Noodling/Startup RPG

Overview

Startup themes as framework for PC-run orgs (probably criminal orgs).

Business Plan

As part of game setup, choose a business plan for the organization. This isn't necessarily the long-term business of the campaign (consider how amazon went from selling books to providing core distributed-system components) but it's likely to inform a lot of at least the initial themes. Business plans are built on market inefficiencies - places where resources aren't being exploited fully, or aren't being used efficiently, or where there's a demand that's not satisfied. Examples: a company formed to plunder ancient tombs in the northern flatlands, a band of rogues who've decided the dragontooth gang have lost their grip on their territory and can be muscled out, a cabal of wizards who get together to sell portable magic for home entertainment. In all these cases the ultimate goal of the business plan is to acquire money; you can imagine variants where the goal is to acquire political power or mana or souls or something, but this writeup is done with the premise that money is the point and the currency that things cost to buy and that the organization takes in when successful.

Lifecycle

Generally speaking, things start out with just a couple of people and a business plan. From there they need an MVP, funding, and initial employees, not necessarily in that order. With funding and employees the MVP grows into a more significant product. At some point here competition starts to notice the organization and needs to be dealt with. Around the same time, there are internal issues to be dealt with as the product and organization scales up: how does the model get refined to manage 10x customers or resources, how to hire enough quality employees, how much attention to devote to long-term planning vs immediate demands. As the organization matures, it tends to widen its focus, producing companion products to its main driver and sometimes moving into very different spaces, either for circumstantial or strategic reasons. Often the original founders will leave as the organization no longer suits their taste or skillset, but in any case the organization tends to both grow and ossify. Eventually it stabilizes and growth becomes minimal, and it continues along until it's taken down by some new, scrappier organization.

MVP

The minimum viable product, in this document, is the first serious attempt to do whatever the business plan is: the first tomb raid, the first showdown with the dragontooth gang, whatever. I t probably gets played through in more detail than later versions.

Funding

Organizations need outside funding when the next objective on their business plan requires more resources than they can currently purchase with their organizational income. In some cases funding might be required right from the start - perhaps it's impossible to seize any significant territory from the dragonstooth gang without hiring at least a dozen bravos, because you can't safely hold less than a city block. In other cases the organization might be self-funding for a while (by, say, robbing one tomb at a time and selling the loot) but needs funding to expand (raiding two tombs at once requires hiring another crew, or maybe some complicated equipment is required to cart the expensive statues out of the tombs for sale, or maybe the better tombs are protected by more powerful curses than can currently be handled by the organization). There are a couple common sources of funding:

Self Funding

Self funding is when the founding characters bring their own money into the organization. This isn't usually interesting story-wise but it's usually plausible for people who are established

and successful in their careers already (at least, plausible early on; later in an organization's lifecycle the accumulated wealth of a couple individuals is unlikely to be able to pay for much unless the individuals are unusually wealthy).

Angel Investors and VCs

For purposes of this writeup, angel investors are individual people who give you their personal money, and VCs are individuals who represent a group and give the group's money. They're similar but getting money from an angel investor tends to be more about appealing personality-wise (and secondarily they may have some business concerns) and getting money from a VC tends to be more about presenting a solid business case. In either case, these are active investors - they don't just give you the money, they expect to have some say-so in the direction of the organization and be kept informed (for instance, they might want you to hire somebody as a favor to a friend, or oppose some group). They may also be helpful other than financially, providing connections or advice. Example angel investors: eccentric noble willing to give some money to anyone who flatters him; crochety wizard funding things that might aid her search for eternal life; retired but still canny rogue looking for some safe investments. Example VC groups (remember there's a small number of associated individuals you have to talk to personally to get money): guild of alchemists, mafia analogue, temple of truth.

IPO

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Employees

Mergers & Acquisitions (Moving into new territory via acquisition, moving in for defense against competitors) Competition Funding research and long-term skill sets Generalists vs specialists, relative value Vision Business Plan Pivoting