About the Game
The rules are still changing and evolving, something drastically.
Goals
SWAGGER is a competitive venture capital game that captures the excitement and strategic depth of being an investor in startups.
The goal of the game is to teach people how venture capital works by putting players in the shoes of a fund manager.
Swagger is not a pure simulation. It is not about teaching VC terminology or mirroring fund structures or deal terms. There are two reasons for this.
First, learning fund math and terminology is not essential to understanding how venture capital actually works. Eg, there is no mention of Series A or B in Swagger or attempts to mirror today's valuations or round sizes.
Swagger organically teaches players to allocate capital strategically and to decide when to be a tougher negotiator (or abandon a startup altogether).
Second, simulations are not that fun. Swagger is designed to be both education and fun. It should be fun for entrepreneurs who want to learn about VC. And educational for people who just want to have fun.
How to Play
Swagger is a game of balancing capital, risk, timing and the decisions of other players. Over 8 turns, each player manages a portfolio of companies and tries to finish with the most cash.
Players start with a fixed fund size, usually $60M. They select which companies to invest in to build their portfolio. They make initial seed investments in those companies and reserve the rest of the capital as dry powder.
Each Turn
- Buy Skills based on how advanced your portfolio is. Skill are unique player actions.
- Reveal an Industry Trend card that affects all companies.
- Spend Focus to make investments or execute growth strategies.
- Resolve Investments and co-investments
- Apply Growth, using cash to build up equity in the company.
- Update company stages and resolve any IPOs.
Winning
After 8 turns, the player with the most cash wins. Players who did not at least triple their fund size did not beat the market.
Swagger allows players to develop different strategy in successive games, from risky all-in strategies to balanced portfolios that emphasize alliances with other investors.