Season reports
Short pieces on what each move actually costs you in runway, PMF, growth and exit decisions.
Featured decision
Read the 7 early-stage decisions that look harmless but drain cash, team focus, and investor trust at the same time.
Decision Room
Season signal
Risk is risingDecision rooms
Tycoon and simulation games for founders — and how to actually learn from them.
19 posts
Cash, burn, and survival reflexes.
13 posts
Customer signals and product focus.
5 posts
Equity, fundraising, and founder control decisions.
16 posts
Energy, focus, and resilience under hard decisions.
4 posts
Reading options early and staying at the table.
2 posts
Sales cycles and runway in vertical markets.
3 posts
Regulation and hospital sales cycles.
1 posts
Seasonality and institutional sales decisions.
1 posts
Trust, compliance, and financial product growth.
1 posts
Notes from the market
What did this move burn?
Venture debt buys a startup extra runway without pricing a new round. Here's how it works, what it really costs in warrants, and when it backfires.
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A Founder Runway run ends one of four ways, and two of them are wins for opposite reasons. Here's what actually drives an EBITDA-positive finish versus a high-value exit potential ending, and why your starting stage decides which one is realistic.
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Founder-market fit is whether a founder's background actually matches the problem. What VCs check for it, how it differs from PMF, and how to build it.
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Founder Runway's starting stage does more than set your opening cash — it decides the entire 20-turn arc of decisions you'll play. Here's what Pre-Seed, Seed, Pre-Series A and Series A each actually change.
What did this move burn?
Health-Tech, Edu-Tech, and Green-Tech startups all burn cash faster than SaaS — for different reasons. A side-by-side startup runway comparison.
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Investor trust is the metric VCs track silently between updates. What builds it, destroys it, and how the investor trap failure mode happens.
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Founder Runway scores every run into a Founder DNA profile — Unicorn, EBITDA-Positive, Product-Obsessed, Sales-Driven, or Cautious. Here's what each founder archetype actually optimizes for, and what it risks.
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TAM SAM SOM is the three-layer method for sizing a market: everyone who could buy, everyone you can actually reach, and the slice you'll realistically win. Here's how to calculate each one, with a full worked example.
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Pro-rata rights let investors buy shares in future rounds to hold their ownership steady. Here's the math, the super pro-rata variant, and what to negotiate.
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Searching for a free, browser-based Cashflow game alternative that's actually about startup decisions? Founder Runway trades Robert Kiyosaki's dice-driven personal-finance board game for a free, 20-turn simulation of the fundraising and strategy calls a real early-stage founder has to make.
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The Rule of 40 says a SaaS startup's growth rate plus profit margin should clear 40%. Here's the formula, benchmark scale, and worked examples.
What did this move burn?
Why do startups fail? Real data says it's rarely just running out of cash — no market need, bad timing, and founder burnout usually show up first. Here are the 9 failure modes, what the numbers actually say, and the signals that show up before the ending does.
What did this move burn?
Looking for a The Founder: Investment Game alternative that puts you in one founder's seat instead of an idle investor's portfolio? Founder Runway trades The Founder's time-gated, multi-company investment loop for a free, 20-turn simulation of the decisions that make or break a single early-stage startup.
What did this move burn?
B2B, B2C, and B2G startups run on completely different sales cycles, burn patterns, and failure modes — here's how to read the difference before you pick one, in real life or in a startup simulation.
What did this move burn?
Looking for a Game Dev Tycoon alternative that's about company survival, not review scores? Founder Runway trades Game Dev Tycoon's open-ended studio-management loop for a free, 20-turn simulation of the fundraising and hiring decisions that make or break an early-stage founder.
What did this move burn?
A cap table is the ledger of who owns what percentage of your startup. Here's what it actually tracks, how it changes with every funding round, and the mistakes that quietly cost founders control.
What did this move burn?
Looking for a Capitalism Lab alternative that's faster to learn and actually about startup decisions? Founder Runway trades Capitalism Lab's decades-long, multi-industry economic sandbox for a free, 20-turn simulation of the fundraising and strategy calls that make or break an early-stage founder.
What did this move burn?
A bridge round buys a startup extra runway between priced rounds. Learn how SAFE and convertible note bridges work, and what they cost in dilution.
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Looking for a Startup Company game alternative? Founder Runway swaps day-to-day office and code management for a free, 20-turn simulation of the fundraising and strategy decisions that actually make or break a founder.
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Searching for a Virtonomics alternative? Founder Runway trades broad economy management for a focused, 20-turn VC-decision startup simulation.
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Acquisition, acquihire, IPO, and secondary sale get treated like synonyms for the same event, but each one pays out differently, arrives at a different stage, and rewards a different kind of company — here's what actually separates the main startup exit types.
What did this move burn?
EdTech startup runway doesn't burn in a straight line — academic-year seasonality and single-window school procurement cycles create cash gaps a flat burn model can't see.
What did this move burn?
"Business sim" is a shelf, not a genre: management sims, economy sims, founder sims and idle games all live there. Here's what each one actually models, how to spot a sim that teaches you something, and which free browser options are worth a session.
What did this move burn?
A turn-by-turn strategy guide for founder tycoon runs: how to read your opening position, what to spend the first five turns on, when to raise, and the five mistakes that end most runs before turn twelve.
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A practical guide for teachers and workshop leads: what makes a business simulation classroom-ready, a 45-minute run of show, the debrief questions that turn a game into a lesson, and how to run it with teams.
What did this move burn?
Idle and incremental business games simulate the feeling of growth. Decision-based startup games simulate its cost. Both are legitimate — here's how they differ, what each one gives you, and how to pick by mood.
What did this move burn?
PMF is the point where your product meets real, repeating market demand. The definition, four measurable signals, the Sean Ellis test, and the false positives that fool founders.
What did this move burn?
Churn rate, retention curves, and NRR: the formulas, B2B SaaS benchmarks, and exactly how churn shortens your runway — with worked numbers.
What did this move burn?
Founder tycoon, business tycoon, multiplayer tycoon, and vibe-coding tycoon are four different games hiding under one word. Here's what separates them — and which one actually teaches you to build a company.
What did this move burn?
Vibe coding made shipping software almost free — so the founder's job moved from building to deciding. Here's the 'vibe-coding tycoon' mindset, and why runway, focus, and PMF still decide who survives.
What did this move burn?
A plain-language startup glossary: runway, burn rate, burn multiple, SAFE, dilution, PMF, ARR, CAC and 35+ terms defined in one or two citable sentences each.
What did this move burn?
Burn multiple explained: the formula (net burn ÷ net new ARR), David Sacks' benchmark scale, worked examples, and practical ways to improve capital efficiency.
What did this move burn?
Seed vs Series A compared: round sizes, what each round proves, the metrics A investors expect, dilution math, and a readiness checklist for the jump.
What did this move burn?
The best startup and business simulation games in 2026 — free browser games, Steam classics, and educational picks — compared by what they actually teach founders.
What did this move burn?
You can run your own company in a game today, free, in the browser. Here's how to pick the right one and make your first decisions like a founder instead of a tourist.
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How to calculate cash burn straight from your bank balance: the period formula, 3-month averages, handling one-off expenses, and how cash burn drives runway.
What did this move burn?
The short answer is 18–24 months after a round — but the right number depends on stage, market, and your next milestone. Benchmarks and alarm thresholds explained.
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What a startup founder simulation is, which decisions it lets you practice — fundraising, hiring, runway, PMF — and why simulated reps beat theory alone.
What did this move burn?
Learn how to calculate runway step by step: the formula, worked examples, healthy benchmarks, and a free runway calculator.
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How to calculate burn rate step by step: the gross vs net burn formula, worked examples, and the benchmarks that show whether your burn is healthy.
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Pre-seed vs seed funding compared: typical round sizes, valuations, investor expectations, SAFE vs priced rounds, and a checklist to know which round you're ready for.
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Which founder skills entrepreneurship games actually teach, where simulations fall short, and how to use them the right way.
What did this move burn?
Read the 7 early-stage decisions that look harmless but drain cash, team focus, and investor trust at the same time.
What did this move burn?
Avoid false PMF signals by reading retention, repeat usage, and willingness to pay together.
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Weigh bootstrap against seed funding by reading speed, control, and the cost of learning in one table.
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Read how early investment terms affect founder motivation, control, and investor trust in the next round.
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Read the discounts that a scattered roadmap, weak metrics, and the wrong customer mix create at the acquisition table.
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Manage founder energy like a metric to produce better decision quality, not just more work.
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Plan the impact of pilots, trust, decision timelines, and collection periods on your runway in public-sector sales with simulation logic.
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Startup dilution explained with the formula, a three-round worked example, and the option pool trap that costs founders more than they expect.
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50/50 or not? The factors that decide a co-founder equity split, why vesting and a cliff are non-negotiable, and how the split compounds with dilution across rounds.
What did this move burn?
How a SAFE works: valuation cap, discount, the post-money vs pre-money difference, and the dilution surprise SAFEs create when they convert at a priced round.
What did this move burn?
Pre-money vs. post-money valuation explained with the formula, a worked example, and how investors actually price a Pre-Seed or Seed funding round.
What did this move burn?
Default alive means your current growth and burn reach profitability before cash runs out. Learn the formula, sector nuances, and the mistake founders make.
What did this move burn?
The LTV:CAC ratio in plain formulas: how to calculate CAC and LTV, healthy benchmarks by stage, and why payback period matters more than the ratio.
What did this move burn?
The option pool shuffle quietly cuts your real valuation before a term sheet is even signed. Here's the math, a worked example, and how to negotiate it.
What did this move burn?
Fintech startups burn runway faster than a standard SaaS model predicts — KYC, licensing, and chargeback reserves are the costs nobody forecasts.
What did this move burn?
Health-Tech runway burns faster than SaaS models predict — FDA/CE clearance, HIPAA compliance, and payer reimbursement delays eat months nobody budgets for.
What did this move burn?
Green-Tech startup runway burns faster than SaaS forecasts — grant disbursement lag, utility procurement, and hardware capex eat months nobody budgets for.
What did this move burn?
How a liquidation preference works: the 1x vs. 2x multiple, participating vs. non-participating terms, and the stack deciding what founders keep at exit.
What did this move burn?
A convertible note is startup debt that converts to equity, with interest and a maturity date a SAFE doesn't have. Here's the difference, and when to use each.
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A vesting schedule spreads founder and employee equity over time, with a cliff before any of it is earned. Here's how the standard 4-year, 1-year structure works.
What did this move burn?
A down round prices your next raise below your last valuation — and dilutes founders more than the percentage drop suggests. Here's how it works.
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A term sheet sets your valuation, dilution, and board control before the lawyers get involved — here are the clauses that decide the real outcome.
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How much should a founder pay themselves? A stage-by-stage founder salary framework that protects runway instead of quietly burning through it.