One of the best ways to experience the mechanics of how a dynamic equity fund works is to experience it yourself by playing the Slicing Pie Card Game. The game simulates the events of a start-up company over an extended period of time. Each card specifies what an individual player did during that time and the Game Tracker spreadsheet allows players to track their contributions in much the same way they would in real life (with a few exceptions to keep the play simple).
In the game, participants experience successes and failures, just as they would in real life. Failures could easily drive the company out of business, but the right successes can generate millions! Habitual failure can lead to termination with cause, but sometimes players are terminated for other reasons. Terminated players must join another team.
I use this game sometimes in Slicing Pie workshops, it’s really fun!
To play the game, each player must access the online “Card Deck” at SlicingPie.com/deck. The online deck will allow you to choose cards and keep track of what has been played. Plus, you need one player to keep track of the contributions using the Game Tracker Worksheet on Excel or Google Docs.
Below is an overview of how the game is played:
After the game you and your team can review the results and discuss how each player’s contributions impacted the outcome of the game. Basic record-keeping is a real eye-opener when it comes to assessing success or failure. The results tab of the spreadsheet will allow you to compare the dynamic split against a traditional equal fixed split model.
I hope you enjoy the game! Please let me know if you have any comments!
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Mike, this looks like a great idea and I really want to use this to introduce Slicing Pie to my team. However, I’ve run 5 simulations and they’ve all ended with a company that’s in debt so we can’t even sell it. Not the motivator I was looking for. Is it supposed to be this way to reflect the risk involved?
I’m not sure what you mean, the game is giving you debt? It’s designed so that about half the companies will fail which roughly reflects reality…
Thanks Mike, that’s what I wanted to know. I must have had a bad run failing 5 times in a row. I appreciate you trying to reflect reality, which is great for a classroom setting. I’m just concerned that playing it with my actual startup team will focus them more on the frightening risks of startups and less on the benefits of dynamic equity vs. static equity.