Startup Rules

Core Ideas

• Startup is a competitive deck-building game. Each player has a personal employee deck, hand, and discard pile.
• Employee cards give resources, actions, or special effects when played.
• Clients are shared opportunities in the client pool. Each player tracks their own interest on each client.
• Hype is compared during funding rounds. The startup with the most hype earns the top funding payout, and the startup with the second-most hype earns the second payout.
• Card text and market trends override the general rules.

Resources

Money

Used mainly to hire employees. It is also part of your final score.

Widgets

Products you spend when closing clients.

Interest

Tokens placed on clients. Your interest belongs to you, not to the client in general. You cannot place more than 1 interest on a single client in one turn unless a card says otherwise.

Sales

Turn-only closing power. To close a client, you need the required Sales, the listed Widgets, enough of your own Interest, and more Interest on that client than any other startup. Sales reset to 0 at the end of your turn.

Quality

Turn-only price improvement. Each Quality usually adds +$1 to every client you close that turn. Quality resets to 0 at the end of your turn.

Hype

Investor attention. During funding, the most hype earns $10 and the second-most hype earns $5, with ties sharing the same position's reward. Hype then resets to 0.

Draw

Draw cards from your deck.

Action / Play

Play employees from your hand. Plays reset to 0 at the end of your turn.

Hire

Hire an employee from the hiring pool or available C-Suite stock.

Fire

Remove an employee from your hand or played cards and gain its printed cost. If it does not cost $0, place it on the bottom of the global employee deck.

Promote

Fire the promoted employee, then hire any employee from the hiring pool for free. The new employee's printed cost must be higher than the fired employee's printed cost and no more than $2 higher.

Employees

Cards you hire and play. Their printed cost is their employee value. Employees in the Any department count as every department for card effects, trends, and same-department checks.

Company Value

Your final score: money plus the printed cost of all employees you own.

Setup

1. Each player starts with one copy of each $0 employee.
2. Remove the remaining $0 employees from the employee deck.
3. Give each player $10.
4. Deal three Founder Traits to each player. Each player chooses one and returns the other two to the box.
5. Shuffle the employee deck and reveal seven employees to form the hiring pool.
6. Below the hiring pool, set aside two copies of each C-Suite employee. C-Suite stock is available to hire, but it does not refresh during funding rounds.
7. Shuffle the client deck and reveal clients equal to the number of players plus two.
8. Reveal one Market Trend for the first year.
9. The last person to go on vacation goes first. In the HTML version, the first listed player starts.

Turn Structure

On your turn, you normally start with 2 Actions / Plays, 1 Hire, 0 Interest, 0 Sales, and 0 Quality. Cards, founder traits, and market trends can change these numbers.

During your turn, you may take available actions in any order.

Playing Employees

Spend 1 Play to play an employee from your hand unless an effect says otherwise. Resolve all printed values and special text immediately.

Played employees stay in your hand area, marked as played, until the end of your turn.

Placing Interest

Spend 1 Interest to place one of your interest tokens on a client in the pool. You may not place more than one interest token on the same client during the same turn unless a card says otherwise. Other players' interest on that client does not count for you.

Hiring Employees

Spend 1 Hire and pay the employee's current hiring cost to hire an employee from the hiring pool or C-Suite. Put the hired employee into your discard pile unless a card or founder trait says otherwise. If you hired from the rotating hiring pool, refill the hiring pool back to seven cards. If you hired from the C-Suite, reduce that C-Suite stock by one.

If a card has an extra hiring cost, such as hype, pay that cost in addition to money.

Closing Clients

To close a client, you must have all of the following:

• At least the listed Sales available this turn.
• At least the listed Widgets.
• At least the listed amount of your own Interest on that client.
• More Interest on that client than any other startup has.
• Any hype condition shown on that client.

When you close a client, spend the required Sales and Widgets, gain money equal to the client's value, remove the client, and refill the client pool. Interest tokens on a closed client are removed with that client.

Quality

Quality lasts only for the current turn. Each Quality usually adds +$1 to the value of every client you close that turn. Some clients multiply Quality, such as clients where Quality affects the price double.

Promote

1. Fire the employee being promoted.
2. Choose any employee in the hiring pool.
3. The new employee's printed cost must be higher than the promoted employee's printed cost and no more than $2 higher.
4. Hire the new employee for free.
5. Put the new employee into your discard pile unless an effect says otherwise.
6. Refill the hiring pool.

Promotion uses printed cost, not temporary hire discounts or market cost changes.

Examples: a $0 employee can promote into a $1 or $2 employee. A $2 employee can promote into a $3 or $4 employee.

Fire

When you fire an employee, remove it from your hand or played cards and gain money equal to its printed cost. If the fired employee does not cost $0, place it on the bottom of the global employee deck. Fired employees are no longer part of your company and do not count toward final company value.

Attacks And Protection

Some employee cards affect another startup. These cards have the Attack trait. If a player has a Security Officer available, it can prevent one enemy employee from affecting that player. After preventing the effect, the Security Officer is discarded or its shield is spent.

End Of Turn

1. Resolve any end-of-turn effects.
2. Discard your hand and all played employees.
3. Draw five cards.
4. If your deck runs out, shuffle your discard pile into a new deck and continue drawing. You may do this only once per turn.

Turn-only resources, including Plays, Interest, Sales, and Quality, reset at the start of your next turn.

Funding Rounds

The game lasts 16 quarters. A quarter is complete after every player has taken one turn.

1. After quarters 4, 8, 12, and 16, run a funding round.
2. Apply founder traits and market trends that trigger during funding.
3. The player with the most hype gains $10. The player with the second-most hype gains $5. Players tied for a position each get that position's reward.
4. Reset every player's hype to 0.
5. Reveal the next Market Trend for the next year, unless the game is over.
6. Discard and refill the seven-card hiring pool. C-Suite employees stay where they are.

Market Trends

The active Market Trend changes the rules while it is in effect. Market Trends can change hiring costs, client requirements, payouts, end-of-turn effects, and other parts of the game. If a trend conflicts with a general rule, the trend wins.

End Of Game

After the fourth funding round, the game ends. Each player scores money plus the total printed cost of all employees in their deck, hand, and discard pile. The highest score wins.