For Educators
The Slingshot is designed for educators teaching entrepreneurship, innovation management, strategy, and technology commercialization. The simulation provides students with hands-on experience navigating the challenges of building an AI startup, from founding through scaling.
Free, open-source, and grounded in real startup experiences, The Slingshot can be integrated into courses at undergraduate, postgraduate, and executive education levels.
Learning Objectives
🎯 Strategic Decision-Making
Students learn to make resource allocation decisions under uncertainty and time pressure. They balance competing priorities across research, product development, sales and marketing, and team building while managing limited cash runway.
💰 Entrepreneurial Finance
Students experience venture funding dynamics firsthand: evaluating funding options, understanding dilution and valuation, negotiating with investors, and choosing between bootstrapping and venture capital paths. Managing funders advice, suggestions, and expectations.
🚀 Technology Commercialization
Students navigate the specific challenges of commercializing AI technology: managing technical risk, develop your scientific reputation, attract skilled employees, collaborating with established firms, align to regulatory changes, work with lead users, develop reliable evidnece of AI use benefits, and race competitions to key scientific, technical and market milestones.
⚖️ Trade-offs and Constraints
Students grapple with fundamental entrepreneurial trade-offs: science vs. development, publishing vs. patents, focusing on product quality vs. speed to market, equity vs. control, and short-term survival vs. long-term positioning.
Concepts Covered
The simulation exposes students to 20 core startup and innovation concepts. Click any concept to learn more.
The Slingshot in Action
Since launching on 14 January 2026, The Slingshot has been used in university classrooms and by aspiring entrepreneurs around the world.
The simulation has been used in class at the University of Bristol, the University of St Andrews, and the University of Warwick, where students have explored AI startup strategy as part of entrepreneurship and innovation management courses. So far, students have really enjoyed the experience, playing in teams and demostrating high levels of engagement. In one session, they expressed some disbelief that the tool was developed by academics without any sofware knowledge and development experience. They said it was equal to or better than commercial simulations that they used in other classes. If you use The Slingshot in class, please share your experiences, as we are keen to learn how people respond to it and how best to encourage its use and to support players and their educators.
Implementation Approaches
The Slingshot is flexible enough to support multiple pedagogical approaches:
In-Class Activity (60-90 minutes)
Students play individually or in small groups during class time. Follow with structured debrief comparing strategies and outcomes.
Best for: Illustrating specific concepts like resource allocation or funding decisions
Assignment (Out of Class)
Students play on their own time and submit reflections on their decisions, strategies, and outcomes.
Best for: Deeper engagement with strategy formulation and reflection on entrepreneurial decision-making
Team Competition
Teams compete to achieve the best outcomes. Create leaderboards and have teams present their strategies and results.
Best for: Generating energy and engagement, encouraging strategic thinking and peer learning
Case Study Complement
Use alongside traditional case studies. Students play the simulation then discuss real startup cases, comparing their choices to actual entrepreneur decisions.
Best for: Connecting experiential learning with real-world analysis
Multiple Rounds
Students play multiple times with different sectors or strategies, then compare outcomes and reflect on what they learned.
Best for: Exploring how context shapes strategy and understanding path dependencies
Teaching Materials
📋 Facilitator Guide
Complete guide for running the simulation in different class formats, including suggested discussion questions and debrief frameworks.
View on GitHub →💡 Assignment Templates
Ready-to-use assignment prompts for reflection papers, strategy analyses, and team presentations.
View on GitHub →📊 Assessment Rubrics
Evaluation frameworks for grading student reflections, strategy justifications, and learning demonstrations.
View on GitHub →🎓 Learning Module
Complete course module including pre-simulation reading, in-class activities, and post-simulation debrief.
View on GitHub →Technical Requirements
✅ Simple Setup
- • Web browser only (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
- • No installation required
- • No student accounts needed
- • Works on laptops, tablets, desktops
⏱️ Time Commitment
- • 25-40 minutes to complete one game
- • 10-15 minutes for brief debrief
- • 30-45 minutes for deep debrief
Social & Collaborative Learning
The Slingshot is designed to spark conversation, debate, and shared learning. While students can play individually, the richest learning often emerges when students engage socially with the simulation.
👥 Team Play & Discussion
Students can play in pairs or small groups (2-4 people), making decisions together. This creates natural opportunities for debate about strategy, risk tolerance, and priorities. Groups often discover they have different intuitions about what matters most—and these differences drive learning.
After playing, teams can present their strategies and outcomes to the class, explaining their choices and what they learned. Comparing different approaches reveals there's no single "right" path to success.
🎮 Interactive Mini-Games
The simulation includes three interactive mini-games that create memorable, hands-on experiences with key business activities:
- 🎪 Conference: Work your booth at an industry conference. Click on delegates walking by, use swag and coffee to attract attention, run demos for serious prospects. Learn about budget management and lead generation under time pressure.
- 🎤 Investor Pitch: Deliver a 30-second pitch to venture capitalists. Keep the attention meter high, time your demo for maximum impact, read investor reactions. Experience the intensity of pitching for funding.
- 🚀 Demo Day: You have 60 seconds as potential customers approach your booth. Engage leads to see their value, match offers to preferences, choose wisely between quick interactions and expensive demos. Practice prioritizing high-value opportunities.
These mini-games make abstract concepts tangible and create memorable decision moments that students can reflect on during debrief sessions.
💬 Sharing Experiences
Create a shared class experience by having students play the same sectors or compare outcomes across different sectors. Students learn as much from seeing what happened to others as from their own journey. The personalized end-game reports provide concrete starting points for these discussions.
🏆 Friendly Competition
While not the primary goal, light competition can boost engagement. Create leaderboards by valuation, revenue, or other metrics. Students enjoy comparing results and understanding why different strategies led to different outcomes.
Research Foundation
The Slingshot was developed as part of an ESRC-funded research project (ES/X003949/1) exploring entrepreneurship education and innovation management. The simulation is grounded in:
- • Analysis of 550+ real startup events and decision points
- • Research on AI sector dynamics and competitive patterns
- • Studies of venture funding processes and term sheet structures
- • Empirical findings on early-stage team formation and dynamics