Abstract for: Clean Technology Startup Management Flight Simulator

How to run a successful clean technology startup company? What are the strategies that enable a startup to escape the "valley of death" and emerge as a winner in the market? To gain some insights in this, we developed a Clean Technology Startup Management Flight Simulator, a system dynamics based computer simulation game to study the dynamics of clean tech startups. The model builds on the previous work by Miller (2007) and Oliva, Sterman and Giese (2003). It includes the prospect chain, product development, sales, marketing, human resource, finance and accounting. The player makes decisions on headcount (growth rate and allocation), compensation (salary, stock grants and options) and financing (VC financing and IPO). We aim to use it as a teaching tool for learning various trade-offs clean tech startups face in a cash constraint environment.