Runway: a startup simulation on burn, growth and the Series A
Runway is months, not dollars, and a raise takes four of them. Start the raise from strength, while you still have time in hand.
- Six decisions over 12 months: hiring, marketing, price and fundraising
- Four Series A tests on screen: revenue, growth, churn and burn multiple
- A hidden funding market and hidden price sensitivity, hinted by the news
- Run out of cash and the game ends early, as it would for real
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first: no sign-up, about five minutes.
Is there an online startup simulation that teaches runway, burn and when to raise money?
Runway from Bodhih Arena is a 20-minute startup simulation in which you are CEO of a seed-stage software company with $1.7M in the bank. Over six two-month decisions you hire, set marketing spend and price, and choose when and how to raise a Series A, aiming to meet investors' tests before the cash runs out.
What is Runway?
Runway is a single-player entrepreneurship simulation. You run Loopwise, which sells scheduling software to companies with field technicians, priced per technician seat each month. You start with 60 customer accounts, $30k of monthly revenue, four engineers and two sales reps. Six times, covering 12 months, you decide hiring, paid marketing, the seat price for new customers and fundraising. Series A investors check revenue, growth, churn and burn multiple. The server scores survival, growth quality, capital efficiency and the raise.
Runway at a glance
| Format | Micro-sim, single player |
|---|---|
| Length | About 20 minutes per play |
| Players | One person; every play is a new seeded scenario |
| Devices | Any modern browser on a laptop, tablet or phone |
| Scoring | Scored on the server out of 100, with sub-scores and a debrief |
| Credential | Open Badges 3.0 micro-sim credential at a score of 80 or more, with a public verification page |
| Competencies | Planning and Prioritisation (SPN.5.1), Commercial Acumen (SPN.4.5), Analytical Reasoning (SPN.4.2), Negotiation (SPN.2.3) |
| LMS | LTI 1.3 launch from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L, with grade passback; usable as a Bodhih pathway stage |
| Price for one person | $12 |
| Price per seat | $12 per seat, volume pricing by seat count |
Every hire shortens the runway. So does waiting too long to raise.
Growth at any price looks like success, until investors see the bill
Pushing paid marketing and hiring fast makes the revenue line climb. Investors look at what each new dollar of revenue cost you, and whether customers stay.
The raise starts too late
Founders often begin fundraising when the bank balance becomes frightening. A Series A takes months of founder time, and a business with four months of cash negotiates badly.
Startup courses describe the metrics but never make you trade them
Burn, churn and valuation are easy to define in a lecture. It is harder to choose between one more engineer, one more sales rep and three more months of runway.
Here is the situation you walk into
You are CEO of Loopwise. Plumbers, lift engineers and solar installers use your scheduling software, and their employers pay per technician seat each month. You have $1.7M in the bank, 60 customer accounts, about $30k of monthly revenue and roughly $127k of monthly costs.
Series A investors have told you what they want to see: annual revenue of at least $1.2M, monthly growth of 8% or more, monthly churn of 2.5% or less, and a burn multiple of 2.5 or less. You have 12 months and six decisions.
The news says competitors raised big rounds this month. Or that a startup in your space has just laid off staff. You do not know how hot the market really is, or how much your buyers care about price. You know the clock is running.
6 decisions, one debrief
- STEP 1
Months 1-2: set the plan
Hire up to three engineers (productive after about a month) and up to three sales reps (fully productive after two). Set paid marketing up to $120k a month, knowing each extra $10k buys fewer customers. Choose the seat price for new customers between 40 and 75 dollars; existing customers move to it slowly at renewal.
- STEP 2
Months 3-4: watch the scorecard
Cash, runway at current burn, revenue run-rate, growth, churn and burn multiple update, with charts for cash and monthly recurring revenue. Engineers improve the product with a lag, which lowers churn.
- STEP 3
Months 5-6: is it time to raise?
At any decision you can start a Series A at a modest, market or stretch valuation (about 9, 15 or 24 times revenue), or ask current investors for a quick bridge. A Series A takes about four months, and your sales slow while you are raising.
- STEP 4
Months 7-8: a raise closes or fails
If you started a raise, investors judge your metrics when the round closes, about four months later. Meet too few tests, or ask more than the market will pay, and they pass. You keep building while you decide what to do next.
- STEP 5
Months 9-10: adjust to the result
With new money you can grow harder; without it you may need the bridge, slower hiring or a price change to stretch the runway.
- STEP 6
Months 11-12: hand over the year
The final decision, then the debrief: where you ended, the hidden market mood, how sensitive buyers really were to price, and what your burn multiple says about the growth you bought.
Who Runway is for
- Founders and would-be founders. Practise the trade-offs between hiring, burn and fundraising with someone else's company before you face them with your own savings.
- Entrepreneurship and MBA students. A compact, scored exercise in SaaS metrics, runway and valuation that students can replay and compare.
- Incubator and accelerator cohorts. A shared experience before a session on fundraising: everyone has felt the raise take four months.
- Corporate innovation and venture teams. Internal ventures face the same clock with a budget instead of a bank balance. The discipline of efficient growth transfers directly.
Who should skip it
If you need a full startup financial model or legal guidance on term sheets, this will not provide it; it trains the judgement those tools support.
What a year at Loopwise teaches you
The debrief shows the burn multiple of the growth you bought and the market you were really in, so the next plan you write starts from the right questions.
Treat runway as time
You will count months, not dollars, and start the raise with six to eight months of cash still in hand.
Grow efficiently
You will hire in step with evidence, give sales reps time to ramp, and know when the next marketing dollar costs more than it brings.
Fix churn early
You will see how a better product makes every other number better, and why revenue that leaves next quarter is worth little to an investor.
Raise at a price the market will pay
You will weigh the valuation you want against what investors in this market will pay, and keep a bridge as the fallback. That is negotiation judgement, not just finance.
Make strategic calls with incomplete information
You never see the market mood or buyers' price sensitivity directly. You learn to read signals and plan for more than one outcome.
Learning goals
- Treat runway as time and plan the raise before you need it
- Grow efficiently: watch churn, ramp times and the burn multiple
- Raise from strength at a valuation the market will pay
Skills practised: Startup financial planning, Decision making under uncertainty, Strategic thinking about timing, SaaS metrics: churn, growth, burn multiple, Fundraising and valuation judgement, Commercial judgement on pricing.
Competencies scored
Sub-scores map to the open Bodhih Competency Spine, so results sit beside your other learning records.
What the debrief shows
- Where you ended after 12 months, or the month the cash ran out: revenue, growth, churn, cash and runway
- How much you burned to add how much annual revenue, and how many Series A tests you met
- Your raise: amount, valuation and month, or why investors passed; the hidden market mood and buyers' price sensitivity
- What strong players do, and the key concept: burn multiple
Burn multiple
Net cash burned divided by net new annual recurring revenue in the same period. Below 1.5 is excellent, above 3 means growth is too expensive. It tells investors how efficiently each dollar turns into lasting revenue.
Use Runway with a team
Seats are $12 each. Buy up to 25 seats online and assign them from your company admin; above that, or for a facilitated programme or an institution licence, request a quote and we activate your seats after payment.
An entrepreneurship class or incubator session
Have students play before class, then compare burn multiples and raise timing. The person who raised earliest is rarely the one with the worst outcome.
A stage in a founder or intrapreneur pathway
Add it to a Bodhih pathway before modules on financial models or pitching, so the metrics already mean something.
Selection for venture or innovation programmes
Four sub-scores map to Planning and Prioritisation, Commercial Acumen, Analytical Reasoning and Negotiation on the Bodhih Competency Spine. Each play is newly seeded.
A graded assignment through your LMS
Launch from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L Brightspace via LTI 1.3, with the score passed back to the gradebook.
Volume pricing
| Seats | Per seat | How to buy |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $12 | Online |
| 2 to 10 | $10.80 | Online |
| 11 to 50 | $9.60 | Online up to 25, then quote |
| 51+ | $8.40 | Quote |
Runway or a startup case study?
| Compared on | A case study or slide-based course | Runway |
|---|---|---|
| What you do | Read a founder's story and argue about their choices. | Make six decisions yourself on hiring, marketing, price and fundraising. |
| The clock | Time passes in the narrative, at no cost to the reader. | Every two months your cash moves. A raise takes four of them. |
| Uncertainty | The outcome is known, which colours the discussion. | Market mood and price sensitivity are hidden and revealed only at the end. |
| Replay | Same story, same lesson. | New seed, new market. A second play tests whether your habits changed. |
| Evidence | Participation in discussion. | Four server-scored sub-scores, and a credential at 80 or more. |
| Where a case study is better | Real founders, real markets, the human side of a startup. | One invented company and four metrics. Use it to make a case discussion sharper. |
What to pair with Runway
The Startup Financial Model Kit
Model your own runway next: an 18-sheet three-statement model with scenarios and a unit economics calculator.
See the kit →Pro KitThe Startup Fundraising Kit
The simulation shows that a raise takes months; this kit runs a real round as a system, with a dilution calculator and a 16-week calendar.
See the kit →Pro KitThe First Ten Hires Kit
Hiring in step with evidence is half the game; this kit helps you make those first hires well without an HR team.
See the kit →Pro KitThe Go-to-Market Launch Plan Kit
Price and paid marketing drive your growth score; this kit includes a pricing calculator and a go-to-market workbook for your own product.
See the kit →AssessAll assessmentBehaviour Under Pressure Assessment
A shrinking runway is pressure; this assessment shows what changes about your decisions when it is on.
Take the assessment →Related simulations
How much does Runway cost for one person?
$12, paid online, for your own access to Runway. Each simulation is sold separately.
What about a class, cohort or company?
Seats are $12 each at list price, with volume tiers. Up to 25 seats can be bought online. For bigger cohorts, facilitated sessions or an institution licence, request a quote; you pay offline and we activate the seats.
How long does it take to play?
About 20 minutes for six decisions and the debrief. If you run out of cash, it ends sooner.
What do I get?
The simulation, a score out of 100 with four sub-scores, a debrief built from your own year, the hidden market facts, and Arena leaderboard points if you play through an organisation.
Can I play again with a different strategy?
Yes, as often as you like while your access is active. Each play has a new seed, so the funding market and buyers' price sensitivity may differ from last time.
Is there a certificate?
Score 80 or more for a micro-sim credential issued as an Open Badges 3.0 credential, with a public verification page and Add to LinkedIn.
Do I need startup experience, and what do I play on?
No. Each metric is explained on screen, including burn multiple. It runs in a web browser with nothing to install; a laptop or tablet suits the charts best.
Can we use it in our LMS?
Yes. LTI 1.3 launch from Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard or D2L Brightspace, with grade passback. It also works as a stage in a Bodhih pathway.
Who is Runway for?
Founders, entrepreneurship and MBA students, incubator cohorts and corporate venture teams: anyone who needs to balance growth, cash and fundraising.
How is this different from reading a startup case?
In a case the clock is free and the ending known. In Runway every decision costs months of cash and the market stays hidden until the end. A case still gives you real founders' context.
What data does Bodhih keep?
Your decisions and scores, held in your Bodhih account. If an organisation provides your seat, its admins see results for their own organisation. Full details at bodhih.org/privacy.
Can I get my money back?
The refund terms are at bodhih.org/refunds. Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first, no sign-up needed.
Twelve months. Four tests. One bank balance.
Hire, price, spend and raise, then see what your burn multiple says about the growth you bought. Plan the raise before you need it, and find out whether the market agrees with your valuation.
Want a feel for Arena first? Play the free 3-round Price War.
- Play it as often as you like for 12 months: every play is a new scenario
- A debrief after each play: what happened, why, and what strong players do
- A verifiable credential when you score 80 or more
- Scored on the server, mapped to the Bodhih Competency Spine
Not sure yet? Try the free 3-round Price War first, no sign-up.
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