Version 8 | What are Startups without Market Forces?

A group of alien entrepreneurs reacting to a market force

Life would have been so simple if we would have been doing our things without getting interrupted by anything, right? However that is not the case.

Talking specifically about startups, the startups do not operate in a vacuum. There are multiple negative as well as positive market forces affecting a startup, and that was something missing from the game, Startup High.

After play testing the 7th version, I felt that the game has very few hindrances. It is a problem on 2 levels:

1. It is not the real depiction of how startups work. Even though my objective is to not make everything similar to the startup ecosystem because then my game audience would be a handful of people who are at the intersection of complex strategy gamers and die hard startup enthusiasts, it is important to cover as many real life elements. If you look at a CEO of a startup, you will see that they are busy mitigating whatever new is thrown at them everyday. It is an important part of their job to take decisions that protect them from new threats, and capitalise on new opportunities.
2. People love hindrances in games, not in real life. Take Ludo for example, the game played and known by almost every Indian household. Every player in the game is very conveniently going towards their goal, till the time someone decides to send their pawn back. And that is what brings the joy in the game. Take this hindrance away from the game and then see how many people play the game- it will be very monotonous and boring for most of the people.

Introducing Market Force Cards

There cannot be an absence of external factors in any business. Good navigation and guidance of leaders have always resulted in organisations coming at the top.

Market Force cards are the cards that would get triggered on certain events happening in the game and would impact all the entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs would have to shift their strategy accordingly and continue the game.

Some content from the Market Force Cards

The triggers in the game are listed out on the trigger cards, and upon a market force being triggered, a market force card is drawn. These cards are always picked once the entrepreneur because of whom it was triggered is done with their turn. Any market force that is affecting the game for more than one round, stays in the centre till the time its effect is over.

For example, a founder used their Personality Card for the third time. This triggers a market force. The card ‘Recession is on Rise’ is picked, for every founder, the value of money on the Resource Cards has been doubled for the next 2 rounds. This incentivises the founders to take more of money, and utilise it to the fullest extent.

The purpose of 2 rounds is to give an equal opportunity to everyone so that the market force impacts everyone almost equally.

Update on Networking Cards

Even though networking is a positive sum game, I realised it was important to put cards that bring detrimental effects to other players- because at the end of the day, founders are playing a game and this is what brings about an excitement.

There is a cost of everything in life and building good and reliable networks also has a certain cost. These cards are the special cards that help entrepreneurs to boost their own game by bringing detrimental effects to other entrepreneurs.

The cost of these networking cards is $2,000 and $2,500 and is indicated on the back of the card. An entrepreneur can invest in a Networking Card at their turn by giving out the required amount of money. Entrepreneurs can use these cards at that very turn, or can save it up for later as well.

To explain this addition, I plan to add this designer’s note:

Networking has very less to do with money. Money has an important role to play in networking more often than not. However, irrespective of how much money one has, the underlying secret sauce of networking is one’s genuinity and care for the other person. To show this important element of entrepreneurship and life, this element has been modified and added.

In addition to this, since hopefully this would be played by startup enthusiasts, I thought of adding ‘book cards’ under this deck.

There would be 6 special book recommendation cards that recommend you a book on entrepreneurship written by Indian entrepreneurs. While the essence is to get you to read this book, you can combine the knowledge of 2 or 3 books and convert it into a special power in the game.

The objective of this would be multifold-

1. To make the players aware about these books. In case someone is interested in entrepreneurship, these recommendations would act as a good starting point.
2. To make the players understand the purpose of books through these cards. They are not necessarily for an immediate benefit but rather for gaining knowledge and using it whenever the need arises.

For this, I am looking to partner up Indian authors who have written books on entrepreneurship. I have some in mind, but would love some suggestions.

Update on Freelancing

Freelancing brings in the negotiation aspect of the game. It makes the game fun and ridiculously funny between a group of friends, but it also makes the game longer. I have thought of observing this more closely to see whether the time cost is worth this addition or not.

I am super pumped to playtest this version! If you are interested in playtesting the game before it hits the market, please feel free to reach out to me at founder@entrepi.world.

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!