Entrepreneurship · Pitch, pivot and investor vote

🚀 How to play Runway

You run a booking-app start-up in an Abu Dhabi accelerator with AED 1m in the bank, and you must find out what is true before the cash runs out.

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Your goal

Win by growing the value of the founders' stake, plus gains on the accelerator fund you invest in others. Build traction on assumptions you have tested, keep cash above zero, and give away as little equity as you need.

You run one start-up selling a booking app to small businesses. The other start-ups in the room are your rivals for attention and also your investors: each of you invests a fund in the others.

Join in 30 seconds

Scan the QR code on the big screen with your phone camera, or open the game page and type the 4-letter code.
Type your first name. No app, no account.
Join a team or create one and name it. Your teammates get a role each. In individual mode you run your own start-up.
If your phone locks or the page reloads, open it again: you return to the same seat.

Team roles

Lead: Chairs the team and submits the final decision. If the Lead's phone dies, any teammate can take over. In this game: Make the pivot call and protect the founders' stake.
Analyst: Owns the numbers and the team's prediction for the round. In this game: Decide which assumptions to test first and read the results carefully.
Treasurer: Watches the budget and costs before the team commits. In this game: Track cash and runway months; never let cash hit zero.
Risk and ethics officer: Flags harms and pushes back before the team commits. In this game: Ask what happens if a key assumption is false before you spend on it.
Voice: Talks to other teams and presents the team's story at the debrief. In this game: Write the pitch and choose where the fund invests.

The three rounds

Each round you predict your own result, make your decisions within about 9 minutes, and then the model reveals what happened. An event card lands between rounds.

1
Months 1–6 · Build or test?
Everyone starts with AED 1m and the same valuation. Spend the growth budget, choose which assumptions to test, and invest the fund at equal valuations.
Watch for: Read the fit lines: product fit and market fit show whether your spend landed on true assumptions. Note how much was wasted.
2
Months 7–12 · Pivot or persevere
Experiment results are in, and you may now pivot your segment or product. Other start-ups' traction and pitches are on your phone, and valuations now differ.
Watch for: Check whether your pivot fixed anything and how many customers you kept. Compare your valuation and stake with others.
3
Months 13–18 · Series A or bust
The last six months before the Series A panel. Running out of cash now ends your story.
Watch for: Check final runway, founders' stake and portfolio. See who ran out of cash and why.

Your decisions

What each control on your phone does, and how to think about it.

Growth budget this round (AED k, up to 400)	Every round	Spend up to AED 400k in steps of 10 on Hiring, Product features, Marketing and Validation experiments. Fixed burn of AED 180k per round comes on top. Unspent budget stays in the bank. Product works only if the problem and pricing assumptions are true; marketing only if segment and channel are. New customers need both.
Assumptions to test	Every round	Pick up to four assumptions. Each test needs AED 30k of your validation budget; tests beyond what you funded do not run. Results show next round. Test the assumptions behind your biggest planned spend first. A cheap test can save a costly build.
Pivot or persevere?	Rounds 2–3	Pivot segment replaces whichever of segment and channel were false. Pivot product does the same for problem and pricing. Either pivot loses 40% of current customers. Pivot when your evidence shows that pair is broken. Pivoting a pair that was already true loses customers for nothing.
How much investment will you accept?	Every round	Caps how much of the money other start-ups offer you is taken: nothing, up to AED 250k, up to AED 500k, or everything. Investors buy at your pre-money valuation, so every dirham dilutes the founders. Raise when you need runway or when your valuation is high. Raising before traction costs more equity.
One-line pitch to investors	Every round	Up to 120 characters, shown to the room next round. A pitch backed by two or more tested assumptions builds trust. Pitching with no evidence while raising money costs trust. Claim only what your experiment results support.
Accelerator fund to invest (AED k, up to 500)	Every round	Invest up to AED 500k of the accelerator fund in other start-ups, in steps of 50. You buy shares at their pre-money valuation. It does not touch your own cash, and portfolio gains count towards your score. Back start-ups with traction and evidence, not just a good line. A start-up that caps its raise takes less of your money.

What you see on your phone

Your start-up: Cash, paying customers, monthly revenue, fixed burn of AED 30k a month, runway in months, last valuation and the founders' stake. Check runway before you spend.
Experiment results: Each of your four assumptions shows Untested, Confirmed true or Proved false. Results from a test appear the round after you run it.
Cap table and board: Your cap table once investors hold shares. From round 2, the other start-ups' customers, valuations and pitches from last round.
Market news: Event effects in force, such as a downturn, a paid pilot offer, a validation grant or costlier marketing.

How you are scored

Every game in the library uses the same scoreboard. Your round result is your Equity value gain (AED k); the leaderboard adds resilience and trust.

Score = 100 × (0.5 × performance + 0.25 × resilience + 0.25 × trust) + prediction points

Performance: Equity value gainEquity value gain in AED k: the change in founders' stake times valuation, plus the change in your fund portfolio's gain. Valuation is 300 + 3 × annual revenue + 120 × evidence, times the market level, plus cash.

Resilience (0–100)Resilience tracks runway. Eighteen months or more of runway, or being cash positive, gives full resilience; less runway lowers it. Running out of cash drops it to almost zero.

Trust (0–100)Trust starts at 50 and drifts down each round. Running tests, winning over 20 new customers, an evidence-backed pitch and a pivot based on evidence raise it. Big waste, ignoring proven-false assumptions, unbacked pitches when raising and running out of cash lower it.

Performance is your total Equity value gain over the rounds, scaled from the lowest to the highest in the room. Before each round you also predict “Change in founders' equity value this round”: land close and earn up to 10 bonus points; miss by the whole amount and earn none. The facilitator may change the weights before the game starts.

Tips

Every start-up has a different hidden mix of true and false assumptions. Do not copy a neighbour's plan.
Tested assumptions also add evidence, which raises your valuation.
Watch runway months, not just cash. Burn continues whether or not you grow.
Hiring builds a team that makes product and marketing spend more effective from then on.
Dilution compounds. A small raise at a high valuation can beat a big raise at a low one.
Treat the fund as a second scorecard: read the board for traction and evidence before you invest.

Common mistakes

Spending the whole budget on product and marketing in round 1 without testing. Much of it can land on false assumptions.
Running out of cash. Growth stalls, valuation halves and a bridge investor takes 30% of the founders' stake.
Pivoting blind. You lose 40% of customers even when the pair you pivoted was already true.

A worked example

In round 1 you spend AED 120k on product, 120k on marketing, 40k on hiring and 60k to test two assumptions. Your problem and pricing are true but your segment and channel are not, so you win only 17 customers and waste about AED 102k. You raise AED 250k at a AED 1,300k pre-money, leaving founders 83.9%. Cash ends at AED 750k with over 32 months of runway.

Shocks that can hit

The facilitator draws one event card before rounds 2 and 3. It changes the market from that round on.

Funding downturn. Global tech valuations crash. All start-up valuations halve from now on. Money raised now costs twice the equity.
Key engineer leaves. Your lead engineers are poached by a big tech firm. Product spend is 35% less effective from now on.
Large customer offers a paid pilot. A national clinic chain offers a paid pilot worth AED 150k. Tough terms: only start-ups spending at least AED 150k on product can deliver it.
Government grant matches validation. A UAE innovation fund will match every dirham you spend on validation experiments this round, up to AED 100k.
Competitor raises big. A rival booking app raises AED 40m and floods social media with ads. Marketing is 40% more expensive from now on.

The model behind the game

Lean start-up runway and dilution model. Money spent on product and marketing only builds traction when it rests on true assumptions. Experiments reveal the truth a round later so you can pivot. Investors pay at your last valuation, so raising before traction costs more equity.

runway = cash / (burn − revenue) ; new customers = 230·team·f(product·fit_prod)·f(marketing·fit_mkt) ; V = (300 + 3·ARR + 120·evidence)·market + cash ; Stake_{t+1} = Stake_t·(1 − I/(V_pre + I))

Burn rate: The cash a start-up spends each month. Here fixed burn is AED 30k a month.
Runway: How many months of cash are left at the current net burn.
Validated learning: Running cheap experiments to prove or disprove assumptions before building on them.
Pivot: Changing a core part of the business, such as who you sell to, while keeping what works.
Pre-money valuation: What the company is worth just before new investment comes in.
Post-money valuation: Pre-money valuation plus the new money invested.
Dilution: The fall in existing owners' percentage stake when new shares are sold.
ARR: Annual recurring revenue: monthly subscription revenue times 12.

For facilitators 3 rounds · about 50 minutes

Set-up

Team mode with 3 to 5 per start-up works well; roles map to Treasurer, Analyst, Lead and Voice.
Allow 9 minutes per round. Bots fill to 4 start-ups so there is always someone to invest in.
Remind teams that the growth budget is AED 400k per round and the accelerator fund is a separate AED 500k to invest in others.
Before round 1, explain burn, runway and dilution with one simple number each.

Modes

Team: Each team runs one start-up and submits one decision, including where the fund invests. Teams can lobby each other for investment.
Individual: Each player runs a start-up alone, with bots added up to 4. Bots mostly invest in the start-ups with the most customers.
Hybrid: Each player runs their own start-up, and team scores are the average of members. Teammates can invest in each other, which helps the team average.

Run sheet

Before class	Open the facilitator console on the projector laptop, choose the mode in Setup, and check the QR shows.
0–5 min	Students scan and join. Read the situation aloud while teams form. Point out the roles on their phones.
5–16 min	Round 1: 9 minutes to decide and predict, then Reveal. Read the headline and one surprising line from a team.
Between rounds	Draw or choose the event card. Give teams 30 seconds to read it before opening the next round.
16–27 min	Round 2, then Reveal.
29–40 min	Round 3, then Final results: podium, awards and the score chart.
Last 12 min	Debrief with the questions below, then open reflections (4 minutes). Download the CSV.

What usually happens

Many teams spend heavily in round 1 without testing. Their waste line is a good debrief moment.
Teams often accept all investment offered without checking their stake. Compare stakes on the cap table.
Teams that run out of cash lose 30% of the founders' stake. Ask what runway they had at the start.
Fund investing often follows pitches over traction. Ask the room what evidence they looked at.
The downturn card halves valuations from then on. Watch whether teams still raise.

Debrief questions

Which experiment saved you the most money? What would you have built if you had not run it?
Was raising early worth the dilution? Compare your stake with a start-up that raised later at a higher valuation.
Which start-ups did the room invest in, and was it traction, evidence or the pitch that won the money?

Follow-up probes

Which assumption did you most want to be true, and when did you test it?
How did you decide how much investment to accept? Would you change it?
Did your pivot fix a false assumption, or was it a guess?
Which start-up did you invest in, and what convinced you?
What would a Series A investor ask about your runway and evidence?

Reflection and evidence

Describe one pivot-or-persevere decision your start-up made and the evidence that drove it. Would you decide the same way with what you know now? 80–120 words.

Students write 80–120 words on their phones. The Data tab exports every decision, result, prediction and reflection as one CSV for grading.

Console controls

Pause, extend or set the timer; step back a round
Draw, choose or write the event card
Move players, make a Lead, add computer players
Award or fine with a reason that appears on phones
Message every screen; hide names; spotlight a team
Keys: P projector mode, Q join QR