Startup Generator – Tutorial

The Startup Generator game is designed to develop creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, and presentation skills in various audiences. It can be played by schoolchildren, students, aspiring entrepreneurs, and managers of large corporations. 

The Startup Generator game can be played independently or in a small or large group, both in the classroom and online.

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The game can be conducted during a lesson in a school or student auditorium, in the format of a short corporate training, or remotely for any number of participants. 

The game can last from 30 minutes in the format of an intensive classroom lesson, or you can provide access to the game to your students as independent homework designed for a week. The way to use the game “Startup Generator” depends only on the imagination of the teacher, the organizer of the game. The game is an ideal tool for:

• Development of creativity and entrepreneurial thinking,
• Search and generation of new business ideas,
• Teaching the basics of a systematic approach to creating a startup and business planning,
• Training in presentation and public speaking skills

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Any successful business idea is born from the answers to 4 questions. What audience is your project designed for? What problem does your project solve for this audience? What technology do you intend to use to solve this problem? What are the additional conditions or limitations of using your product? 

The Startup Generator game creates a basis for the creative process and invites a player or group of players to come up with, describe, and present their business idea. To do this, each player can generate and select a combination of 4 types of cards describing:

1. Target audience
2. A problem that needs a solution
3. Technology
4. Additional terms and restrictions

The game assumes more than 1,000,000 possible combinations of cards describing the initial conditions for generating business ideas. Accordingly, the game can be used not only for teaching entrepreneurial thinking and creativity training, but also as an effective tool for finding a real business idea for future startup founders.

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The gameplay is very simple and flexibly regulated by the game organizer – a teacher or business coach. But behind the apparent simplicity of the game lies a huge variability of results and vast scope for creativity.

The playing field consists of 2 parts: 

• Combination of game cards (Audience, Problem, Technology, Additional conditions)
• Section describing the business idea and startup project.

“Chance is an unknown regularity.” (Aristotle)

Each participant of the game gets the opportunity to generate up to 5 random card combinations. Each combination consists of 4 cards: Audience, Problem, Technology, and Additional Conditions.

“Life is a series of choices.” (Joel Dikker)

Next, the player chooses one of the five proposed card combinations. There is no right or wrong choice. The player chooses the combination that seems most interesting to him for developing a business idea. All 5 combinations are saved in the playing field, so the Player can change his choice at any time and switch to working with another card combination.

“Creativity is simply connecting things.” (Steve Jobs)

For the selected combination of cards, the Player, alone or together with the team, must come up with a business idea that matches all 4 cards. This can be the most fantastic or funny idea. After all, it’s just a game! If you can’t come up with an idea that matches all 4 cards of the selected combination, the player has the right to:

• Switch to another combination of cards and try to come up with a business idea based on it. Remember that each player has up to 5 card combinations available.
• OR the player can ignore one of the cards in his current combination and come up with an idea based on only 3 cards. For example, you can ignore the card “Additional conditions”. In this case, the game host, if desired, can reduce the Player’s total score if this suits the goals of the game.

“Brevity is the sister of talent!” (Anton Chekhov)

After the idea has been generally conceived, the Player must formulate their business idea briefly and as clearly as possible for others. Oddly enough, this is one of the most difficult and most important stages of the game. 

The ability to formulate your thought or idea into a compact structure that is understandable to others, but at the same time fully reveals the essence of the idea, is one of the key skills of a good manager and entrepreneur. This skill can and should be trained. Simplify the complex, shorten the long. 

The formulation of a business idea shouldn’t exceed 2 sentences and 15-20 words.

The project description section consists of 6 mandatory and 5 optional fields.

1. Project name.
   • Come up with a catchy and memorable name for your startup.
2. The main idea of ​​the project.
   • Briefly describe what your project is in one or two sentences. For example, “Our platform helps people find the perfect job in minutes.” 
3. The problem of clients.
   • Describe the problem as it applies to your target audience. Describe how they are currently solving this problem. 
4. Solution.
   • Explain how your product solves these problems. For example, “We eliminate the problem of a long job search by offering instant job matching powered by artificial intelligence.” 
5. Market.
   • Describe your market and its potential, imagine its size and scope: how many people might be interested in your product or service.
6. Product.
   • Explain what your product or service is and how it works. The key is to make sure that even someone who is hearing about it for the first time immediately understands what it is all about.

The decision on whether to fill them out is made by the game organizer, teacher, or business trainer, depending on the goals of the game and the composition of the participants.

7. Goals and plans.
   • Share what your goals and next steps are as you grow your business. 
8. Team
   • Tell us briefly about each member of your team, their role in the project, strengths, and competencies.
9. Competitors
   • Highlight your key competitors and tell us how you differ from them.
10. Finance
    • Demonstrate your key planned financial indicators and the economic viability of your project.
11. Additional information
    • Any additional information about your project. For example, a brief statement of the proposal to investors.

After the Player has come up with and described his project, it is necessary to click the “Publish” button, and the description of the Player’s project will become available to the Game Organizer (Teacher or Business Trainer) in his account for reading, evaluation, and clarifying questions for the Player.

The decision on the necessity of this stage is made by the Organizer (Teacher or business trainer), depending on the goals and format of the game.

This stage of the game is designed to develop public speaking skills and present your projects. 

Each player, using the description of their project, prepares and conducts a public presentation of their project to other players and the Game Organizer. Imagine that you are speaking to a group of potential investors or large potential clients. The main goal of your presentation is to convince investors to invest money in the development of your project, and/or convince clients to buy your product. 

Every raised hand from your audience is considered equal to $1,000,000 in potential investment in your project. 

The winners are the participants in the game who attract the largest amount of investment into their startup.

This is an important and completely free stage of the game, which is invented and implemented by the Game Organizer. This can be a good grade, a credit, academic points, or even a chocolate bar. But moral encouragement and praise of each participant in the game for their courage and imagination are mandatory. Nothing motivates future entrepreneurs more than moral support from others and confidence in their strengths!