The Setup
Setting the scene
Three months of runway left and the metrics are flat. You stare at the dashboard and the dashboard stares back — neither of you blinks, but one of you is lying.
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Part of this story
The Pivot Moment
→Your original idea is not working and your runway is shrinking. Navigate the agonizing decision between persistence and pivoting.
Part of the quest
Startup Survival
→The glamour of entrepreneurship meets the reality of runway, rejection, and ramen. Navigate the emotional and strategic challenges of building something from nothing. You'll navigate four escalating scenarios — from the pivot moment to the first customer — practicing the decisions that matter most when the pressure is real and the stakes are personal. This isn't theory. It's practice for the moments that define how this chapter of your life unfolds.
What you'll learn from The Setup
This scenario focuses on Setting the scene — a critical skill inside the broader career domain. You'll face a decision where the instinctive response is often the wrong one. After you make your choice, you'll see exactly what happened in the other person's head and why it mattered. The scenario is part of The Pivot Moment, a full interactive story inside the Startup Survival quest.
Skills you'll build in Startup Survival
More scenarios in this quest
Your co-founder says the word "pivot" and it lands like a grenade in the room. The idea you built, pitched, and believed in is not working — and admitting it feels like admitting you were wrong about everything.
You interview five customers and three of them describe a problem you can solve — just not the one you have been solving. The pivot is forming whether you choose it or not.
You kill your darling and start building something the market actually wants. It hurts in places you did not expect — but the runway suddenly feels longer and the conversations with investors get real.
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