One thousand dollars in the bank and fifty a day going out.
That is twenty days if you do nothing at all. Founder Mode is a startup simulator built on a real map of San Francisco — the actual streets, the actual hills, and the fog that comes in over Sutro in the morning and goes back out by eleven.
Walk into the hacker house in Hayes Valley. Ship until the product is worth showing. Talk to users in Dolores Park, because it does not scale and that is exactly why it works at ten. Then drive to Sand Hill Road to be told no by somebody with a name.
What is in it
Two accounts
Investors wire into the company and you cannot buy lunch with it. Put yourself on payroll and choose the number.
Real paperwork
Quarterly estimated tax, Delaware's franchise bill, health insurance with a deductible, workers' comp. All of it on the calendar, all of it missable.
A community to build
Host a hackathon, run a meetup, put on your own conference. Community multiplies growth and lowers churn — and it decays if you stop.
The books
A dashboard with thirty days of MRR, ARR, churn, and the processing fee that comes off before any of it reaches you.
A board
Raise a priced round and you acquire several bosses. They ask questions before they vote, and they can replace you.
A clock on every round
Your investors set the numbers and the date. On that date the market prices you at whatever you turned out to be worth.
What is not in it
No accounts. No sign-in. No advertising. No in-app purchases. No analytics service. The app makes no network requests of any kind — everything runs on your phone and stays there. See the privacy policy, which is short because there is very little to say.
Requirements
- iPhone running iOS 18 or later
- Landscape only — it is a driving and walking game and portrait would waste half the screen
- Best with headphones
Something wrong?
The support page answers the common ones, and there is an email address on it that a person reads.