Kanvas

We make new ideas compelling, viable, and investible. We help innovative leaders and founders explore new products, services, functions (e.g. Innovation Labs), or ventures. 

"Kanvas for Start-Ups" -> 

We help founders secure funding, manage burn, and confidently make business decisions. We translate their vision into a compelling, viable, and investible business model.

We offer business model courses to our partner Venture Capital firms, accelerators, and universities to support their portfolio companies. Our capstone content is our six-week "Dreams to Dollars" program.

When we co-invest with our VC partners, we have a proven track record of directly contributing to multi-million dollar raises. 

Example engagements, services, and client references available upon request.

Founder + Partner

HF Scale Partners

Investing @ HF Scale Partners. HF Scale Partners invests in leading growth and late-stage technology companies through direct equity investments and secondary liquidity transactions. Investments include Canva, Anthropic, Epic Games, Eight Sleep, Anduril, ShieldAI, Pipe, Public.com, AngelList, Ellevest, Boom Supersonic, Possible Finance, Webflow, and more.

Principal

The Venture Mentoring Team

The Venture Mentoring Team (VMT) is a nonprofit educational 501(c)(3) dedicated to fostering the startup community by training and certifying mentors, and connecting them with the best and brightest entrepreneurs to help startups reach their full potential.  The organization is composed of 200+ experienced entrepreneurs and executives with corporate, legal, academic, profit and not-for-profit backgrounds who donate their time and talent. The VMT mentors startups to gain traction and sustainability up to their Series A funding.

NYC Chapter President

Certified Mentor for: eMerge Americas (Miami's premier tech conference), Target Forward Founders, Babson College, and more.

Certified Mentor

National Science Foundation (NSF)

One of my best career moments is serving as an Industry Mentor during the U.S. NSF's National iCorps Winter Cohort #3, 2024. Read for more:

About NSF I-Corps:

In NSF’s I-Corps competitive national program, top researchers in science and engineering fields are immersed in a hands-on experience of customer discovery — a key step in the entrepreneurial process that involves talking to potential customers, partners, and other industry stakeholders.

Selected teams are awarded up to $50,000 to conduct 100+ customer discovery interviews during a seven-week course. Through this process, the teams learn how to evaluate the potential for translating their laboratory invention into a successful product and/or service.

About the accepted research:

The Graham Test is a training and concussion assessment system that uses stability and reaction time in sport-specific positioning, with a primary focus on equestrians. As a lifelong equestrian, I'm deeply passionate about the impact this kind of system could have on our sport.

About the role:

NSF I-Corps Teams include a mentor – an experienced entrepreneur who can guide the team as they refine their business models, gain insights from their customer market, and pivot down alternate paths.

Industry Mentor (ICORPS PROGRAM)

Techstars

Mentoring startups on business models and go-to-market strategies. Since 2006, Techstars has worked with startups across a range of verticals, from aerospace to finance, logistics, and retail, connecting them to a network of successful mentors and partners. Each year, Techstars chooses over 500 early-stage companies to join one of their 3-month, mentorship-driven accelerators, investing $120K and providing hands-on mentorship and access to the Techstars network for life.

Affiliated Programs: Techstars New York Comcast

Mentor

Hustle Fund

Angel investing alongside Hustle Fund, seed to Series A. 
Focusing on systemic issues that keep me up at night (e.g. FemTech, financial literacy, digital health)

Angel Squad Member

Global Women in VC

The world’s largest global community for women in venture capital to connect, collaborate, and create new opportunities. Learn more here: https://www.women-vc.com/

Member

Forbes

Founding member of Forbes’ invite-only, private networking forum for leading women to exchange ideas, innovation, dialogue, and support one another.

ForbesWomen Forum

Day One

I participate in Office Hours and Group Mentoring sessions to help founders fine-tune their business models and pitches. It's a blast.

Day One is building an ecosystem to power the next generation of entrepreneurship. Our Fellowship program is purpose built for early-stage entrepreneurs to tap into a vibrant community, powerful network, and guidance from experienced operators, investors and founders.

Better.com

Learned a lot driving strategy and execution during hyper-growth. Highlights below:

+ Drove strategic planning initiatives across C-Suite to facilitate decision-making (e.g. 2020 strategy roadmap, investor relations, quarterly Board Meeting materials)
+ Orchestrated optimizations across the biz during hyper growth, including scaling onboarding capacity of the underwriting function by 200% (in one month!)
+ Managed weekly executive metric gathering and presentations. Became intimately familiar with things like CAC and LTV, and how their fluctuations provoke insights/action. Took a SQL course, too
+ Organized a new cross-functional Data Governance team to standardize company-wide metrics reporting. Motivated to make my weekly executive metric presentations a little easier (!) and to eliminate KPI confusion I saw popping up in different teams
+ Participated in investor meetings and crafted materials as the business prepared for its Series D raise ($200MN)

... caught the 'startup bug' while I was here. Passion projects evolved accordingly. Left to pursue them, and been an entrepreneur ever since.

Strategy & Business Operations

Founder & Partner @ Kanvas | Foster Innovation, Develop Business Strategy, Drive Growth

Katie Nowak

Honored to host a breakout at the All Raise VC Summit tomorrow on a topic we’re all navigating: what do you do when IPOs stall?

At "Choose Your Exit: Liquidity When IPOs Stall," we will be in dialogue on all things re: liquidity in venture!

Topics may include:

✨ how expectations around liquidity is shifting generally,
✨ secondaries-as-a-strategy (for investors and their founders),
✨ stories of founders and investors navigating off-cycle exits, and
✨ how to keep stakeholders (LPs, GPs, founders) aligned through it all.

We can't wait to share best practices and learn from each other.

If you’re at All Raise, we hope to see you there! 

Looking forward to co-hosting this important topic with Seyonne from Stepstone. 

I will be channeling our fearless leader at Altra, Jamie! 💫  

-

I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly.

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned!

Innovation Leader, New Venture Designer, Speaker @ Kanvas || Investor @ Altra Venture Partners

If you're in the Bay Area,
here's a holiday event you don't want to miss! 🤯 

I'm delighted to be a Founding Member at Aureum Leaders Circle, a community of founders, investors, and executives here in the Bay Area.

At our first annual holiday party, we will be reconnecting with old friends and building new relationships that will last a lifetime. :)

Here are a lot of communities out there, but I have been blown away by the quality of what Mohammad has created - he has an incredible gift of identifying smart, genuine humans...

...and keeping them engaged! The Aureum Leader Circle is officially my most active group chat.

Just one month into ALC, and I've:

✨ met rockstar founders (like Anatoly)
✨ made intro's to investors in my network
✨ received comp'd tickets to national conferences 
✨ attended events I never would have found otherwise
✨ brainstormed new investor events with ecosystem partners
✨ forged new ideas of how we can support the venture landscape

…and so much more.

So join us!!

December 4th, Fairmont San Francisco.
Seats are limited, don’t miss yours → https://luma.com/z2fuqofy
Comment "Founder Fuel" for an exclusive discount.

___

I'm Katie Nowak, an innovation leader, new venture designer and investor sharing stories & lessons weekly.

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Join me @ Founder Fuel - Dec 4th, SF Fairmont Hotel

Here's a secret to selling faster,
no matter what industry you're in - 🤯 

Build trust, systemically.

Recently, I connected with a founder who said buyers pick his B2B solution because they trust him.

...but he noted that building trust takes time (sometimes months) and that slows sales cycles. Especially in new markets.

Plus, there are only so many 1:1 lunches you can do!!

So, we brainstormed how he could accelerate trust at scale.

Here are some examples we came up with:
✨ co-deliver with respected implementation partners
✨ build his leadership teams' personal brands (hi LinkedIn)
✨ publish thought leadership with real market insights/wins
✨ speak at industry panels or on podcasts customers follow
✨ host relevant discussions/roundtables within the industry
✨ bundle with complementary products already in customers’ tech stack
+ many more.

In all sectors, trust is the root driver of most deals and referrals.

When you find ways to build it at scale, your sales cycles shrink, and your credibility compounds.

Social proof is a ~ mystical, magical ~ thing!!
(Humming Benson Boone's song while I type that 😂)

-

How does trust factor into your growth strategy?

Which of these strategies are you going to try...

...and what else should we add to the list?!

Tell us below in the comments 👇 

—

I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

2025 is the year of AI dominance in venture capital. 🤯 
These market insights make it official - 

According to CBI Insights Q3 2025 Venture Market Report:

✨ For the first time, AI startups command 50%+ of VC funding
✨ The U.S. market represents 85% of AI dollars invested, globally
✨ Mega-rounds are taking the lion's share (yes we see you Anthropic, OpenAI), so while dollars are up, deal count is down.

Venture aims to back the next wave of innovation - and this year, the data tell us it's a full-throttle bet with AI at the core.

...anyone surprised?!

Jokes aside, here’s what I’m thinking about:
+ How might these investments reshape how we live, work, and play?
+ What lessons will we look back on, five years from now?
+ How do we plant seeds for what comes next? :)

Would love to hear your reflections and ideas. Drop them in the comments!

(P.S. I’ll tag CBI’s full Q3 report below if you want to nerd out, too 🤓)

—

I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Thrilled to join the investor panel for Desafía SF’s 1:1 Office Hours on Nov 17!
Here's why -

Ten high-growth startups are flying in from around the world with big ambitions to scale in the US. The teams are building across hot industries like Fintech, CleanTech, HealthTech, and AI.

Their impressive innovations include:
✨  Zero-emission delivery fleets
✨ VR medical training & digital neuro-rehab for patients
✨ Grid optimization already used by 30+ utilities
✨ AI copilots for wealth management, dev automation & video intelligence
✨ A platform to launch institutional-grade funds in days

They’ve collectively raised $20M+, backed by global VCs, corporate partners, and real customers. 🤯 

Can't wait to meet the teams, understand their solutions, and help shape plans re: what it will take to grow in the US market.

Big thanks to Founder Institute and the wonderful Serephina Ha for bringing together this amazing lineup! I'm thrilled to be a part of it. 

-

I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly.

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned!

Desafía SF 1:1 Office Hour with Investors

Here’s the growth strategy hiding in plain sight, 
no matter what your company does - 🤯 

Your personal brand!! 

Here are three key takeaways from talking brand (and seeing it work):

✨ Your brand works harder than any pitch deck.

People do business with people, not logos. 

(Say it louder for the people in the back!)

A well-tended brand bridges cold intros, opens unexpected doors, and quietly shapes the narrative even when you’re not in the room.

Quick ideas to build brand:
+ Speaking on podcasts/panels
+ Sharing good vibes at industry events
+ "Giving" first when building relationships
+ Writing thought leadership content (LinkedIn!!!)

✨ Authenticity isn’t a buzzword... it’s your moat.

Trying to sound like everyone else? 
Using ChatGPT to write your LinkedIn?

We notice! And its unfortunately forgettable. 

Show up as you are. The quirkier the better IMO, as my followers know by now 🤣

Over time, consistency and honesty make you memorable (and magnetic) in a sea of sameness.​

✨ Treat your brand like a product your company offers.

...because it is!

Experiment, measure, and iterate your brand, just like you would any new offering.

For example - writing content online? 
+ Test messages and platforms.
+ Ask peers/colleagues for feedback.
+ Measure engagement metrics.
+ Double down on what connects.
+ Sunset/reword what doesn't land.
+ Offer real value to your audience along the way!

-

Over the last several years, I've invested in my brand and ended up creating my own business model design course, an ever-expanding business, and my dream role in venture. 

It's been the single best career move that I've made.

If I can build my brand, so can you!

-

So tell us - what’s one move you’re making (or resisting) on brand right now?

And if you posted on LinkedIn today, link it so we can support you!

See you in the comments 👇 

—

I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Today, Dyson is a multi-billion dollar household name.
...but it took 5,127 prototypes to get there. 🤯 

Here's what I love about the Dyson story:

✨ Patience brought the hardware moat to life.

A lot of people would have quit after 100 prototypes. 
Dyson made it to 5,126.
(The 5,127th worked!)

Ask yourself: 
+ What is your relationship with patience, today?
+ What areas of your business could use a learning mindset (focused on experiments, not fearful of failure)? 
+ How could you nurture that mindset over time?

✨ Boring problems can have exciting solutions. 

A vacuum sounds boring. 
...but solving it better changed an industry.

Ask yourself: 
+ What boring problems is your industry overlooking, today? 
+ What is the resulting opportunity, near-term?
+ Where could it grow, long-term? (Thank you, Dyson Airwrap!)
+ How are you uniquely positioned to solve it?

✨ Constraints force creativity.

Dyson had no funding. No manufacturer backing (because they wanted to keep selling vacuum bags ugh). No shortcuts.

...and look what he created!

Cheers to his wife for supporting him in the early days. 🥂 

Ask yourself: 
+ How could our perceived financial limitations actually be an advantage?
+ How might we generate revenue along the way to my North Star vision?

---

It's been awhile since I've highlighted another entrepreneur's story!

What inspired you from Dyson? And who would you want to hear about next?

Tell me in the comments :)

—
I'm Katie Nowak, an investor, innovation leader, and new venture designer sharing examples & lessons weekly. Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Persona Media

We believe in the power of thought leadership to drive your influence, build trust, and serve at scale.  Our clients have included leaders at SANS Institute, Center for Internet Security, World Economic Forum, AWS, Upwork, Salesforce, Gateway Church, Asset Funders Network, Phillips Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, along with startups, founders, speakers, consultants across the U.S.  

Our current clients include global leaders and organizations in national security, AI, cybersecurity.  

Each engagement is carefully assessed for fit, and accepted if we can provide meaningful value to you and your audience. A tailored team and work plan is built around you and your influence objectives.

CEO; Thought Leadership Strategist

I speak on the why and how of modern thought leadership. I’ve spoken at CMO Huddles, National Cybersecurity Alliance’s Convene Conference, various ERGs, network events, meetings and on panels, virtually and in person. If your audience needs to represent your brand, I can show them how.

Guest Speaker

Today's leaders share their own thought leadership journey. And I teach the tactics of personal writing, speaking, monetization, B2B revenue, and how to serve at scale. Shape the future of your field.

Host | How To: Thought Leadership podcast

SecurityBiaS

Advisor

Level Up Ventures

DIY Influence

You’re a leader. Now it’s time to become a thought leader. So we built a learning network! Learn to market yourself and monetize your subject matter expertise in a supportive community. It’s time to bet on yourself.

Founder

SecureTheVillage

Head of Thought Leadership

The Webby Awards

Jury Member

Chief

Citizens Committee for New York City

Chief Marketing Officer

Communities Foundation of Texas

Assistant to the Chief Philanthropy Officer

UC San Diego

Corporate Communications

Thought Leadership Strategist | AI, Cybersecurity, National Security | 15-year founder | Social media obsessed | Build your influence to serve at scale.

If you’re reading this, you have influence. Everyone does. It’s just a matter of how adept you are at welding it to get what you need done. Stick around to learn from a thought leadership strategist for startups, executives, and orgs in AI, cybersecurity, national security. 

I’ve seen thought leadership win when marketing impact is dull in an AI-powered world and the customer journey is fragmented and self-driven. 

I’m obsessed with how ideas spread, how people earn trust, and how our brightest minds can serve at scale. 

Equally obsessed with sharing these ideas that I learn in client work and studying the leadership field with all interested in expanding their influence. 

In my work, I advise and create thought leadership toward revenue and influence, and to help clients create a more secure tomorrow. 

At my firm, Persona Media, now 15 years in, my team and I develop and execute visibility strategies, from idea and interview to live thought leadership content. We embed within executive and stakeholder ecosystems, partnering with your organization's comms, product, and policy teams to align with strategy behind what’s being built and align thought leadership to bring about those revenue and influence objectives. 

Every message we craft is grounded in trust, discretion, and a deep respect for the complexity and consequence of their work. A handful of examples of our work: 

Our client engagements often begin with board members in quiet conversations asking our help to make their C-suite comfortable and confident (palatable!) on camera. 

We work alongside crisis comms to adapt statements into something palatable the humans and social platforms. 

We take keynotes from our clients and turn them into TikToks, blogs, articles in major publications that your PR team can work with. 

Our thought leadership content becomes the best performing marketing content on your brand channels.

I am based in Dallas with my brilliant communications strategist and YouTuber husband and two daughters. Here, there’s always a notebook open, books consumed, nerding out over 'the future of,' sci-fi, and tech, cooking avoidance, and the outdoors. 

I teach weekly, speak often, and host the How to Thought Leadership podcast. My first book, coming in 2026, is a reinvention field guide to align on what you want, what the market wants from you, and how to MVP that brand in AI-first world.

Julie Michelle Morris

What Ryan shares here, #ThisIsThoughtLeadership. While I don’t know him, I do believe we deserve the support and the care of our networks when we go through it.  

If you’re not sure if you should share something, run a quick gut check: “If I read this from my peer, would I be glad / grateful / better for having read it / able to help somehow because it was shared?”

Why open up to people? Fake will fail. LinkedIn is like Starbucks. Pretend like nothing‘s wrong at your normal hangout, and eventually you’ll stop showing up, because you run out of energy for fake pretty quickly.  

Life is one big ball of human complexity across work, beliefs, our people, what we love and what breaks our hearts. 

We are made of each other. I’ll be a better human for what Ryan Delany shared. Ryan, thousands of us are thinking of you and your kids.

Head of Thought Leadership, AI & Cybersecurity. Founder. Startup mentor. How To: Thought Leadership, the book (releasing 2026), podcast, Substack newsletter.

Founder and Chief Analyst at Coffee Trading Academy, LLC

*Personal Tragedy*

I wrestled with whether or not to write this.

Last Saturday, my wife of 16 years passed away in hospice care. Andrea had been in a coma-like state for the previous 2 weeks. She went into cardiac arrest after an asthma attack while I was out getting pizza with the kids. No warning, no chance to say goodbye. 

A consoling friend said to me, "life, as it turns out, is incredibly fragile." Very true, and for someone who manages risk, my emotions were completely unprotected.

We have two wonderful children together: my daughter Devika who is 14 years old and son Logan who is 11.  

Normally, I only post things here about the coffee market or my business, and at first I wasn't going to say anything about what happened. My business is about understanding the dynamics of a complex world and advising people about price risk. Talking about my personal life doesn't really fit into that.

Fortunately for me, my team has been wonderful making sure that everything hums along smoothly without interruption while I console my family and make funeral arrangements.

So why am I writing this? Well as I see it, I had 3 choices. 1) I could hide this tragedy and smile and continue to post about the coffee market like nothing happened, 2) I can withdraw and let my team run the show while I rest in solitude or 3) I can be honest about what happened and what I'm going through.

I love the coffee community and it has been my home for almost as long as I was married. I joined ECOM in 2010 about a year after I had been married. My daughter Devika was born when I was working in India trading coffee. My wife became pregnant with my son Logan when we were trading coffee in Uganda.

One of the wonderful things about this little black drink, is that coffee is a social glue. We often come together over a cup of coffee to share what's going on in our lives and to discuss things that are important to us.

Well, as we drink our coffee this morning, I'm sharing with you what's going on in my life, and telling you what is important to me. My wife, my kids, my many friends and colleagues, and my greater coffee family are what's important.

Over the past week as I struggled to make sense of this, I have been surprised by how quickly memories of Andrea are fading. I was so used to having her around in the present, I never made an attempt to save those precious moments for the future. 

So here is my risk-management suggestion for you. The next time you have a happy moment with someone you love, make an effort to commit those moments to memory. Drink in that moment and think to yourself "I want to remember this." It's a way for you to be present in the moment, but also preserve that moment for the future.

Have a great weekend my friends. Enjoy your time together. Remember those happy moments. I know for sure, that you will be glad you did.

--
Memorial Website: https://lnkd.in/eEr2He4Z
--

If you read a single post from me all year, this is the one. We are giving brilliant, qualified people this terrible career advice. 

Sat next to a brilliant person at Life Time Fitness this week. (Half the people there work for themselves, and we all take calls in the cafe.) 

She was absolute fire on that call. Clearly a genius in revenue and operations for an entrepreneur client. 

I could barely contain my curiosity, even if i felt intimidated by how sharp she clearly was. (I’ve learned that I kick butt also, and not to feel that way for long.) 

Asked about her work. She said very vulnerably she was actually out of work, and that was just a short term project… 

then she confessed she was running out of savings while APPLYING FOR ADMIN ROLES. 

I felt my literal pulse race in my ears as she described this awful advice she had been given, doomed to fail:

I call this the pretzel: the process of shrinking and twisting experience and expertise into a small, bland package to apply for a job they clearly DON’T FIT and WON’T GET. 

HOW are people saying this straight-faced to each other…? Go, waste your precious time, energy, self respect and literal savings chasing a needle in a haystack.

An ADMIN …. when people hiring want someone cheap, young, unencumbered by experience and willing to work without boundaries?

What I told my brilliant new friend: 

You may never work a W2 again. Ever. 

They say you’re “too expensive” “overqualified.”

It’s time you accepted that this is ACCURATE. 

And this is the BEST time to accept that this is where most of the job market will be in the next 3-5 years. 

Don’t you want to be ready for the future? 

Rather than find yourself here in another year after you’ve sold your house, trying to unsuccessfully pretzel for the slim chance of some role that didn’t pay and you’d despise, while you become LESS READY for the future by the day? 

Never listen to that advice again. 

You’re here at the perfect time to figure out how to build a service-based business. 

I’ve worked for me for 15 years come January. 

If I can do it - ANYONE CAN.

Here’s what you need to do (I do this also, every six months). 

1: I figured out where I am exceptional. 

2: I asked the market what it was willing to buy today. 

I am so determined. It keeps me focused and fear to a reasonable volume. 


I implore you - take the reins of your life and future. 

Stop listening to advice from people NOT walking the path they recommend you travel.

Listen to people on the same journey RIGHT NOW and have validation all over the place. 

Read in my free Substack about my journey, how I am working for me as breadwinnner, how thought leadership nurtures potential clients - It’s all there. I’m writing a book with so many stories of how people are using this simple proven advice to get their career future ready.

https://lnkd.in/gHb2h29y

Thank you for reading and sharing.

No alternative text description for this image

My preteen daughter announced to her brand new orthodontist that she needed braces to fix her overjet and overbite. He was annoyed. 

Not her fault. She had done massive research about her options.

I, of course, am proud momma… but said 🤷‍♀️, “welcome to my life.”

She was exactly right, even down to how long she would need the different stages of treatment. 

We have been told we can’t do things… 
Like start businesses. That most businesses fail… come on. 

We do not need to accept that. 

I personally believe 70%+ of us will need to become the head of our own service based business in the next 5 years. 

The knowledge is out there.

It’s time to take the reins like my kiddo did and LEARN.

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The Battle

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