Virtual game lets real-world startups compete against each other

LaunchNow uses gaming to help startup founders build their new companies while competing with other founders for an array of virtual rewards.

Just in the last few weeks we’ve seen elements of gaming brought to banking, kids’ safety, and art sales, and now we’ve come across yet another application. LaunchNow uses gaming to help startup founders build their new companies while competing with other founders for an array of virtual rewards. Players begin by entering basic information about the startup they’re working on. The game, in turn, gives them a set of various goals they must work towards to build their startup or idea further; examples include product milestones, investments, turning a profit, taking the company public or earning press mentions. Besides helping to build the business, achieving these goals also earns players badges and points that get published on their startup’s profile. For those who want to keep their business idea private on the site, LaunchNow also lets players remain in stealth mode before playing for real. More than 450 public startups are currently participating on LaunchNow, which is working to add a raft of new features to the site, including widgets, CrunchBase integration and automatic profiles. One to try out on your next big idea? Spotted by: Murtaza Patel