activity for Twitter posting a

tweet is a key

activity the second key metric is

stating your success metric for your

product what would you need to achieve

to make this product worthwhile while it

could be a revenue Target like building

a $10 million business or aund million

business it could be having some impact

on the world or it could be something

else

altogether here is my filled out key

metrics box for the cloudfire product my

key activity is based around sharing if

a parent doesn't routinely share their

photos and videos with others chances

are they will lose interest and not keep

paying for the product My Success metric

for cloudfire was building a $5 million

business which roughly trans Ed to

acquiring 100,000 paying

customers pause the video here and

complete your key metric box before

moving

on we're at the home stretch

now after getting hit with a killer idea

and convincing yourself it's worth

pursuing the next thing that should be

keeping you up at night is how you build

enough runway for your product we'll use

this section to do some ballpark sizing

of your business model and estimate

scope and feasibility of implementing it

start by outlining your fixed and

variable costs things like people

servers and other resources you will

need to implement this business model

it's impossible to be totally accurate

at this stage because a lot of it will

change with

time it does help to consider a shorter

Horizon like a break even point and use

your pricing and cost structure to come

up with the number of customers you

would need to break

even and then go all the way calculate

how many customers you would need to

realize your metric for Success from

earlier

again the point is not accuracy but

ballpark sizing for establishing if you

have a problem worth solving on your

hands here is my filled out cost

structure box for the cloudfire product

pause the video here and complete your

cost structure box and do a similar

sizing

estimate and now the final box the

unfair

Advantage unfair Advantage is also

sometimes called competitive advantage

or barriers to entry on a business plan

it essentially describes how you'll

defend against competitive attacks most

firsttime entrepreneurs don't completely

understand what constitutes an unfair

advantage and often list things that

aren't one of the most commonly cited

unfair Advantage is being first to

Market take a look at these companies

none of them were first movers on their

markets but fast followers one could

actually argue that being first to

Market can be a disadvantage because the

burden of learning and marketing a new

product is all on the first mover here

are other things commonly cited on

business business plans all of these

things while important don't create a

sustainable unfair advantage on their

own so what is a real unfair Advantage I

subscribe to a simple definition put

forward by Jason Cohen who is currently

the founder of WP engine and also writes

the popular as smart bear

blog his definition is that a real

unfair Advantage is something that

cannot be easily copied or bought so

let's list out some examples of some

real unfair

advantages bad new news is that you

probably didn't see an unfair advantage

that applies to you today the good news

is that that's okay even Facebook didn't

really have an unfair Advantage when

they started they were number 11 or 12

at building a social network but they

still managed to build the largest

social network on the planet which has

now become their unfair Advantage the

more important thing is to have an

unfair Advantage story unlike the other

boxes on the canvas the unfair Advantage

is unfortunately not one you decide to

test one day if and when you start

getting some traction with your product

your unfair Advantage will be tested by

competition and

copycats you may also not have a readily

identifiable unfair advantage today

rather than listing something weak and

clearly not an unfair Advantage leave

this section blank some unfair

advantages are revealed over time like

in the case of

zaposlitev a constant reminder to keep

looking for

one here is my filled out unfair

Advantage box for the cloudfire product

since it's targeted at a very specific

and emotional Niche I Envision building

differentiation over time by fostering a

strong sense of community among my

customers pause the video here and

complete your unfair Advantage

box so there you have it if you followed

along you should have captured your

first business model congratulations

next time I'll cover how to bulletproof

this business model from here and show

you how to start the process of stress

testing your plan a until then take care

there