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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of Osterwalder and Pigneur’s Business Model Canvas for 271 teams competing in a venture pitch competition during a cleantech accelerator program. Design/methodology/approach It uses competition results and data from a website used by participants to track their hypothesis construction and testing. Findings Teams that used the elements of customer segment, value proposition, key activities or key partnerships performed significantly better in the competition. Yet of all nine elements in the Canvas, only customer segmentation showed a significant linear bivariate correlation between the number of validated hypotheses and performance. Finally, teams that heavily used a triumvirate of elements composed of customer segmentation, value proposition and channel performed two times better than teams that barely used these elements. Research limitations/implications The findings of this exploratory analysis imply that the components of a business model that explain and predict early success might be different than those for a more mature firm. Practical implications These results suggest that practitioners could improve early performance by narrowing their scrutiny to just the triumvirate, because the Canvas may contain components that are unhelpful for entrepreneurs as they form a business model for their nascent venture. Originality/value This paper fills a gap by empirically testing the prediction that application of the Business Model Canvas drives venture success and providing a revise definition for a business model that is more appropriate for start-up ventures.

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