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 are the ultimate value investor. 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

Hustle Fund

Investing @ HF Scale Partners, the growth and late-stage opportunistic investment platform affiliated with early-stage venture firm Hustle Fund. Learn more: https://www.hustlefund.vc/scale

Venture Partner, HF Scale

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

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

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

Deloitte

Doubled down on high visibility, global strategy projects. Highlights below.

+ Traveled between London and NYC working on global operating model transformations worth >$150 MN
+ Managed central transformation program activities across 20+ workstreams for a leading hotel brand
+ Crafted Board/CEO-level workshops, program updates, and presentations re: transformations
+ Led executive reporting for the U.S. firm's largest internal technology investment to-date
+ Continued my love of crafting sales materials for countless clients; contributed to and attended key pitches in NYC and London for financial services organizations
+ Helped launch the firm's Annual Strategy Practice Leadership Meeting for over 170+ partners and managing directors - being able to participate in the roundtables and breakouts was the real motivator!

... reduced my caffeine intake (slightly) during this job. Rebuilt my hobbies and passion projects. Craved faster speed-to-impact and execution, so I left to try out start-ups.

Strategy & Analytics

An influential experience for me. Highlights below.

+ Recipient of the 2017 Most Valuable Player Award across the Financial Services practice
+ Traveled between NYC and London serving investment banks (e.g. large-scale regulatory transformation)
+ Built millions of dollars worth of pitch decks for banking engagements. A colleague once said "a proposal doesn't come through our practice that Katie doesn't touch." I received sales credits, usually only granted to senior leaders and partners, for my endeavors
+ Established, led, and scaled an internal "Rate Card Team" that negotiated new PwC pricing strategies and rates for banking clients (and across PwC entities)
+ Elected co-chair of the Management Advisory Committee by my peers: oversaw programming and career development for all PwC New York based advisory associates; managed six figure budget
+ Led U.S. diversity and inclusion collaboration efforts between PwC and a tier 2 global investment bank with proposed programming covering mental health; disability; women in finance; and LGBTQ awareness

... became a caffeine 'enthusiast' during this job. Worked 6-7 days a week for 2 years, and have a lot of thoughts on that. Learned a plethora of professional and life lessons. A new opportunity came to me while at a conference in Lisbon, Portugal. Left because I couldn't pass it up.

Management Consulting

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

Over 20k global founders and investors, >$500k in pitch competition prize money, an interview with Pitbull, AND a beachy venue?!

Once again, eMerge Americas is true venture paradise. 😍 

If you’re in the startup space and not attending eMerge - you should be!

Here are my highlights from the conference last week:

✨ Judging the pitch competition’s Semi-Final round with my fellow Venture Mentoring Team (VMT) mentor, Jim Ryan, and several others. We had the pleasure of selecting the finalists in the Early Stage category. It was a tough job, given how strong the pitches were…! 

✨ Mentoring and learning from all-star founders like Adam Ashley from Plus Up and Roberto Amaya and Andres Noero from Via Community. The VMT donated over 2,000 mentoring hours to eMerge this year! 🤯 💫 

✨ Catching up with special founder friends from last year, like the fabulous Alexandra Baker of Pikliz. She is sunshine. Rumor has it she’s creating a “mild” version of her Pikliz product… and I cannot. wait. (There will 100000% be a post about this)

✨ Attending our first-ever VMT Summit, the day before eMerge. Over 70+ mentors attended - which meant quality time with many friends. Forever grateful to be a part of such a special community. Kudos to the VMT Summit Committee for making it all happen!

Miami’s tech scene is thriving - and I’m delighted to be a part of it.

So... 

...did I convince you to join me at eMerge next year?! 🌴 🏖 

-

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

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

Katie Nowak

Founder & Partner @ Kanvas | Innovation Leader, New Venture Designer, Investor, Speaker

What is the latest news on Miami's tech scene?

Highlights - eMerge Americas 2024

We're authors!! Check out our first post -
"How risky is venture capital, really?"

Let’s break it down -

When you invest in any asset, risk refers to the range of potential outcomes.

✨ High risk = high range of potential outcomes (including $0).

✨ Low risk = lower range of potential outcomes (less likely to go to $0)

Venture capital is traditionally a high-risk asset class…

…because of its range of potential outcomes!

There is no other asset class where you can get a 100x+ potential return, 

but there are also few investments that are as likely to go to 0.

Intrigued?! We knew you would be ;)

Read our latest “Big Bets” blog post from our late-stage venture fund,

And demystify what risk ACTUALLY means when venture investing.

Plus, you’ll get to meet the Risk Curve, take a trip through a casino…

What’s not to love?

Find the link to the blog post in the comments, 

as well as the sign-up for Hustle Fund’s investor newsletter so you don't miss our next one.

Let us know what you think!

-

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

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

What are some best practices for venture capital investing?

Product-Led Growth is a HOT topic. 🔥 
Here's a primer you won't forget - 

Product Led Growth ("PLG") = Virality and Network Effects

A lot of people say PLG means that your product is doing the selling for you.

That's true, but it may be more accurate to say "happy customers" are doing the selling for you, and your product isn't adding friction to their sales process.

This means, PLG is a VERY cost-effective growth strategy.

The dream. 

Who wouldn’t want that?! 

…everyone wants PLG, but not everyone is as successful as brands like Zoom and Slack in building it.

Here are some common components of PLG -

✨ An Exceptional Product Experience.

Building a product that customers love is paramount. 

But you can’t do that without…

✨ A Customer-Centric Approach.

Putting customers’ success at the forefront is a non-negotiable.

You cannot build something that they love if you never talk to them, 

or walk a day in their shoes (or 2 or 4 or, idk, 239048324).

I have spoken to many founders that aspire to generate product-led growth,

….but aren’t talking to their customers. 🤯 

✨ Data-Driven Iteration.

Data does not replace talking to customers. Read that again!

It can, however, be a wonderful complement. 

Data can bring trends to your attention, from which you can make hypotheses about user behavior.

...but until you validate those hypotheses with customers, you can't be certain.

✨ Virality and Word of Mouth.

If you’re creating a wonderful experience (keeping customer at the center and using data to help identify moments to go talk to them some more), 

then you’re probably going to get those happy customers talking about your product.

Exhibit A - if you have spent more than 5 hours with me, you've heard about my love for Cometeer. 

Cometeer sure isn’t paying me for that. Half the time I forget to share my referral link. 

This is great! Cometeer must love me! So many new customers, for free (when I forget my link)!

✨ Seamless Onboarding and User Experience.

So let’s say you see that I love Cometeer here on LinkedIn and now you’re googling it to sign up for your own coffee subscription.

(Me, a LinkedInfluencer?!)

You get to their webpage. Go to sign up. 

Imagine if that onboarding flow were difficult or confusing or took too long...

...you probably wouldn't complete your purchase.

Luckily, Cometeer’s sign up process is seamless, which helps them take advantage of organic referrals like mine. 

Point is - without a seamless onboarding/UX experience, even if you have virality…. you'll lose out on its conversion.

-

Your turn now -

...where do you still have questions?

...what PLG efforts are you testing?

...do you want my Cometeer referral link?!?!

Drop your thoughts in the comments. 👇 

-

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

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

“Where do we even start with our pitch?!” 🤯 

Last night, I had the pleasure of answering that question with 10 awesome startups in Plug n Play Korea’s accelerator program.

Here are some highlights from our discussion -

✨ Your pitch is your credibility.

Oftentimes, your pitch is the first impression with a potential contact,

who will use it to filter out the best ideas in their pipeline.

It's critical to put forward a compelling, clear narrative,

that's appropriate for your stage....

...and doesn't require a voice over to make sense.

✨ There's more than one pitch deck. (gasp)

To whom are you pitching?

Investors? Sales? Strategic partners? New hires? 

Each of those decks will likely look different!

It's important to understand the nuances of your messaging.

✨ Simplicity is key.

Think of your pitch as the headliners about your business.

The detailed product flow? The expansive financial projections?

These can be a part of due diligence - and are a great excuse to continue the conversation with interested parties :)

My favorite pressure test is - 

Imagine you're at Starbucks. I'm waiting for my drink and we are chatting.

How would you compel me to learn more about your business?

If I asked a follow-up question about how you make money, but OH NO my latte has arrived and is now in my hand, how would you quickly but effectively answer my question?

What if I asked next about how you're different from your competitors, but I'm starting to drift toward the door? 

These are great imaginary tests to play out.

-

I'm looking forward to the next 3 workshops in our “Pitch Polishing” series with Plug ’n Play Korea!

What pitch advice should we be sure to include in the workshops to come?!

Drop your thoughts in the comments 👇 

-

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

Follow me + hit 🔔 to stay tuned.

What is Plug n Play Korea's accelerator program?

How does a pitch deck for investors differ from other pitch decks?

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