We shape our tools, then our tools shape us...Winston Churchill (loosely attributed)
The Mission
Canvas:OS is here to help companies find flow and perform at their best.
Most workspace tools are designed by big business, for big business... Their strategy is too often the same: build hype, dominate a market, chase enterprise customers, hike prices, and cut customer service. Products that once helped propel businesses forward become the bureaucratic behemoths holding them back.
Small businesses using these tools are left without a voice, paying for complicated features they don't use, and stuck with self service 'support' that does little more than waste time.
Designed exclusively for small businesses, Canvas:OS is built without the bloat, bots, or BS that too often destroys good products. If you're looking for simple, collaborative tools built by and for humans, you've come to the right place...
Values
People over process
Sustainable value over short-term results
Creative innovation over staying the course
Inviting change over setting expectations
Going deep over solving symptoms
That is, while we value things on the right, we place greater value on the left.
The Canvas Crew
Harry Tucker
Founder
Harold McPotter
Product Wizard
Daisy Dogg
Senior Pooch Partner
The Journey
The eagle-eyed among you may notice that Harry and Harold bear a striking resemblance. It may shock you to learn that they are in fact the same person! That's right, Canvas:OS is currently a one-man bootstrapped band, with Daisy Dogg as a key partner, along with my wife and 2 beautiful girls.
Having worked with software development teams over the past 10 years, I've learned many tools and practices to help them discover better ways of working together. I've also seen that the biggest performance opportunities often sit outside individual teams, with rigid budgeting processes, unclear objectives, bottlenecks, and a lack of customer connection all inhibiting the flow of work from idea to delivery.
Canvas:OS emerged from seeing a lack of targeted support for small companies to find better ways of working in complex environments. Most organisational improvement frameworks are designed for conventional corporate structures, and do little to address the systemic impediments to real change. Instead, they sprinkle the same tired management models with the latest trend to make it sound sexier, whether it's agile, digital, or AI. Or, they try to convince you that you can improve team performance in isolation from the wider system. Those who have seen both know that neither works.
Lasting improvements start small, with 'the boring stuff'. The core structures, systems, and processes we follow every day are often the biggest opportunities for improvement, not the shiny new things. When we can honestly assess whether our structures and systems help or hinder progress, then we can start to make meaningful improvements, and create an environment where performance and flow are inevitable.
Ways to Connect
