How to Play

You start with a £100 fund. The game presents you with deal flow — a set of companies seeking investment. Each one has a hidden exit value, and your job is to work out which are worth backing.

You can't see what a company will be worth upfront, but you can spend time and money on diligence to reduce the uncertainty.

In the first round you can do two things:

• Run due diligence — reveal partial information about a company (e.g. its median asset quality). Depending on the game mode, each diligence check coststime (from the round clock) or money from your £100 fund.
• Invest — write cheques into companies you believe in. Only companies you back at Seed are eligible for follow-on investment at Series A.

Game controls:

• Status bar — the sticky bar at the top shows your current stage, fund breakdown, diligence and support costs, and (in time mode) your remaining round time.
• Next deal flow batch — appears in sequential sourcing mode to load more companies before you close the round.
• IC decision — submits your current allocations and closes the round. Once the investment committee has decided, that round's decisions are final.

Example status bar:

Example round bar:

Here's what a deal looks like before and after diligence:

After Seed closes, new information is disclosed for every company you backed (public diligence). You can also commission additional private diligence per company, and provideportfolio support to the ones you care about.

Portfolio support is an action on each deal tile. It represents the operational help a fund gives its companies — hiring, introductions, governance. It tries to improve one of the company's assets, and the attempt can succeed or fail. When it succeeds, the tile shows what improved (e.g. "Series A: Assets 3 improved"). In time mode it consumes round time as well. Support is only available in follow-on rounds and in certain deck types.

You can only invest more into companies you already funded at Seed. This mirrors real VC: follow-on capital goes to your existing portfolio. Companies you passed on are locked out.

Each deal shows a Minimum Viable Round indicator: the round size the company needs (e.g. £3 at Seed, £7 at Series A, £15 at Series B) and how much you've put in. Fund it short and the company is more likely to run out of runway andfail before exit — it's marked "Failed" and returns nothing. Funding closer to the full round lowers that risk.

A Series B may follow, with further public disclosure, optional private diligence and portfolio support per company, and the option for a final follow-on cheque. The same rule applies: only companies funded at Series A are eligible. TheMinimum Viable Round indicator still applies — under-funding raises the chance a company fails before exit.

Once all rounds are complete, every company reaches aliquidity event and its exit valuation is revealed. Your return is calculated from how much you invested in each company and what it turned out to be worth. The leaderboard ranks all teams by total return.

Example of what your results summary can look like:

Budget

Your £100 fund is for investments. Diligence and portfolio support cost either time (from the round clock) ormoney, depending on game mode. Spend both wisely.

Due diligence

Information that reduces uncertainty (e.g. median asset quality). Each company allows one diligence check per round. It costs time or money depending on the mode.

Portfolio support

In follow-on rounds you can back a company with operational help to try to improve one of its assets. The attempt can fail; when it succeeds, the tile shows what improved (e.g. "Series A: Assets 3 improved"). Available only at Series A/B and in certain deck types.

Minimum viable round

Each company needs a certain round size to reach its next milestone. The tile shows that target against what you've funded; under-funding raises the chance the company runs out of runway and returns nothing.

Follow-on only

At Series A and B you can only add money to companies already in your portfolio. You cannot start new positions.

Pro-rata rights

Your follow-on investment in a company may be capped as a multiple of your previous round's cheque (e.g. 3×).

• Diversify vs concentrate — spreading thin gives more shots on goal but less upside per company.
• Diligence and support cost time or money — every check you run and every hour of support uses resource you could deploy as capital; balance information against ownership.
• Fund the full round — invest toward the minimum viable round on companies you believe in, or accept a higher chance they run out of runway.
• Save dry powder — keeping budget for later rounds lets you double-down on winners.