On 24th October, I attended an exclusive session on Business Models by Dr. Alex Osterwalder, CEO & Co-Founder of Strategyzer, and the designer of the Business Model Canvas (BMC).
For anyone who has ever dreamt of building something of their own, the BMC is almost a rite of passage — a simple yet profound framework that forces you to think about how every element of your business fits together. But for me, it’s more than just a framework; it has been a recurring companion through multiple chapters of my professional life.
The first encounter: 2017
I first discovered the Business Model Canvas in 2017, while still working a full-time job. Even then, I knew I wanted to start a business someday. My evenings were spent exploring business models, sketching ideas on the canvas, and imagining what my future company might look like.
By early 2018, I took part in a hackathon at my office — once again using the BMC to structure a startup idea. A few months later, when I decided to take the leap and start my own content and communications company, I reopened that same canvas I had drawn the previous year.
That single sheet became the foundation of my entrepreneurial journey.
The framework that grew with me
Since then, the BMC has accompanied me through every pivot, every refinement, and every new venture — including EcoHQ. I’ve also watched many founders and startups I advise use the same tool to gain clarity on their business strategy.
Around the same time, someone gifted me The Lean Startup — and that’s when I first learned about the Lean Canvas. Later, as my work deepened in sustainability, I explored the Circular Business Model Canvas and Regenerative Business Models — frameworks that expand the BMC to include environmental, social, and systemic value creation.
So when I heard that Dr. Alex Osterwalder — the creator of this tool that’s quietly guided me for years — was hosting an in-person session, it felt almost poetic.
Beyond the canvas: The mindset shift
What I didn’t expect was how much of the session would focus not on business design, but on mindset design.
Dr. Osterwalder began by asking us to challenge our assumptions. It sounds simple, but that shift — questioning what we think we already know — is something most entrepreneurs skip. Over the years, I’ve realized that entrepreneurship is as much about mindset as it is about markets or models.
It demands a behavioral shift — an ongoing effort to stay creative, curious, and adaptable even when things fall apart. You need the courage to unlearn, the humility to start over, and the resilience to navigate uncertainty without losing your spark.
Because the truth is, entrepreneurship will test you. Every single day.
You’ll wake up to a new fire to fight. You’ll wonder if you’re good enough, qualified enough, or even deserving of your place in the industry. You’ll oscillate between pride and imposter syndrome — between “I’m building something great” and “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
But success and failure are often relative. What really matters is whether you can stay creative in chaos — whether you can find lightness and curiosity even when things feel stuck.
When doubt takes over, your mind stops imagining. It starts replaying problems instead of exploring possibilities. You stop coloring outside the lines.
And that’s dangerous — because entrepreneurship is supposed to be about coloring beyond the lines.
We spend so much time following blueprints and step-by-step playbooks — MVP, traction, pilots, proof-of-concept, product-market fit — that we often forget business isn’t linear. It’s messy, intuitive, and deeply personal.
You can (and should) learn from proven paths, but you also have to make space for creative divergence — for the strange, irrelevant, or “out-of-syllabus” ideas that may actually spark your next leap.
Lessons from Dr. Osterwalder: Seeing business differently
Dr. Osterwalder introduced us to a new way of looking at the BMC — through different epicenters of innovation:
- Resource-driven,
- Customer-driven, and
- Value proposition–driven perspectives.
He illustrated each with vivid real-world examples. One that particularly stayed with me was Fujifilm.
When the photography industry collapsed with the rise of digital cameras, both Kodak and Fujifilm were at risk of extinction. But Fujifilm made a creative pivot. The company realized it already had patented research on preserving photographs from aging. The same science could be applied to human skin.
With that, Fujifilm launched a cosmetics line targeting aging skin — two entirely different industries connected by a single innovation thread.
That’s what resource-driven innovation looks like — the art of reimagining your assets instead of discarding them.
He also reminded us to keep revisiting three essential questions — the pillars of the Value Proposition Canvas:
- Desirability – Will customers love it?
- Feasibility – Can we build it?
- Viability – Can it generate value?
And above all, he repeated a truth that every founder needs to hear often:
“Ideas don’t build companies — execution, feedback, and agility do.”
When creativity meets resilience
The event was full of energy — exercises, quips, laughter, and a room full of founders connecting through shared purpose. I met many familiar faces during the networking session, but what stayed with me wasn’t a new contact or a new framework — it was a renewed sense of creative resilience.
Entrepreneurship, at its core, is about staying open — open to failure, open to feedback, and open to ideas that make no immediate sense.
And when you feel burnt out or stuck, sometimes the best strategy isn’t to push harder, but to pause — to read something unrelated, explore a different field, or simply let your brain wander. That’s when “alien” ideas slip in — and they often become the most transformative ones.
Coming full circle
For me, attending Dr. Alex Osterwalder’s session wasn’t just about learning; it was about remembering.
Remembering where it all started — with a blank Business Model Canvas on my desk in 2017.
Remembering that every pivot, every doubt, every reinvention is part of the same creative process.
And remembering that while models can guide us, it’s our mindset that keeps us moving.
Entrepreneurship is not about coloring within the lines.
It’s about redrawing the lines — again and again, with courage, creativity, and curiosity.
That’s what keeps the canvas alive.
Deepa Sai 
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