The Startup Simulator puts each student in the founder's chair. They pick an industry, then steer a young company through five stages, from friends-and-family money to an IPO, making one decision at a time about hiring, pricing, product and funding. Every choice is a trade-off: grow revenue and morale may slip, protect cash and the company may grow slower. This guide covers what it teaches, how a run works, every setting including difficulty and fail points, how to follow your class, and grading.
Available on: Intertwined Pro. If you're on Intertwined Solo, you can start a free 14-day trial of the Startup Simulator once (see Trying a simulator free with a 14-day trial).
What students learn
The trade-off between growing fast and staying solvent
Reading a simple profit and loss statement, and why revenue isn't profit
Cash flow and runway: how a business can look profitable and still run out of money
Equity: what selling a stake to investors gives you, and what it costs you
How staffing decisions show up twice, in cost and in morale
Situations are written by AI for each student as they play, shaped by their industry and how their company is doing, so no two runs are the same. After each decision, students see why it played out the way it did, the business concept behind it, and what the other options would have done.
How a run works
Pick an industry. Students choose Service Industry, Technology or Product. It sets the opening scenario and can't be changed mid-run.
Five stages. Friends and Family, Pre-Seed, Seed, Series Funding and IPO. A run is 25 decisions, 5 in each stage, which takes about two or three class periods.
Each decision. A situation with three courses of action. Each choice moves some of the company's numbers up and others down. About two and a half months pass between decisions, and cash moves with the company's profit or loss over that time.
Investor rounds. When a stage ends, the student is offered three investments at one valuation: a small, a medium and a large stake. More money means more runway, but every owner, the founder included, ends up with a smaller share. The student has to accept one offer to keep going.
The numbers. Every company starts with a market value of $20,000, employee wellness of 65 out of 100, gross revenue of $10,000, a yearly loss of $5,000, and $8,000 in cash. The founders own 75% of the company at the start.
How a run ends
IPO: the student makes it through all five stages. Their ending shows what their share of the company is worth.
Out of cash: the company's cash hits zero.
Below a limit: one of the company's numbers drops to or below a fail point you set.
When a run ends, students see an ending screen with their stake round by round, their turning points and reflection questions. They can't start a new company on their own. If you want a student to try again, reset their run (see below).
Turning on the Startup Simulator
Go to Classrooms > your class > Simulators. (You can also click Startup under Simulators in the sidebar, then choose a class.)
In the simulator picker on the right, choose Startup Simulator.
Make sure Setup is selected. You'll see the Startup Simulator Settings.
Choose a difficulty and review the fail points (explained below).
In the Simulation Status card, click Activate Simulation. You'll see "Simulation activated!"
Before you first turn it on, students see "AWAITING ACTIVATION" on their Startup Simulator page. To pause the simulator later, click Deactivate. While it's off, students can't launch a company or make decisions, but their companies are kept.
Difficulty levels
Difficulty does two things. It sets recommended fail points, which decide how close the danger lines sit to where students start, and it scales how hard each decision swings the company's numbers.
Easy: decisions swing the numbers about 20% less than standard, and the fail points sit far away. Market Value $0, Employee Wellness 10, Gross Revenue $0, Profit/Loss a loss of $25,000. Best for students new to business ideas, or a first run. Few students fail.
Medium: standard swings. Market Value $5,000, Employee Wellness 25, Gross Revenue $2,500, Profit/Loss a loss of $15,000. A good default for most classes: careless play gets punished, careful play usually survives.
Hard: decisions swing about 10% more, and the fail points sit close. Market Value $10,000, Employee Wellness 40, Gross Revenue $5,000, Profit/Loss a loss of $10,000. Even careful students can fail, usually in the later stages. Good for experienced or advanced classes.
On every difficulty, running out of cash ends the run too, so runway matters whatever you choose.
Fail points
A fail point is the line a number can't drop to. A student's run ends when any of the four metrics reaches its fail point or goes below it. Picking a difficulty fills in recommended fail points, and you can fine-tune each one with its slider or by typing an exact whole number:
Market Value Fail Point: what the company would sell for today. Students start at $20,000.
Employee Wellness Fail Point: team morale and health, from 0 to 100. Students start at 65.
Gross Revenue Fail Point: income before costs. Students start at $10,000.
Profit/Loss Fail Point: what's left after costs, per year. Students start at a loss of $5,000.
Click Save Settings when you're done. Students see your fail points marked on their vitals, with a warning when a number is one bad decision away.
Good to know: fail points and difficulty apply to every student's next decision, including students partway through a run. If you raise a fail point above where a student already is, their run ends on their next decision. Settle your settings before students start.
Run Length and Reset Simulation
The Run Length card shows Short runs (25 decisions) for classes set up recently. Classes set up long ago may show Long runs with many more decisions. Students already playing a long run keep it, so nobody loses progress.
Reset Simulation permanently deletes every student's company and progress in the class so everyone can start fresh. Your settings are kept, and it also switches the class to short runs. It can't be undone.
What students experience
Students open the simulator from their Simulators page, choose an industry and click Let's launch your business! Their screen has three tabs: Current Decision, Decision Log and Case Files (the real stories of Apple and Theranos, to compare against). On the current decision, they pick a course of action and click Commit decision, then see what changed and why. Alongside sit their vitals (market value, employee wellness, gross revenue, profit or loss), a cap table showing who owns the company, an annual ledger and a cash and runway panel. For a walkthrough you can share with your class, see Startup Simulator: how to play.
Following your class
In Classrooms > your class > Simulators, with Startup Simulator picked:
Class shows tiles for Founded, Profitable, Near a fail point (within 10 wellness points, or 10% and at least $2,500 of a money line), Median market value, Runs ended (by IPO, out of cash or below a limit), Short on runway (under 12 months of cash), Median cash and Median IPO payout. Click See who for names. Top of the class ranks students by market value.
Students shows one student at a time: market value, revenue, profit or loss, employee wellness, cash, runway, the founder's stake and what it's worth, a decision-by-decision chart, and every situation with what they chose. If their run is over, a card says how it ended.
The classroom Rankings tab can also rank Startup players by market value, revenue or profit (see Rankings and leaderboards).
Starting one student over
In Simulators, click Students and select the student.
Scroll to Start this student over and click Reset followed by the student's name (for example, Reset Maya's run).
Confirm with Reset run.
This permanently deletes that student's company and decisions. They'll pick an industry and start again. Nobody else in the class is affected.
Grading the Startup Simulator
To grade it, create an assignment of the Simulator type and choose Startup simulator (see Creating an assignment). Its Gradebook column shows a suggested score for each student, which you accept or change.
The suggestion blends effort and outcome, 50/50 unless you change the weighting. Effort counts decisions made, with full credit for deciding every situation through the third stage (Seed). Outcome is how far the company got toward the IPO, reduced if the run ended early by running out of cash or falling below a fail point. See Simulator scores in the Gradebook.
Tips
Teach runway before the first investor round. Students who understand "months until the cash runs out" make very different funding choices.
Pause at each investor round for a quick class discussion: take the big check and give up more of the company, or stay lean?
Have students read the "what the other options would have done" section after each decision. It's where the comparison happens.
Use Case Files as a warm-up. Comparing Theranos with Apple sets up the whole unit.
Use the reflection questions on the ending screen as an exit ticket.
Start on Easy or Medium for a first run. Save Hard for a second run after a class reset.
Common questions
A student's run ended early. Can they keep playing?
Not on the same company. They can review their decisions and ending screen. To let them found a new company, use Reset on their page in the Students view.
Can a student change industries?
Not mid-run. The industry is set when they launch. Resetting their run lets them choose again.
Can a student turn down every investor offer?
No. At the end of a stage they pick one of the three offers to continue. The choice is how much of the company to sell.
A student says their decision didn't go through. What should they do?
They'll see "Your decision didn't go through. Check your connection and try again." Their choice stays selected, so they can click Try again. Nothing is lost.
Can I change difficulty after students have started?
Yes, but it applies to everyone's next decision, and new fail points can end runs that are already close to the line. Make changes between units, or reset the class first.