A novel business model frame for innovative startups

Abstract

The business model canvas has been used in business and entrepreneurship to sketch and frame the key points behind the development of a startup, and it was meant to strategically analyze and develop startups or documenting existing businesses. The business model canvas describes the firm's value proposition, partners, resources, activities, customer relationships, distribution channels, customers, revenue streams and cost structure. However, when it comes to innovative startups, this template does not explicitly include innovation measures, no problem/opportunity formulation, or even such a basic component of a business model, as the profit formula. The present paper proposes a novel business model frame to visually and concisely sketch, besides accurately state traditional business concepts, key innovation concepts that any startup should integrate to be a game-changer in a competitive market. This new model is based on a combination of key principles of the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ) applied to business and management, such as multi-screen analysis of value-conflict mapping, trends of ideality of business system evolution positioning, among others; but also intellectual property, disruptive strategies, and open innovation, as well as startup metrics to describe the business differentiation and attractiveness to potential investors, incubators and accelerators.