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How Canvas and Startup Guide work together

Inside each startup workspace, Canvas and Startup Guide help you in different ways.

Canvas helps you understand the business model and assumptions behind your startup.

Startup Guide helps you know what to do next — from reviewing your model to validating assumptions, running research, creating GTM assets, and continuing with real-world learning.

The simplest way to think about it is:

Canvas gives you context. Startup Guide gives you direction.

What Canvas is for​

Canvas is where you see the core of your business model. It helps you understand how the startup is currently framed, including things like:

  • customer segments
  • customer problems
  • unique value proposition
  • solutions
  • unfair advantage
  • traction channels
  • revenue streams
  • key metrics
  • cost structure

Canvas is about understanding and shaping the business itself.

Use Canvas when you want to:

  • review the current business model
  • refine assumptions
  • update the startup based on what you learned
  • see the startup in one structured view

What Startup Guide is for​

Startup Guide is your guided workflow inside a startup workspace.

It helps you see:

  • what is already done
  • what needs your attention
  • what to do next
  • where to continue from

Startup Guide is not a full task manager and not a rigid wizard. Its job is to help you move through the key workflows in Icanpreneur without wondering where to go next.

Use Startup Guide when you want to:

  • understand where your startup stands
  • review the key steps in your workflow
  • jump into the next meaningful action
  • continue from business model to validation, interviews, insights, and GTM assets

How they work together​

Canvas and Startup Guide are meant to be used together.

For example:

  • you open Canvas to review your business model
  • you open Startup Guide to see what to do next
  • you run research, interviews, or GTM workflows from there
  • you return to Canvas after learning something new, so you can refine your assumptions
  • you return to Startup Guide when you want direction on the next key step

Canvas shows what you currently believe. Startup Guide helps you decide what to do about it.

How this usually starts​

After your intro chat with IVA, Icanpreneur creates your startup and maps your business model into a Lean Canvas.

You land on Canvas first because that is the direct output of IVA's work and gives you the right context.

From there, Startup Guide helps you review the core assumptions, start validating them, and continue through the key workflows for that startup.

That is the intended mental model:

  • Canvas = understand the startup
  • Startup Guide = move the startup forward

Where to go next

Want to understand how work is organized inside a startup?

What is a startup workspace?

Want to understand the overall flow?

The two-phase journey

Ready to continue?

Choose your starting point