Silly Startups

Silly Startups is a competitive board game about creating startups. Hire a team, combine ideas shown on the cards to launch startups, get more money, hire more people, launch more startups, and become the richest player at the table!

When you launch a startup, you describe to the other player how the ideas fit together. This doesn't affect the money you earn, so it's a short and safe moment of imagination.

Your employee tiles flip over after each launch, so the strategic element is to plan ahead to have the right resources available at the right time to combine more and/or higher cards at once.

At the end of the game, the richest player wins.

What makes it fun?

• Combining ideas triggers the imagination in a safe space (ideas are not judged for points).
• You may decide to plan ahead and optimize, or take it easy and focus on coming up with creative ideas.
• Includes short variants (5-10min) that you can use as a warm-up game before a brainstorming session.

How to play

Watch the video (7 min):

Download the game rules

Try the game on Tabletop Simulator

The base game is designed to be accessible to novice board game players. For more player interaction, see the Competitive job market variant.

Thank you!

This game was created during a 48h board game jam, then refined over many gaming sessions to enter the Small Box Challenge.

See action shots for the original prototype!

Notes:

• Components were slightly adjusted compared to the version shown in action shots.
• This edition contains hand-drawn illustrations by the game designer. Should this be published on a larger scale, we'd be happy commission the rest of the illustrations in the target art style shown in the last action shot.

This game is sold at cost price. Instead of giving us money, please consider donating to Save the Children or a charity of your choice.