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If you are among the many aspiring student-innovators or startup founders, who need to sharpen their understanding about various aspects of the proposed business, and tell a convincing story to prospective customers, co-founders/employees and investors, then the Startup game is just the right thing for you… ‘The Startup Game’ is a delightful experiential card game that consists of 6 groups of cards - each group representing a phase in the evolution of a startup, viz., Define, Discover, Design, Develop, Deliver, Drive. Each Player draws a card from a pre-decided Phase. Each card gives him a simple description of a concept or startup scenario and asks him to respond with a specific action representative of that concept/ scenario within the context of the selected phase. For example, in the Discover stage (group of cards), he could draw a card called “Customer Journey” and expect the player to describe the typical day in the life of his customer. The complete knowledge and understanding about the customer and the ability of the founder to narrate it in vivid terms is a positive indication. Likewise in the Design phase – the player may pick a card titled “Analogy” and is asked to describe his product or service using an analogy of an animal. Going through each of the 60 cards can really prepare the student/innovator/founder by way of clarity of thought and the ability to communicate every aspect of his business effectively. The game can be played by 1-4 players and takes approx. 45 mins. with scope for an additional member joining in at any stage. The cards are designed with a lot of thought as the concepts defined can benefit at any phase of the business. They also act as an ideation toolbox for initial brainstorming for a business plan from product to service. Corporate houses can use the game as an intervention-tool for their marketing and new product development. How does it feel to play the game? Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse and Prof. Manmeet Barve asked students at the e-cell of WeSchool’s - innovation centre (INNOWE) to play this game as a part of the Startup mentoring activity. Here is what students had to say about the game: “Decent game for us to move from Ideation to business planning and helps to work upon a new idea”. - Piyush Surana, PGDM BD 2016-18 “I have learned new and useful terms like Archetypes and A/B Testing, while playing ‘The Startup Game’” - Ajinkya Hendre, PGDM - eBiz 2016-18 “For the first time, this game has facilitated me to share my thoughts effectively with my classmates” Shraddha Ghode, PGDM - Retail 2016-18 “‘The Startup Game’ would benefit me to improve profitability for my family business”. Devyani Jha, PGDM - HCM 2016-18 Summing up, we think the startup game is a great way to introduce students, innovators and founders to a wide variety of concepts related to a startup and help them develop a better understanding about their own business and be able to articulate it in an effective manner like we hear on programs such as the Shark Tank. To our mind, this game is a must-have for startup/ incubation centres, practically all graduate and post graduate institutions, which nurture startups as well as corporate training departments and innovation cells. In fact, it can become the card game played even in every household, which wishes to nurture budding entrepreneurs. An area on improvement could be the introduction of additional nuanced concepts that can probe insights on the myriad aspects of a growing business. Game reviewed by: Dr. Pradeep Pendse, Dean IT/e-Business/Business Design/Analytics, WeSchool Prof. Manmeet Barve, Professor Incharge of Startups, WeSchool Above Students of the aforesaid programs at WeSchool The creators of this game – Johannes van den Eerenbeemt, Niels Sipkema, Gerard Drost, Martijn Evers and Bjorn Uyens – work as a collective helping entrepreneurs to be entrepreneurial. Publishers: BIS Publishers Author: Bjorn Uyens Dimensions: 14 x 11 x 4 cm Pages: 68 cards in a box Price: €15,00 check out visuals of the game on indiaartndesign.com
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