How the Hatch or Crash startup game works
You pick one of three startups: a specialty café, a pet-sitting app or a skincare shop. You have $40,000 and a 90-day plan to launch it.
Six decisions stand between you and opening night. Each one costs time, money or customer trust. Before each, you can ask one of Hatchio's AI specialists for evidence. Asking costs two in-game days, so evidence is useful but never free.
Every game is set in one of three hidden markets, so the right move changes from game to game. At the end, a debrief shows what happened, which calls were strong, how much was luck, and what a real team would do next.
The six decisions every new business faces
1. Build or test first
Committing to a lease, a full app or a big stock order before you know who will buy is the most common way to burn money early. A short test (a pop-up, a concierge service, a small batch) costs days, but tells you who your customers are and when they buy.
2. Respond to a competitor
When a bigger rival appears, matching their prices usually drains the smaller business first. Find what the rival does badly, such as speed, trust or a format they don't offer, and compete there.
3. Decide what goes in version 1
A first version should test your riskiest assumption, not show everything you can imagine. Each extra feature costs time and money, and features nobody asked for make the offer harder to understand.
4. Handle a cash crunch
Costs overrun. Know how many days of cash you have left and what the launch still needs. Raising money before you are desperate gets better terms than raising it when the account is empty.
5. Get launch-ready
Permits, payments and privacy are easy to postpone and expensive to get wrong after launch. Sort issues by severity: fix what can stop the business first, then what costs customers' trust.
6. Find your first customers
The best channel is where your customers already spend their attention: partners, social media, events or search. A small budget in the right place beats a large one in the wrong place.
What's simulated and what's real
The markets, numbers and evidence in the game are invented. They are labelled “simulated” everywhere, and no AI runs while you play.
The specialists are real: they are Hatchio's AI team. In a real Hatchio project they research your actual idea, cite their sources and label every estimate.
Try it on your real idea
When you finish the game, describe your own idea in one sentence. The same team researches it for real, and you can start with 50 free credits.
Start with my ideaQuestions
- Is the Hatch or Crash startup game free?
- Yes. It needs no account and no card.
- How long does it take?
- About four minutes for one game. Each replay is set in a different market.
- Does the game predict how my business will do?
- No. It's a simulation with invented markets. It shows how decisions interact, not what will happen to a real business.