Show HN: A game where you invest into startups from history

(startupgambit.com)

43 points | by vire00 5 months ago ago

36 comments

  • hex4def6 4 months ago

    I think the forced countdown is a bit unfriendly, especially when LLM delays eat the majority of that. Perhaps limit it to X questions.

    Also, having a min / max funding range (e.g, min 100K, max 500K). I might not want to wager the same on each opportunity.

    It might also be interesting to base it off real companies. Scramble the names (Paypal -> CashMate or whatever. Enough that the player doesn't know for sure what company its based on. ATi vs nVidia for eg), and also allow investment at multiple points in time. Pre-crash vs post-crash might yield significantly different ROI outcomes.

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Thanks for feedback. The successful startups are actually always based of real companies for example ClaritySearch = Google. I'll try to make that part clearer.

  • oceansky 4 months ago

    Not playable on mobile browser

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Mobile is next!

  • frenchmajesty 4 months ago

    Fun game! My investing strategy is to flush out quickly who's the team, what's the traction, what's unique insight into the market.

    Bullshitters have trash or no answers. Killer companies have one of those 3 that is usually very compelling.

    • volkk 4 months ago

      i've asked who's the team 3 times and always got "can't disclose." i figured this was a limitation of the game. do some answer?

      • frenchmajesty 4 months ago

        I do get answers. The ones who typically said can't disclose are you full of shit. Crack teams know they're cracked and they will tell you.

        "I'm a MIT-trained security engineer; I'm an ex-VP at Paypal, etc..."

  • ivraatiems 4 months ago

    This is a genuinely great use of LLMs/related technology. Dynamic characters you can have conversations with to make game choices more informed is a really cool idea, actually feels original and clever. I really enjoyed playing it.

  • jmkd 4 months ago

    Stopped / crashed Dec 31 2005 with $358K return. Cannot proceed. Fun until then.

    • cjs_ac 4 months ago

      Same - I think that's the end of the game (so far?)

    • frenchmajesty 4 months ago

      Yea it ends on that date. I cashed out with $622K

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Yep the game has only 5 years so far.

      • vire00 4 months ago

        It was supposed to show "end of demo, please sign up". Welp there goes potential users :D

  • anonu 4 months ago

    nice game - but you need a UX designer. Almost abandoned it since I thought it was broken... I just didnt know what I was waiting for or didnt know where to click.

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Noted, actually UX & appearance was the next thing on my TO-DO list

  • cosmicgadget 4 months ago

    I need to be able to type faster, just got done chatting with Mark and I completely missed the opportunity to invest in Quibi.

  • achandra03 4 months ago

    Pretty fun! Only complaint is that the responses from the founders take a bit long to load.

  • lordgrenville 4 months ago

    I tried investing in every pitch I got, which seems to be a positive strategy.

  • westurner 4 months ago

    Re: backtesting and paper trading: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38908537 :

    > pyfolio.tears.create_interesting_times_tear_sheet

  • mike-gongolidis 4 months ago

    Love it! Very smart! Are all the company names real?

    • Delk 4 months ago

      I'm pretty sure they aren't. I invested in what was obviously Facebook under a different name.

      • Jordan-117 4 months ago

        I got "SalesForce" at one point.

    • vire00 4 months ago

      No but the successful ones are always inspired by something. Eg. Google, Paypal etc.

  • arkensaw 4 months ago

    fun, but it seems if I just invest in everything I don't lose.

    I get 3x/4x return on a lot of things but only lose <1x if its a bad investment

  • stevenalowe 4 months ago

    Illegible in Safari on iPhone :(

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Not for long!

  • asadm 4 months ago

    very cool game! needs some juice.

    https://garden.bradwoods.io/notes/design/juice

    also, add a leaderboard

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Reading it now. This is really useful.

  • andrewrn 4 months ago

    This is pretty fun!

  • frenchmajesty 4 months ago

    Damn. Now I understand VC's a little better.

    Some deals I saw "damn the traction is off the chart" and I didn't even care to ask any question I just threw money at them. I saw one startup named Salesforce, a CRM. I guess hindsight is 20/20 on that one lol. Didn't even read the pitch.

    This game is awesome

  • tglobs 4 months ago

    This is fantastic. It's pretty frustrating for founders to flat-out refuse to answer questions though, I'd probably make that more subtle

    • vire00 4 months ago

      Thanks. Yeah right now they refuse usually when they don't know the answer. Will polish that part more.