Down Round: Startup CEO Sim

You raised the money. Now survive the people.

Down Round is a swipe-card startup simulator. Every card is someone at your door — your co-founder, your CTO, a reporter, the investor who already owns a piece of you. Swipe left or right. Every answer you give moves four meters: Cash, Morale, Hype, Product.

The catch is that all four kill you at both ends. Run out of cash and it's payroll day. Never spend a dollar you didn't have to, and the board finds someone braver. Zero hype and nobody writes about the shutdown. Maximum hype and somebody finally asks to see the numbers.

SIX ROUNDS, GARAGE TO BELL 426 hand-written cards across The Garage, the Angel Round, Series A, Series B, Series C and the IPO. Ten endings. Only one of them rings the bell.

PLAN THE ROUND, THEN SURVIVE IT Every round opens with a board planning meeting. Pick your terms — take the full round, a tight one, or none at all — then commit your budget to R&D, Growth, Revenue, People or Efficiency. Every track is a trade, not a bonus, and what you commit stays committed. Your burn and runway sit on screen all day, and every hire makes the burn heavier. Keep the board's trust and it forgives a near miss at review. Every round dilutes your stake, and how much you still own when the bell rings decides what kind of IPO it was.

NO TWO RUNS THE SAME Pick one of 10 company types — AI, fintech, Web3, games, health tech, developer tools, marketplace, consumer app, enterprise SaaS, software agency — and one of 10 founders, then name the company yourself. Every pick deals its own private cards into the deck, so the run in front of you is never quite the last one.

WHAT SURVIVES THE RUN 14 achievements, ten of them a permanent legacy bonus on every run after it — also on Game Center, alongside leaderboards for your take at the bell (all-time and weekly) and your longest run. A Hall of Fame holding your record and a gallery of endings to fill in. A run takes 10–20 minutes, and it saves in the middle when the day doesn't cooperate.

BUILT BY HAND 55 original anime-style illustrations, and portraits that breathe, blink, and look let down the moment you lean toward the wrong answer. Every sound effect and every note of the score is synthesized on your device as it plays, darkening chapter by chapter — there is not one audio file in this app.

FREE TO START, ONE PAYMENT TO FINISH The Garage and the Angel Round are free in full. The paywall appears only after you have passed your first board review — never after a loss, because being replaced is an ending too, and it belongs in your Hall of Fame like any other. All 10 company types and all 10 founders are free. Series A through the IPO unlocks with a single one-time purchase. Not a subscription.

Bridge Loans are an optional consumable, and your first one in every run is free. One will pull a blown meter back from the edge, buy a board round you came up short on, pass on a card you would rather not answer, or cover a headhunter's fee to bring someone in early. You never need one to reach the bell.

NO STRINGS No ads. No account. No tracking. No connection needed to play — the whole game runs on your device. Game Center is optional; sign in only if you want the leaderboards.

Playable in English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Deutsch, Français, 日本語 and 한국어.

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