Case Study: Unfair Advantage (Lean Canvas)

Every Lean Canvas should have this in Unfair Advantage

Today we conclude our case study of Codepassport by looking at the Unfair Advantage in the business model.

Ash Maurya

teaches us “that most founders don’t have an unfair advantage at the outset of their idea (and that’s ok).”

But there is an advantage you can add to any business model when you’re starting: customer intimacy.

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

Intimacy is a strange word to show up in a business model. Let me unpack two dimensions here.

1. The first is intimacy is personal. Regardless of your category ( business-to-business or business-to-consumer market), you’re interacting with a person. That means you know your early adopters. You can describe what they are looking for, why they are choosing to work with you, where they sit in the organization and how your idea helps them.

2. The second is closeness. This can have several dimensions. But the one that I find is the most compelling is alignment on making progress. You both want to move forward on achieving the same things. Usually, they have a pressing problem and you a solution.

For the Codepassport case study, there are two sources of Unfair Advantage. To refer back to

Ash Maurya

’s article they both fall into the category of a cornered resource.