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Venture Capital

A 15 minute bidding game of silly startups, for 1-6 players

We've all heard the tales of incredible inventions and fabulous wealth coming out of Silicon Valley. But who is profiting the most from this? Is it the ingenious inventors? The savvy marketers? No - it's the venture capitalists who make the bets and reap the rewards!

Now you too can enjoy the thrill of being a member of the 1% and gambling with your friends on what hot new startup will blow the competition out of the water and make you millions.

Whether you're a baby boomer worried about your retirement funds, a millenial who's not even sure what "investing" means, an up and coming silicon valley entrepreneur who wants insight into the minds of the investors you're going to have to woo, or an actual VC who wants to unwind after a day of investing by pretending to invest, this is the game for you!

The game is played over 15 rounds: each round, all players bid on a given startup, and once all 15 startups have been acquired, the game ends. Whoever has built the most profitable portfolio is the winner! We also made a video of a complete game, though it turned out a bit blurry.

Each player has a hand of 15 bidding cards, numbered 1-15, each of which will be played exactly once, representing the amount of money you're willing to invest in that startup - the startup founders will go with whoever offers them the most. The deck of 15 startup cards is shuffled, then the first startup is revealed. Each player selects a card from their hand to bid on it, places that face down, and when everyone has done so, the cards are flipped face up and the highest non-tied bid gets the startup. Then the next startup is revealed, and the game continues until all 15 startups have been bid on.

Startups can have two attributes - a profit value (a number), and what industry they're in (Apps, Gadgets, or Services). Your score is the sum of the profits of all the startups in your portfolio, plus the Dominating the Industry bonus you get for each of the three industries. Count up how many startups you have in each industry, square it, and get that many bonus points! Most startups turn a profit and are in an industry, but there are also some which turn a profit but aren't in an industry, and some that are in two industries but don't turn a profit.