We get many applications each trimester from entrepreneurs who wish to co-found a new web business with Pollenizer. There are many things we look for but what really stands out are concepts that have the potential to disrupt a market – to transform it completely – and a co-founder with vision and tenacity to see it through.

We also like keeping things lean right from the start and prefer a one page business plan to reams of reading. The best ideas are clear, concise and compact. Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas is an example of a one page business model tool however it does not capture the disruptive component necessary to redefine a market.

With that in mind, I’d like to present a Disruption Canvas that draws inspiration from Ash’s model as well as Luke Williams book Disrupt. Its a one page modelling template to assist in brainstorming and presenting both a disruptive opportunity and a business concept that meets it.

The model is broken into a customer development side and a product development side however in practice they will overlap. The central components are the differentiating edge the business will start with : The unique value proposition and the founders.

This canvas is geared to concept stage and focussing ideas and thoughts towards a set of hypotheses that can be tested as part of customer development and key features for the MVP (Minimum Viable Product). It also captures information regarding the key metrics and financial measurements necessary to demonstrate a business model.

The components to the canvas are as follows:

THE DISRUPTION OPPORTUNITY
What is the unreasonable and provocative idea? A real game changer. What market will disrupted?

DISRUPTIVE SOLUTION
What are the 3 key features that the solution to this disruptive opportunity will have?

CURRENT ALTERNATIVES
What other products or solutions does the target customer currently use to solve these problems?

CUSTOMER PROBLEMS
What are the top problems faced by the target customer? Why are current alternatives inadequate or overshoot?

TARGET CUSTOMER
Who is the ideal target customer? Describe their persona.

ACQUISITION CHANNELS
How will these initial customers be acquired?

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION
What is the unique value proposition? This is a single, clear compelling message that states why the solution is different and worth paying for.

UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
What will the unfair advantage be that can’t be easily copied or bought?

THE FOUNDERS
What is the background of the founders? What do they bring that is unique or hard to replicate?

REVENUE MODEL
What is the price? How often is this charged? What gross margin will be made on each sale?
What volume will be sold? What figure indicates success?”

COST STRUCTURE
What costs will be incurred in delivering this product? What are the direct costs such as customer  acquisition or distribution? What are the Indirect  costs such as technology, development and people?

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS
What are the three key metrics that will demonstrate traction to founders and investors.