Product Pieces.
Free tool · for founders · v0.9, shaped with founders

Everyone canvases the idea. This one canvases the founder.

The Lean Canvas asks whether your idea is a business. The Founder Canvas asks whether you can get it off the ground: team, equity, money, build, proof, and the ninety days in front of you. One page, twelve pieces.

How to use it: fill it in below, alone or with your co-founder. Every box has a ? with guidance and a worked example if you get stuck. Be honest, especially in the boxes you want to skip. Everything stays on your device until you choose to download or share it. Revisit it monthly; the gaps move.

The Founder Canvas.
0 of 12 pieces placed
1
The mission
Why you, why this, why now?
The people
The machine
The path
2
Founders & equity
Who's building this, and who owns what?
Go deeper: equity, N°48 →
4
The company
Would you survive due diligence?
7
The wedge
What's the smallest thing you'll build?
Go deeper: MVP, N°15 →
3
Skin in the game
What are you actually risking?
5
Money in
Where does the fuel come from?
Find your investors: The Raise →
8
Proof
What does the evidence say so far?
Map your assumptions: The Leap →
10
The bench
Who fills the gaps you can't?
Borrow a piece: what we do →
6
Money out
When do you hit zero?
Work it out: Runway Calculator →
9
First customers
Who are the first ten, by name?
11
Milestones
What must be true in 90 days? In 12 months?
Check the fundamentals: Scorecard →
12
Kill criteria
What would tell you to stop?
Go deeper: riskiest assumption, N°57 →
The Founder Canvas · Product Pieces · CC BY-SA 4.0 productpieces.io/founder-canvas
Help shape it

This is v0.9. We're finishing it with founders.

The Founder Canvas gets sharpened the same way we tell founders to build: with real users, before it's precious. We're working through it live with a small group of pre-seed and seed founders. You fill it in, we spend 45 minutes on a call pulling it apart together.

You get a senior second opinion on your whole plan, not just your deck. We get to see where the canvas works and where it doesn't. Blunt feedback welcome; it's the point. The story behind it, N°59.

Book a shaping session

Sessions are free and there's no pitch waiting at the end. If your canvas shows a gap we can help with, we'll say so, once. See our privacy policy.

Take it with you. The Founder Canvas by Product Pieces is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Use it with your team, run it in your accelerator, remix it, translate it. Just keep the attribution and share what you improve. Setting it up in Miro takes five minutes: drop the backdrop onto a board, scale it up, right-click and lock it, then work in sticky notes. One thought per sticky; the skipped box is the conversation. If you publish a version, we'd love to see it: hello@productpieces.io.
Product Pieces · Senior product, by the piece. productpieces.io