THE FOUNDER PRACTICE ROOM / A FIELD GUIDE
A founder's first decision room should be open before the stakes are real. Practice reading constraints, making a call, and testing what the evidence actually says.
Start Relay →Read the room. Make a call. Check the record.
01 / WHY THE GAME EXISTS
Accelerators and experienced mentors are not available to every founder. This room lets you rehearse the questions that shape a decision: what is constrained, what would count as evidence, and what will the choice cost in time or cash?
Learn to read the tradeoff. Follow cash, runway, customer evidence, and promises through each decision. State a prediction, make a call, and compare the record with what you expected.
02 / PICK YOUR ROOM
01 FOUNDER CAMPAIGN
Start as a guest. Work through the operating and financing decisions, then complete six current investor defenses. After the finish, register or sign in to request server replay of that exact run. A verified owner-bound score of 85/100 or higher unlocks the optional My Pitch workspace.
Enter Relay02 COMPANY CURRICULUM
Study one company challenge at a time. Only the next case is available; score 85 or higher to unlock the following case. This is a separate curriculum and is not a Relay prerequisite.
Open the case library03 YOUR OWN MATERIAL
Build an evidence board from your own company information. Read-only account copies can be opened after sign-in. Editing, coaching, and submitting a custom pitch require the verified Relay qualification above.
Read the qualification rule03 / THE RELAY MANUAL
See cash, runway, paying shops, and the declared market event before choosing.
Choose one available move and record what you expect it to prove. The opening offers interviews, a pilot, a delegated rollout, or protecting capacity. Each move spends cash and founder time.
Compare the result with your prediction. Review the cash, customer evidence, and remaining gap before continuing.
Try the next decision, revisit a saved round, or use a company parallel to test the same idea in another setting.
Relay presents six current investor defenses, one turn at a time. Answer each defense with your reasoning; the board records the answer for the run. Once reviewed, open the saved answers to inspect feedback or ask a question about that feedback. The question path is an explainer, not a seventh scored defense.
Each defense contributes to the reasoning grade using its published weight. Evidence coverage, preparation, and business outcomes remain separate from that grade.
04 / RELAY QUALIFICATION
A verified Relay score of 85/100 or higher unlocks optional My Pitch. Below 85, keep learning in Relay; at 85 or higher, choose whether to continue or work with your own company.
New Relay runs use assessment version 2: 60% case-specific reasoning and 40% source use. Each investor answer earns up to 18 reasoning points and 12 source-use points, for 30 combined. Source-use credit requires the correct inference and the matching inspected record, or the authored missing-evidence path where no relevant observation exists. Selecting a record alone does not earn source-use points. Zero source-use points caps the qualification score at 60.
The six weights are Imani 25, Soren 20, Mara 20, Nadia 15, Elias 10 and Victor 10. Each award is its weight × combined points ÷ 30, rounded to the nearest whole point (exact halves round up); awards sum to at most 100. Complete all six defenses and earn at least 85 to unlock the optional custom pitch after registration and server verification. The receipt shows every award. Business outcomes remain separate; this practice benchmark is not investor readiness.
Earlier saved version-1 assessments retain their original reasoning-only rules and grades: 30 or 0 points per authored multiple-choice reason, weighted by the same six weights. They are not silently regraded. Free-text coaching questions and AI replies never award assessment points. The server replays saved choices against their versioned rules.
Round each weighted award separately before adding them. An exact half rounds up: 12.5 becomes 13. For example, a 30/30 Imani defense contributes 25 points; a 0/30 defense contributes 0. Later missions can use their own published rubrics; they do not replace this initial qualification.
85/100 is our chosen game progression threshold, not a researched investor-readiness benchmark or funding prediction. It qualifies your recorded reasoning, not the health of your company: poor cash or customer outcomes can coexist with a qualifying grade. Review those outcomes and remaining proof gaps separately. Prediction accuracy earns no qualification points; it helps you compare expectations with results. An unsaved guest result cannot unlock My Pitch. Finish Relay, register or sign in, and attach the exact history for server replay. “Owner-bound” means the server ties the verified receipt to your signed-in account; a browser score or someone else’s receipt cannot substitute.
Account copies of pitches can be read after sign-in; editing, coaching and submitting a custom pitch still require the verified Relay threshold.
It is a progression rule chosen for this game, not an external industry standard or proof of investor readiness. The server checks the completed run and account ownership; a displayed browser number alone does not qualify an account.
05 / TIME IS A RESOURCE
Weekly capacity starts at 40 hours: 16 reserved obligations leave 24 available project hours. Do not subtract the reserve twice. One operating move advances seven days and starts the next weekly window. Rollout requires its quoted delegation to fit.
06 / YOUR RECORD
Relay can be played as a guest. A guest result alone does not unlock My Pitch. To qualify, finish Relay, register or sign in, then submit the exact run history for the server to replay. If replay cannot verify the run or owner binding, the account does not receive the qualification.
Keep claims separate. Linked company cases are historical learning references with sources. In My Pitch, your company statements remain your own and unknown evidence stays unknown.
The page reports when a run cannot be saved or qualification replay cannot be verified. A local or unsaved score is not a server receipt and cannot unlock the workspace. Keep the run available and retry the account replay flow; if the server cannot confirm the exact history, qualification remains unavailable.
MY PITCH / PRACTICE FEEDBACK
The pitch workspace reviews 20 fixed criteria worth 100 points across traction, market, economics, product, team, and terms. A score is practice feedback. It is not investor interest, a funding offer, or a forecast.