Startup Simulator
Learn to Build a Business Without Risk

• Hire Accounting Clerks on the Finance tab — each one reduces DSO by 8 days
• Allocate CEO time to Finance — at 100%, reduces DSO by 20 more days
• Buy BI Tool or Analytics Platform software in IT — further DSO reduction
• Target DSO below 30 days for healthy cash flow. Floor is 15 days (irreducible processing time)

Payroll hits the 15th and 30th every month. If your cash balance drops below zero and your line of credit is maxed, the game ends instantly — even if you have profitable clients and $50K in uncollected AR. Cash timing is everything.

• Drop unprofitable clients — Account Management tab shows margin per client. Clients below 15% margin cost you money
• Add premium products — Variable data, HIPAA, regulated mail all command higher per-piece pricing
• Hire a Controller on the Finance tab — unlocks an EV multiplier bonus
• Complete initiatives like SOC 2 or ISO 9001 — these boost your EV multiple directly

Enterprise Value = EBITDA × Multiple. Your multiple starts at 5× and grows with certifications, technology investment, and client retention rates. The $100M goal requires roughly $12–20M annual EBITDA depending on what multiple you've built.

• Win clients first, then hire to serve them — never hire in anticipation of revenue
• First hire: Operator (once you have 1 client). Second: Account Manager (once you have 2–3)
• Watch the CEO Reports counter on the CEO tab — hire a manager when it hits 5
• HR staff reduce turnover — cheap insurance once you have 8+ employees

If you pay below market (25th percentile) and have no HR staff, annual turnover can hit 20–30%. Every departure costs 1–3 months of lost productivity and hiring lag. The HR tab lets you set pay percentile and buy benefits packages that reduce this dramatically.

• Hire Account Managers — they conduct EBRs that directly boost health recovery
• Clear service tickets within 3 days — aged tickets (7+ days) drain health fast
• Clear dev/programming tickets within 5 days — these hurt even more (clients cancel at 60 days)
• Keep error rate below 3% — errors above 1% passively drain health every day
• Watch the renewal probability column in the Account Management roster

Service tickets are handled by Customer Service Reps (status questions, reprints, basic issues). Dev/programming tickets require Developers (data file changes, integrations, composition edits). Complex products like Variable Data and HIPAA generate significantly more dev tickets — plan accordingly.

• The Operations tab shows your bottleneck in real time — it names the constraint directly
• Labor utilization above 100% means your team is overloaded and OTD drops — hire Operators
• Each piece of equipment has a labor hours requirement — equipment without operators runs at reduced efficiency
• QA Inspectors reduce error rate by 2.5% each — critical once you have enterprise clients
• Implement Lean Manufacturing (CEO Initiative) for free — no cost, just 20 days of CEO time, −1.5% errors

OTD affects renewal probability and client health. Above 95% is excellent. Below 90%, you're visibly missing SLAs. Missing delivery for 90+ consecutive days triggers client cancellation regardless of health score. Always keep print, insert, and processing capacity above your daily volume requirement.

• Print Quality — buy better equipment, reduce error rates, increase capacity
• Data Processing — invest in IT software, processing equipment, cloud platforms
• Compliance — complete SOC 2, HIPAA, banking certs, and regulated product research
• Technology — unlock R&D products and upgrade them to higher levels
• Delivery — push OTD above 95% and fulfillment rate above 90%
• Service — keep client health above 75 and maintain strong AM coverage

Use your first 2 years wisely. By Year 3, competitors start entering the market and their features grow every month. If your scores are low when they arrive, they'll immediately threaten your clients and win rate.

• Start with the cheap, high-impact trio: MFA ($2K), Email Security ($6K), Security Training ($3K)
• Add Backup & DR ($12K) early — halves recovery time when an attack happens
• Cyber Insurance ($1,500/mo) halves outage duration (financial coverage + faster IR)
• Big investments: SIEM ($25K) and Managed SOC ($30K) for late-game hardening
• Complete the ISO 27001 initiative for +12 posture points

Your attack surface score (0–100%) is driven purely by company size — clients, revenue, headcount. You can't reduce it, only defend against it. The bigger you get, the more attractive a target you are. Security investment must scale with the company or your risk profile explodes.

• Hire a Controller on the Finance tab — unlocks the Finance EV multiplier
• SOC 2 certification — +15% EV multiplier, also improves close rates with enterprise clients
• Diverse client book — high client concentration (top client >30% of revenue) penalizes your multiple
• High client retention — recurring revenue with multi-year contracts is valued more highly
• Technology stack — unlocked products like HIPAA, omnichannel, and variable data increase the multiple

At a 5× base multiple, you need ~$20M annual EBITDA. At an 8× multiple (achievable with SOC 2, Controller, and strong retention), you need ~$12.5M. The fastest path to $100M isn't just growing revenue — it's building the certifications and systems that expand your multiple while you grow.