Startups are the engines of innovation, driving economic growth by offering advanced technologies and solutions to emerging challenges. However, in their relentless pursuit of delivering superior products and meeting customer needs, startup teams can sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. As professionals working within an accelerator, your role is to guide these teams, helping them maintain a clear strategic vision while navigating the daily demands of their business.
One of the most effective tools we often use with our startups to address this issue is the Rocketship Canvas.
The Rocketship Canvas is a powerful framework that helps founders, investors, board members, and advisors clearly articulate and visualize the key aspects of a startup’s journey and strategy. It has proven to be highly impactful in globally renowned accelerator programs like Katapult and Hatch, where it helps teams align their goals and strategies on a single, visually accessible page.
By regularly updating and using the Rocketship Canvas, you can ensure that the startups you support stay on track and grow strategically.
Why the Rocketship Canvas?
The Rocketship Canvas addresses critical questions that are essential to a startup’s growth, such as:
- How can we accelerate the company’s growth?
- Where do we want to be in six, 12, and 24 months?
- What does our fundraising strategy need to look like to reach these milestones?
- Which investors, customers, partners, and experts should we engage to build vital relationships?
Every startup needs a dedicated advisor, manager, or board member who can hold the company accountable. This involves assessing where the startup aimed to be 12 months ago, understanding where it stands today, and envisioning where it could be in the next 12 months. The Rocketship Canvas makes this process tangible by breaking down the journey into three distinct stages, each with its own set of objectives and milestones.
Case: VoltyngX
Let’s explore how the Rocketship Canvas can be applied in a real-world scenario. Consider “VoltyngX,” a startup specializing in repurposing electric vehicle batteries into advanced battery storage solutions. After a significant breakthrough in their technology, VoltyngX is ready to scale commercially. For this exercise, we’ll use VoltyngX as an illustrative example.
Each of the three boxes in the Rocketship Canvas represents a distinct stage in the startup’s growth journey. We encourage teams to creatively ‘name’ each phase, whether it’s as simple as “Phase I” or something more descriptive like “Conquering our Local Market.” In this case, we’ve identified the stages as:
- Conquering the Local Market
- Expanding into Neighboring Countries
- Becoming a Household Name in Europe
Adapting Key Metrics (KPIs) Over Time
As a startup evolves, so too should its key metrics. In the early stages, a startup might focus more on overall revenue or customer acquisition rather than profit margins. As growth progresses, these metrics will naturally shift. For instance, VoltyngX will need to decide whether to prioritize the number of customers, weighted pipeline, bugs resolved, churn rate, or ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) as their business scales.
Setting Targets and “Must-Wins”
Within each stage of the Rocketship Canvas, there are three primary targets that the company aims to achieve. These targets should be meaningful achievements that can be showcased to shareholders, customers, or even on platforms like LinkedIn. Often, these targets are broad and influenced by investors or the board of directors.
Achieving these targets depends on succeeding in the “Must-Wins”—specific, actionable steps that are critical to reaching your goals. For VoltyngX, this might involve hiring a CFO to lead their fundraising efforts and professionalize their internal financial processes. They might also aim to secure a local customer, land their first international customer, and develop a sales strategy that can be effectively scaled as they onboard new hires.
Estimating Revenue and Capital Needs
The final section of the Rocketship Canvas involves making an informed estimate of the revenue the startup aims to achieve by the end of the timeline and determining the capital needed to reach those goals. For VoltyngX, for example, the goal might be to generate over €200k in revenue by raising €1 million, which should sustain the startup through Q2 2025.
Continuous Planning and Adaptation
We encourage startups to spend time thoroughly mapping out their first step, ensuring it is clear and well-defined. It’s also crucial for them to engage with customers, clients, employees, investors, and advisors to gain insights that will shape the company’s journey.
As the startup plans its second and third phases, both quantitative and qualitative measures should be considered. These measurements will serve as a blueprint for a growth strategy that should be revisited and updated quarterly. This regular check-in helps ensure that the company’s progress aligns with its anticipated growth trajectory.
Beyond the Rocketship Canvas
The Rocketship Canvas sets the stage for more comprehensive strategic tools, such as the Outcome Canvas. Together, these frameworks will help the startups you support refine their strategies, positioning them as attractive options for international talent and garnering recognition from local media for their successes.
By guiding startups through the Rocketship Canvas, you’re not just helping them plan for the future—you’re setting them up to achieve sustainable, long-term success.
Download Your Own Copy
Click here to download a PDF copy of the Rocketship Canvas.
Work with Us
As long-term partners of leading accelerators worldwide, we empower startups with innovative strategies that drive real results. Our work has helped numerous startups develop stronger fundraising strategies, become investor-ready, and craft clear roadmaps to success. Want to see how we made an impact? Check out our case study with Katapult, an award winning accelerator, or reach out to us at [email protected] — we’d love to connect!
UPCOMING WEBINAR
Building Better Accelerators
From impact investing in Europe, agritech in Africa, ocean startups in Hawaii, ocean funds in Fiji or climate funds in Singapore, we have seen a number of accelerators up close and personal. From first-generation aquaculture accelerators to early-stage deep-tech accelerators, to recent GP/VC/PE accelerators, there is a constant stream of innovation in the space.
This begs the question, how are accelerators evolving? How should accelerators think about strategy, programming and their own business model? What are the latest trends a leadership team needs to think about and what role does AI play for accelerators? Has the time come for accelerators to rethink their strategy and if so, how?
We will explore these topics and more during the webinar.
Date: August 21st
Time: 18:30 – 19:15 CEST
Speakers: Christian Rangen and Nir Melamud
