Version 7 | Takes an MVP to Realise the Importance of MVP in Startups

You have got a fantastic idea. Now what?

Get out of the building. Talk to your customers. Study the industry. Collect their pain points. Analyse their thoughts. Reframe and restructure your idea. Mould your solution as per the problem, not vica versa.

These are the basic ideal steps one should undertake if they are serious about pursuing a startup idea. However, these are not possible to be put in a board game.

What is the next step?

Building out the minimum viable product (MVP).

9 out 10 startups fail- and one of the main reasons is the biasness to build a solution that founders desperately try to find a problem for later, and not build a solution that caters to a problem. To solve for this, building out the MVP is crucial.

As said by Eric Reis, the only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else and that is something you can get done by launching an MVP. A MVP allows you to test the market, optimise your resources, acquire early users, mitigate risks and even have some investor attraction.

It is THE FASTEST to learn what works and what does not. Being theoretically absolutely sound, I decided to go ahead with this as the main theme and objective of the game.

Introducing MVP Cards

I broke down the basic divisions of a startup into 4 categories: Research, Design, Technology and Marketing. Furthermore, I took some of the famous startups of the world, and based on my understanding and research, broke down their MVP into the 4 divisions. These cards were called the MVP/Objective cards.

Every player is an aspiring founder and is handed out an MVP card in the beginning. Whatever is the objective, the players have to complete it by doing work in that department and collecting the work cards.

I balanced the Work Cards as per the different resources distribution as well as different Objective Cards so make sure there is no unfair advantage to any 1 founder.

Introducing Freelancing

Every entrepreneur has a certain skill that they can put to use and earn money through freelancing while/before building their startup. Similarly, in this game, every entrepreneur receives a Freelancing Token before the game starts through which they can freelance work (Work Card) in that particular division.

The Freelancing Token gives the entrepreneur the option to freelance a Work Card to another entrepreneur by putting in the required time in exchange for money. The Token also gives the freelancing entrepreneur an additional 3 hour benefit while freelancing only.

The entrepreneur wishing to buy a Work Card through freelancing has to offer $xx that they deem fit, in exchange for the time the freelancing entrepreneur is putting in as per the Work Card. There can be counter offers, and the deal is at the will of both the parties.

Resource Cards

The game would be run on two resources: time and money. Time would allow a founder to complete and buy the work card, whereas money would allow a founder to freelance.

Introducing Networking Cards

With money, founders could also buy networking cards. Networking cards are those cards that allow you to have certain benefits in the game while building your startup due to your network.

I have envisioned the game play to be straightforward and simple. Every founder would move clockwise, with the option to either work themselves with their time, or spend money to freelance the work by other founders. They pick resources at the end of their turns!

Management of resources + negotiation skills required at its finest!

Many existing board games were an inspiration for this kind of gameplay. I am excited to test this out, let’s see how it goes.

To all the people reading this without reading the previous articles, I am in the middle of making a startup themed board game and am documenting my progress as I move forward. I keep on discussing the various roadblocks, the attempted solutions and my next step through these articles.

The objective behind the game is to get entrepreneurship and starting up in the mainstream and I find board games as an excellent way to do it. If you like the idea or would like to contribute in some way, please visit entrepi.world and reach out to us!