Can you run this?
A mobile app simulation

Can You Launch a Mobile App With $40,000?

Your app is built and the stores have approved it. You have $40,000, no investors and a simple problem: every month a new batch of people installs it, and most of them never open it again. Pick the kind of app, how it makes money, how good the first minute feels and how fast you ship. Rushed features bring crashes, crashes bring bad reviews, and bad reviews empty the funnel. Keep enough users to pay the bills before the money runs out.

  • 4 monthsone page of decisions each
  • +8 monthsRamadan, New Year, the new OS and Black Friday
  • Cohortsevery month’s users tracked as they drop off

About this simulation

Difficulty
Intermediate Moderate risk. Stock that spoils, staff to schedule, rivals nearby. Losing money is easy.
Length
4 months + 8 more, about 10 minutes for the first part
Category
Run a business
You decide
Development, pricing, marketing

How it plays

  1. Month 1 · Launch — Launch your app
  2. Month 2 · The first cohort — Read the curve
  3. Month 3 · Stability — Crashes, fees and reminders
  4. Month 4 · The checkpoint — Growth that compounds

After the debrief, “Keep going — to month 12” continues the run with calendar events, new challenges and opportunities that build on what you chose earlier. Every decision page has a live preview that shows what your picks do to the numbers before you lock them in.

What you get at the end

A debrief with your outcome, charts of where the money went, your biggest mistake and roughly what it cost, and a full report you can copy or save as a PDF. Everything runs in your browser: no sign-up, nothing to install.

See all simulations →