How to Play

A first-timer's guide to running your fund in SimulateGP

Log In
The Big Picture

You are the General Partner (GP) of a private capital fund. Your investors (the LPs) have committed capital; your job over a 7-year fund life is to find companies, win deals, manage the portfolio, and exit — delivering the best returns you can.

Each game year has two phases, each followed by a simulated "process":

  • Phase 1 — Deal Sourcing: search for companies and submit term sheets.
  • The Deal Process: companies choose their lead investor from the bids.
  • Phase 2 — Deals & Portfolio: finalize won deals and manage your holdings.
  • The Deal & Return Process: fees are charged, every company's year is simulated, and the game advances.

  • Fund type sets what you can buy. A VC fund invests in Startup and Developing companies; a PE fund invests in Early Revenue and Mature companies. Companies reject bids from funds outside their mandate — at the Deal Process, not when you submit.
  • Sector focus: a focused fund (e.g. Healthcare-only) earns the full sector return. A generalist can bid anywhere but earns a slightly lower expected return (×0.95) at slightly lower volatility (×0.9).
  • Fund size sets your firm's scale: $200M (3 partners), $500M (7), or $1B (12), with GP operating costs of 1.5% / 1.0% / 0.75% of committed capital per year respectively.
  • You choose your fund's fee structure at the outset — either 2 & 20 (2% management fee, 20% carried interest — the industry standard) or 1 & 10 (a low-fee fund). The fee is charged each year on deployed capital; carry is your share of net realized profits. Higher fees mean more GP income — but they eat into the returns your LPs see.

See it in-game: Fund Economics and GP Economics pages.

  • Search (Deal Flow page) is free and unlimited. Filter by sector, stage, and deal size. Companies are only on the market in their listed year — miss the year, miss the deal.
  • Save interesting companies to your watchlist, and refer deals to friendly firms (they see them in their pipeline).
  • Submit term sheets: you propose a pre-money valuation and investment amount, plus terms: liquidation preference (1–3×), participation, and anti-dilution. For buyouts you also choose how much debt to load on (8% interest-only, repaid at exit).
  • You may bid on many companies, form syndicates, and offer to be a fill (co-)investor on deals others lead.
  • Done for the phase? Click Mark Deal Phase Complete on your dashboard. When every team has, the Deal Process runs automatically. (Marking complete freezes your actions — use Undo if you need to change something.)

Each company weighs its offers. What makes yours attractive:

  • Price: a higher valuation is the biggest lever.
  • Clean terms: 1× liquidation preference beats 2×–3×; no participation and no anti-dilution score better than aggressive protections.
  • Covering the ask: offering less than the capital the company wants is penalized.
  • Mandate fit: off-mandate bids are rejected outright.

Winners become lead investor. Losing bidders who offered to fill may be invited as co-investors by the lead. Watch your dashboard's Deal Activity and Timeline for results.

  • Finalize deals you lead (Timeline): close solo or invite co-investors from the fill offers. The accepted terms are binding. If you never finalize, the deal auto-closes solo at your submitted terms at the next process — or is dropped if your fund can't cover it.
  • Respond to co-invest offers other leads send you — accept or reject on your Timeline.
  • Manage holdings (Portfolio): pay dividends out of company cash, make follow-on investments, change management (costs cash, can upgrade quality), or mark a company for sale with a reserve price.
  • Distress: a company that runs out of cash needs a decision from its lead — inject rescue capital, or "let it roll" and hope it turns profitable on its own. If it stays dry, it goes bankrupt and the investment is lost. (Mature companies that survive distress carry a permanent return scar.)
  • Done? Mark Return Phase Complete — when every team has, the Deal & Return Process runs.

  • Management fees are charged: your fund's fee rate × capital deployed in active deals (not committed capital).
  • Every company's year is simulated: returns draw from its sector/stage baseline, tilted by revenue growth, EBITDA margin, and management quality, and multiplied by the game's market condition (bull or bear).
  • Venture companies burn cash; mature companies convert EBITDA to cash. Debt interest is paid, dividends and marked sales execute, and distressed outcomes resolve (recover, keep burning, or bankrupt).
  • The game advances to the next year's Phase 1. After Year 7, every remaining holding is exited at its final valuation and the game ends — final standings on the Leaderboard.

  • Fund returns: annualized return on committed capital, MOIC, and per-deal IRR on invested capital.
  • GP income: management fees earned, minus operating costs, plus carried interest — carry is your chosen rate applied to realized profits net of losses, bankruptcies, and the fees LPs paid. Shown per partner.
  • The GP Economics page shows exactly how your fees and carry are computed — every number traces back to a formula.

The leaderboard ranks all firms on these measures at game end.

  • Price discipline pays. Your first-year mark grows off the company's ask: buy below the ask and your mark starts above cost; overpay and it starts below.
  • Winning isn't just bidding high — a slightly lower price with clean terms often beats a top price loaded with 3× preferences.
  • Keep dry powder. Fees come out of your fund every year, and distressed companies may need rescue capital. A fully-deployed fund has no flexibility.
  • Watch venture runway. Startups burn cash every year; know when each holding runs dry.
  • Finalize your deals in Phase 2 — don't leave them to auto-close.
  • Diversify early years. Companies are only on the market in their listed year; the catalog spans all seven.