FounderLab

Welcome to FounderLab

The Business Simulation Platform for Entrepreneurship Education

Build your startup. Make real decisions. Compete for the top spot on the leaderboard.

FounderLab

Quick Start Guide

Everything you need to know to hit the ground running — read this before Unit 1.

Your goal

Run a startup. Make smart decisions each unit. Maximize your company's valuation by the end of the simulation.

Six steps to get started

1

Join your class & create your company

Your instructor will give you an invite code or link. Once you join, your group creates a company name. You start with cash (equity) and a startup loan — check the Dashboard to see your opening balances before you do anything else.
2

Understand your starting position

Open the Financials page. Know these four numbers before Unit 1:

Cash on hand

Your lifeline. Never let it hit zero.

Startup loan principal

You repay this with interest every unit.

Owner equity

Your net worth — and your valuation floor.

Employees

Affects how many customers you can serve.

3

Submit your first decision — every lever explained

Go to Decision Center. Set all of these each unit:
Price: Stay in your industry range in Unit 1. Start near the middle. Straying too far hurts your conversion rate.
Marketing Spend: Drives new customer acquisition. More spend = more customers, but it follows diminishing returns.
R&D Spend: Builds product quality over time. Reduces churn. Even a small budget compounds over 12 units.
Support Spend: Reduces churn rate from 8% down to 2%. Retaining customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones.
Headcount: Too few staff lowers your conversion rate (floor: 0.7×). Too many creates payroll drag. Hire steadily.

Always click Submit before the deadline. Draft decisions do not count toward your grade.

Missed deadline? If you don't submit, the simulation auto-processes your unit with a default price and zero spend — and applies a 50% revenue penalty. All your costs still run at full price. You'll see a red warning on your dashboard and a badge on the leaderboard.

4

Read your results after each unit

After your instructor processes the unit, go to Financials. Three things to check:
Gross Margin % — is it near your industry benchmark? If not, you have a pricing or cost problem.
Ending Cash — trending down fast? Cut discretionary spend before it's an emergency.
Valuation — your score. Check the Market View to see how you compare to competitors.
5

Watch the Events Log for shocks

External events — economic downturns, viral moments, competitor funding — fire automatically. Some help, most hurt. Check the Events Log each unit. The best defence is a cash buffer and lean cost structure.

Your Dashboard shows a color-coded alert banner for any shock scheduled in the current decision unit, plus a preview of upcoming shocks — so you can plan before you submit.

🟢 VIRAL_MOMENT

Boosts demand

🔴 ECONOMIC_DOWN

Cuts revenue

🟡 TALENT_WAR

Raises CAC

6

Expand internationally (if your tier allows)

Expansion unlocks after Unit 2 — the options first appear in your Unit 3 decision. From then on, once your home market is profitable, you can enter new markets via the Decision Center. Always start with Direct Export — it's the lowest risk. Then Distributor, then Joint Venture.
Timing: Direct Export and Distributor from Unit 3, Joint Venture from Unit 5 (after Unit 4), New Entity from Unit 7 (after Unit 6). Limit: entry strategies plus target markets cannot exceed 2 per round — one market with one strategy per unit.
Direct Export1.1× revenueLowest risk — start here
Distributor1.25× revenuePartner handles local logistics
Joint Venture1.4× revenueShared ownership, higher upside
New Entity1.6× revenueMaximum revenue, maximum complexity

Set a separate price per market in the Decision Center — markets like India and Southeast Asia need lower prices than the US (lower purchasing power).

On the Market Intelligence map, every company gets a random starting footprint of about 10% of the cells — free from Unit 1, the same size for everyone, and unrelated to your customer count. Buying a cell only reveals its demand and competitors; paying to enter a cell is the one thing that adds a new selling segment.

Line of Credit — if cash runs low

If your decisions would push you into negative cash, the simulation automatically opens a Line of Credit to cover the shortfall — but only once per cycle, and only if your previous unit ended with positive cash. You pay interest on the balance every unit. Pay it off using the LOC Payoff field in the Decision Center. If cash hits zero and no LOC is available → your company is bankrupt.

How you're graded — 4 criteria, 25% each

Final Valuation 25%

Your company's value vs. the class average

Profitability 25%

Net income ÷ revenue across all units

Customer Growth 25%

Customers gained from Unit 1 to the end

Decision Consistency 25%

% of units where you submitted decisions

Golden rules

Never let cash go to zero — build a buffer early.
Submit every unit — draft decisions score zero on Decision Consistency.
Balance marketing, R&D, and support — don't pour everything into one.
Fix home market profitability before expanding internationally.
Check your Gross Margin % every unit against the industry benchmark.
Use the Market View to see how you compare to competitors.