Show HN: Startup Equity Adventure Game (options-game-polymathrobotics.pythonanywhere.com)

36 points by iliabara ↗ HN
I put this together (with Claude) as a semi-gamified way for folks to learn about startup equity. Take a look, and share your scorecard :)

19 comments

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(comment deleted)
Quick equation:

1. is it an ai lab with a well know founder -> equity might be worth something

2. are you the CEO founder? -> equity might be worth something

3. are you a non CEO co founder? -> equity might be worth something, will probably be stolen from you

4. is the company a year or two from a certain IPO? equity might be worth something

5. all other cases likely zero

Yeah, that’s not how my company operates. I’m maintaining my majority share by splitting only. The VCs can go along, or they can hope their next investment is the unicorn.
It doesn't understand authorized vs issued shares
In practice, for YC or similar Bay area US startups, they are the same.

All authorized shares are issued, and then the charter is amended through board action and more shares are authorized and issued at each stage.

so many erroneous statements in this game. also it's not much of a "game", is it.
Ya, I'd appreciate pointers if there are errors :)
Thank you for python anywhere, I will add that to my chasm of free hosters.
Ya for sure, and even paid account is very cheap, few dollars a month
SaaSyCryptoAI - Leverage our custom AI driven backend to mint your own coin! Seriously though, great little lesson. It would be nice to factor in internal raises and a bit of granularity for when exercises happened to see final payouts and similar bonus topics but I would recommend this to anyone thinking about taking a job with options involved.
Add the effects of "preferred overhang" on employee payouts for various different exit outcomes like acquisitions. Usually only founders and investors with "preferred shares" see anything and those with common stock (employees) see theirs get completely eaten by the overhang.
Depends on the outcome.

If it's a positive outcome, then preference has no role.

This game models good outcomes, with warnings for things like down rounds

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Hey thanks!

There are a ton of edge cases, but the goal was to serve as an intro, and to get a grasp of the basics.

Links in the intro to a more serious look at things.

Useful! I like playing such games where u simulate something from real world so you get playground to do mistakes.