Startup playbook #MVPilot

What you can do in 4 weeks

Do you have an urge to become an entrepreneur? (You might want to analyse your entrepreneurial potential here). That's a great start! For everything else, there's Elona, the AI startup co-founder for you! As your AI co-founder, Elona delivers a powerful combination of expertise, support, and motivation to help you conquer the world of startups.

During this free pilot in August 2022, we showed players how to approach startup building. It doesn't matter if you don't have an idea yet. It doesn't matter if you don't have any technical skills (yet). It doesn't matter if you don't have money (yet). All that matters is that you follow our lead and devote some time to it.

If you are committing to the whole duration of the pilot AND are going to spend at least 5 hours a week on learning and playing, then by the end of the MVP Pilot you will have an idea based on a problem that you validated, a landing page for the possible solution, a business social media account with the first followers and even a mockup or a prototype. At the very least you will understand what startup life is all about and decide if you like it. 


Looking to apply for EU Funding? Check out the article on writing a successful application here. 




You will understand the most important parts of building a successful business. You will see that failing only leads to success in later iterations. And you will discover the wonderful world of zero-code tools that allows anyone to create digital products without any technical skills. 

In the meantime, let's talk a bit about what it's like to be a startup founder. 

How to be a great CEO

In theory, someone doesn’t become a CEO unless she is passionate about a specific idea and cares deeply about turning it into reality. In addition, a CEO must be confident in being a leader so that people will want to join her. 

Sounds easy so far, right? 

The biggest problem is, though, that one learns to be a CEO only by being a CEO. How do you do it without, well, ruining a couple of startups? Fe/male Switch gives you a chance to role-play and see how you feel in the shoes of the person who runs a company. And you can ruin as many virtual startups as you wish until you find your unique CEO style! Isn't that neat?

Being a CEO is a lonely job

No matter what decision you make, you will never be able to make everyone happy. Firing an underperforming team member sucks for that employee but is good for the startup. 

What do you choose? 

At some point, you might lose yourself in the company and identify as your company. That's a bad signal as you might be heading towards burnout. Always prioritize yourself and only then the company. If you are not able to work, your startup will not survive. So value your mental and physical health as the most important asset in the whole company.

Author’s note to Ben Horowitz

Hey Ben! We loved your book The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers so much that our CEO was keen to use some of your genius ideas in our education module so that future women entrepreneurs can benefit from your experience. Thank you for supporting diversity in startups. We will present your book to one of the top performers in our game. 

Have you missed the free pilots of our startup game? Don't worry. Apply for the official launch of the game! It's coming soon!

Don't want to wait and ready to start learning now? Join our Startup School and get access to startup building knowledge that will help your startup succeed.