How to Play

The Slingshot is a turn-based simulation where each turn represents one quarter. You'll play through 16 quarters total, making strategic decisions that shape your startup's trajectory. Your goal: build a successful AI venture through smart resource allocation, strategic positioning, and responding effectively to market events.

Getting Started

1️⃣

Choose Your Sector

Select one of eight AI application sectors. Each sector has different market dynamics, customer needs, and competitive landscapes. Your choice influences the types of events you'll encounter and the strategies that work best.

2️⃣

Build Your Team

Recruit co-founders to complement your skills. Each potential co-founder brings different expertise, from technical AI capabilities to business development to domain knowledge. Team composition affects your startup's capabilities and equity structure.

3️⃣

Set Your Strategy

Decide on your initial approach. Will you bootstrap and grow organically, or raise venture funding to accelerate? Focus on product perfection or rapid market entry? These early choices establish your path.

Each Quarter

Every quarter follows the same structure. You'll review your current status, allocate resources, respond to events, and see the results of your decisions:

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Review Dashboard

Check your cash position, revenue, product development progress, team morale, and market position.

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Allocate Budget

Distribute your available cash across R&D (product development), Marketing (customer acquisition), Operations (infrastructure and delivery), and Hiring (growing your team).

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Respond to Events

Make decisions on events that emerge: competitor actions, hiring opportunities, customer prospects, regulatory changes, technical breakthroughs, and more.

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See Results

Watch how your decisions play out. Revenue changes, costs accumulate, your product advances (or stalls), team dynamics shift.

Key Metrics to Track

💵 Cash Position

Your runway. When this hits zero, game over. Manage it carefully through revenue generation, fundraising, or disciplined spending.

📈 Revenue

Money coming in from customers. Revenue growth signals product-market fit and can attract investors or enable bootstrapping.

🔬 Product Progress

How complete and competitive your offering is. Invest in R&D to advance capabilities and stay ahead of competitors.

😊 Team Morale

How your team feels about the venture. Low morale can lead to departures, reduced productivity, and slower progress.

📊 Market Position

Where you stand relative to competitors. Track this to understand if you're gaining or losing ground.

🎯 Valuation

What investors think your company is worth. Grows with traction, shrinks with setbacks. Crucial for fundraising.

Strategic Tips

💰 Manage Your Runway

Always know how many quarters of cash you have left. Plan ahead for fundraising or adjust spending before you hit a crisis. Running out of cash means game over.

⚖️ Balance Your Investments

All four spending categories matter: R&D advances your product, Marketing brings customers, Operations enables delivery, Hiring scales capabilities. Neglect any area at your peril.

🎯 Know Your Goal

Are you building a sustainable business or swinging for unicorn status? Different goals require different strategies. A profitable small business is a success; so is a high-growth venture even if not yet profitable.

👥 Invest in Your Team

Happy, skilled teams perform better. Hire when you need expertise, maintain morale through challenges, and consider carefully before making risky moves that could destabilize the team.

📊 Adapt to Feedback

Pay attention to event outcomes and metric changes. If a strategy isn't working, pivot. Markets change, competitors adapt, and inflexibility kills startups.

Winning the Game

Success in The Slingshot isn't just about final valuation. The simulation evaluates your performance across multiple dimensions:

At the end of the game, you'll receive detailed feedback on your performance, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, and key decision points that shaped your outcome.

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