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.

Rob Collier Coaching

🎥𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄👇 For the past five years, I've been silently coaching leaders (entrepreneurs, executives and emerging leaders) on how to accomplish their most important goals, systematically. 

No marketing or social media. 

Just one powerful conversation at a time.

96% of client respondents report our work together as "life changing".

I work closely with leaders and companies to turn high-potential professionals into high-performing leaders.

If that sounds like you, I'd be happy to connect to see if we may be fit together.

Schedule a free 20-min chat with me here:

➜ https://calendly.com/robertcollier/connect
➜ www.robcollier.com

Coach @ RobCollier.com | For Founders, Managers, Executives, and Entrepreneurs

Hustle Fund angel squad is an inclusive community training the next generation of impactful angel investors and co-investing alongside the Hustle Fund team.

Angel Investor

MainStreet

Helped founders to receive $5 million in unclaimed savings to accelerate growth at a B2B fintech startup.

• Ranked #1 Account Executive at MainStreet by quota attainment in last 90 days
• Closed $1MM+ ARR over three fintech products in a fast-paced, changing environment
• Maintained 37.5% close rate for all inbound & outbound C-suite (CEO, CFO, etc) pipeline

Account Executive

Entrepreneurs Dinner

Entrepreneurs Dinner is a curated, intimate event bringing together entrepreneurs from across North America to grow their businesses, together, through relationships. 

We help entrepreneurs and business leaders to:

• Gain emotional clarity to fulfill their vision
• Meet 1 to 2 life-changing mentors per quarter
• Develop long-term partnerships to reach their financial goals even faster.

We host events at beautiful private residences with private chefs serving delicious four-course meals, bartenders serving your favorite mixed drinks, and videographers capturing the entire experience. 

Our community's work has been featured in popular media such as TED, Forbes, and TIME as well as a number of podcasts including Entrepreneur On Fire with John Lee Dumas.

➜ www.entrepreneursdinner.com

Founder

Attendance on Demand

Accepted a promotion to become an account manager as our company grew 40% year-over-year.

• Drove over $2mm ARR in sales to close largest partnership in company history
• Responsible for ‘high priority’ to strengthen commercial viability of channel partners
• Led tracking, analyzing and forecasting of sales performance data for entire company
• Pioneered innovative revenue growth strategies to scale channel partner book of business
• Managed sales process to close largest client, including negotiating contract and pricing directly with CFO

Channel Partner Support Specialist

Reported directly to the CEO to lead our efforts in creating a user-friendly database of organized content.

The database provided role-specific information about our software, hardware, product roadmap and more for a community of channel partners and internal staff.

Wiki Administrator

Interview Me Live

My first venture into entrepreneurship began in 2008 when I started Interview Me Live as a college project. 

Interview Me Live's aim was simple: conduct live online interviews between students and employers for post-graduate and internship positions via a social network.

Users uploaded pre-recorded interviews and video resumes onto our social network after creating their profile. 

Examples of students’ work outside of a paper resume provided employers a more well-formed perspective of what they could offer to an organization.

We co-hosted a career fair with The University of Texas and worked within the university this to classrooms. 
 
I learned a lot and enjoyed working with stakeholders and our team to bring an idea to launch.

• Co-hosted a University of Texas College of Business career fair
• Enrolled 29 employers, including 14 Fortune 500 companies, to career fair
• Managed remote team of 6 while living in Washington, DC during academic fellowship
• Led business development resulting in collaborations with the University of Texas to include Interview Me Live in college classrooms and at recruiting fairs for beta-testing, user acquisition, and customer validation
• Conceived and led development of platform to connect university students to employers for live, online interviews for internship and post-graduate positions leveraging use of video resumes and pre-recorded interviews

University of Texas at Tyler

Hired to University of Texas at Tyler's first Communications Team to increase the university's enrollment rates amid the economic recession using tele-counseling and social media.

• Contributed to 2nd highest increase in recruiting in school history
• Increased enrollment by 8% increase despite economic downturn and severe financial restrictions
• Developed video blogs of my personal experience at the university and abroad, resulting in our "Blogger of the Week" interactive poll

Communications Specialist

Northwestern Mutual

As a financial representative intern I worked independently to attain clients for my financial practice with the guidance of a full-time representative. 

After completing training, I set appointments with prospects, reviewed their financial condition, and made tailored recommendations based upon their needs.

• Researched and identified target markets
• Made specific recommendations using extensive fact-finders for life insurance, disability insurance, investment management, and other financial services
• Served as Community Service Coordinator for Interfaith Housing Coalition, coordinating schedules of and supervising 32 participating interns

Financial Representative

American Bar Association

Accepted into a dual-department internship at the American Bar Association as part of the Bill Archer Fellowship for University of Texas students in Washington, D.C.

My research for the ABA Task Force on Financial Markets Regulatory Reform was submitted as a recommendation to the Obama administration.

Time was split between Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), Outreach and Media Relations and Public Policy Communications divisions. 

Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), Outreach
• Assisted in planning and hosting a successful international public event
• Provided copyediting support for print and developed creative online materials
• Researched and contacted professional, academic and foreign embassy stakeholders

Media Relations & Public Policy Communications  
• Summarized news articles and podcasts on financial regulation
• Monitored current events concerning proposed legislation for financial regulation
• Researched media contacts, outlets, and blog postings reporting on financial regulatory reform and lobbying using Vocus software

Research Assistant

Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC

• Researched client information
• Assisted in providing investment proposals
• Used Morningstar software to generate client account summary reports

Assistant to Private Wealth Advisor

You’re a founder in your 1st or 2nd year of your current business.

You’re not interested in making money fast. You want to make your money last.

You care deeply about helping others, including building wealth to pass down to your family.

You want to own your time.

You want to create a legacy.

The problem is, you ask yourself “Exactly HOW do I get there?”

So you may be struggling with:

• Being disorganized and distracted rather than disciplined and focused
• Lacking clear next steps leading to procrastinating instead of executing
• Finding time in your day to get everything done without feeling overwhelmed
• Finding the right mentors and support to fill in the missing pieces of what you don’t know
• Not having the sustained motivation and systems to achieve your goals – and sticking to those systems

You’ve tried courses, seminars and YouTube.

But the courses aren’t personalized to your specific situation. They’re not interactive enough and they don’t feel genuine.

The seminars provide valuable inspiration, but the motivation from them only lasts so long. You wish you walked away with a mentor or support for clear next steps.

YouTube provides great information, but you know that if you take the wrong information it’s almost worse than not taking anything at all.

So you keep trying different solutions but none of them work to provide exactly what you need…

Your business requires the best version of yourself.

Organized. Consistent. Clear.

Daily.

The courses, seminars and YouTube help, but the truth is you have to go deeper.

Most solutions help to fix the surface level problem.

They don’t get to the root of the cause.

It’s kind of like a weed...

They’re cutting the weed off at the surface but it’s still growing back.

To get rid of a weed for good, you need to find its roots and pull it out.

Only then can you have sustainable success.

That’s what we do:

We transform your subconscious mind at the root-level of your identity with daily agreements.

Because we know that when the business owner grows, the business grows.

As a result, my clients accomplish more in 90 days than most people do in 1 year (or more).

That’s why 96% of client respondents report my work as “life-changing”.

What would your life look like 1 year from today if you achieved all of your most important goals in the next 90 days?

Become the best version of yourself with a leader who cares about helping you to get there.

– 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Let’s do this together: https://calendly.com/robertcollier/connect

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