The Startup Game.

the context

Flexiple’s biggest lead gen channel is founder Karthik Sridharan’s personal brand. Tweets and threads were performing well. Engagement wasn’t the problem. But likes and comments don’t convert. We needed newsletter subscribers we could actually nurture into customers.

We’d been publishing across all of Karthik’s content pillars:

All were performing great. But the format was getting boring. I wanted something that would make his followers pay attention beyond just liking the post.

the idea

Everyone loves reading founder stories and how they made it. But reading is passive. What if you could play through a founder’s journey instead?

The Startup Game puts you in the founder’s seat. At every decision point, two choices. One is what the founder actually did. The other is the tempting alternative, and the game walks you through exactly why it would’ve killed the company.

Engaging enough to hold attention. Simple enough to turn into a series. And at the end, one CTA: subscribe to Karthik’s newsletter.

the execution

I kept the stack simple on purpose. Basic backend. Images through Recraft. The only thing that had to be exceptional was the storytelling.

If the choices aren’t genuinely tempting, nobody cares. If nobody finishes, nobody sees the CTA. The entire format lives and dies on whether the writing makes you want to click the next decision.

8 games launched. Each one built around a real founder and the decisions that shaped their company.

the impact

Play the game here →