LOOK BUSY. GET RICH.
An idle tycoon game disguised as a spreadsheet
From: Jennifer Walsh <jwalsh@sequoiacap.com>
Subject: Congratulations — Let's talk Series A
Hi,
We've been tracking your growth and are impressed. Your revenue numbers are turning heads.
We'd like to offer a $5M Series A investment at a generous valuation.
The funds are yours — use them to scale faster.
— Jennifer Walsh, Partner
Sequoia Capital
Next milestone: IPO. Keep growing.
v0.7.0 — Crisis Mode
An idle tycoon game disguised as a spreadsheet.
Build your empire. Look like you're working.
Build a company from nothing. Start with a blog, end with a tech empire. The spreadsheet is your cover — it looks like you're working.
Each department is a revenue source with employees. Higher tiers unlock as you earn more and produce exponentially more revenue.
Hire employees to increase revenue per day. The Max(N) button hires as many as you can afford at once.
Upgrade a department to boost each employee's output by +50% per level (1.5×, 2×, 2.5×...). Cost grows gradually — keep upgrading!
Automate a department so it collects revenue automatically — no more clicking "Collect". Essential for scaling.
Once big enough, you'll go public. Each quarter you set earnings guidance, then try to beat it. Beating guidance earns Retained Earnings (RE) — the prestige currency for Board Room upgrades.
⭐ RE is shown in the header bar next to Cash — always visible.
All three mechanics are optional — toggle them in Data → Game Options.
Click a department's name (look for the 🎯 icon) to add focus points.
Each point = +25% revenue for that department, up to +200% (8 stacks).
Focus decays over time — 1 point lost every 20 seconds of not clicking. Keep rotating between departments for maximum benefit.
Works on automated departments — this is your main active play mechanic late game.
The "Overtime" button below your departments gives 5 seconds of revenue per click.
Diminishing returns: each click in the same quarter gives less. Click 1 = 100%, click 5 ≈ 57%, click 10 ≈ 40%.
Resets every quarter — fresh energy each Q.
Shows your click count, next payout, and efficiency %.
Random enterprise contracts pop up as toasts every 1–4 minutes.
Click "✍️ Sign" rapidly to collect enough signatures before the 12-second timer expires.
Required clicks scale with company size. Reward = 30–60 seconds of revenue.
Miss it? The client walks — no penalty, just missed money.
Desktop-style notifications pop up periodically. Click ✔ Approve for bonus cash.
Auto-expire in 10 seconds — miss it and your streak resets.
Streaks: 3 in a row = 1.5×, 5 = 2×, 10 = 3× reward.
Toast notifications with choices: Mom's investment, angry customers, viral moments, IT disasters, R&D breakthroughs, and more.
Each has a 10-second timer — the last option auto-fires if you don't choose.
Events have different rarities — angry customers and password resets happen often, while ransomware and DDoS attacks are rare.
"Ripped from the headlines" events add real-world corporate drama: executive security incidents, congressional hearings, WFH revolts, short seller attacks, AI disruption, CEO Twitter disasters, bank collapses, activist investors, supply chain crises, pandemics, and CEO health scares.
At default frequency, expect roughly 1 event per quarter.
Event frequency can be adjusted in Settings (0× = off, 10× = absolute mayhem).
Golden cells occasionally glow in the grid — click them fast for a big bonus!
Rare event that permanently doubles a random department's revenue.
Appears roughly every 3-4 game years at default event frequency.
Stacks: a second breakthrough on the same dept = 4× total.
8 types: ransomware, DDoS, DB corruption, email outage, password reset, cloud outage, P0 bug, laptop recall.
Effects range from revenue penalties to full production freezes. Some offer a costly quick-fix vs. waiting it out.
Active effects show as color-coded indicators in the $/day display.
Every 90 game-days, the IRS sends a tax bill.
Regular tax: 25% of (Revenue − Depreciation).
AMT floor: You always pay at least 15% of gross revenue — can't deduct your way to zero.
Fiscal offset: Tax quarters are offset 45 days from earnings quarters — like real companies with different fiscal and calendar years.
The P&L row shows estimated tax and countdown with color-coded urgency based on whether you can afford it.
Pay or ignore — but ignored bills accrue 1% daily interest and escalate:
Notice → 2nd Notice → Garnishment (−15% revenue) → Asset Seizure.
Depreciation: Capital spending (hires, upgrades, automation) is deducted over 4 quarters, not immediately.
Consecutive beats earn bonus RE: +10% per beat, up to 2.0× at 10 beats.
Streak emoji: ✅ (1) → 🔥 (2-3) → 🔥🔥 (4-6) → 🚀 (7-9) → 👑 (10).
Misses: 😬 (1) → ❄️ (2-3) → 💀 (4+).
A miss resets your streak. High streaks make analysts ratchet up expectations faster.
Valuation = Cash + (Annual Revenue × market multiple).
Tap the sparkline to toggle the floating chart. Stock price in column H.
Unlocks after IPO. Spend Retained Earnings (RE) on permanent upgrades.
Hire executives to automate management tasks. Each has 3 levels — buy higher tiers for smarter AI.
📊 CFO — auto-sets earnings guidance. Lv1 = random, Lv2 = trend-based (~70% optimal), Lv3 = full analysis (~90%).
🔧 CTO — auto-upgrades departments. Lv1 = cheapest first, Lv2 = ROI-optimized, Lv3 = timing-aware.
📋 COO — auto-hires employees. Lv1 = cheapest first, Lv2 = best marginal revenue, Lv3 = earnings-aware.
CTO and COO use a budget slider — set what % of free cash (after tax reserves) goes toward auto-buying each tick.
Budget cap: If CTO + COO budgets exceed 100% combined, both are scaled down proportionally. The % turns gold to show the effective rate.
Requires CFO + CTO or COO. The CFO auto-adjusts CTO/COO budget % each quarter based on guidance and market conditions.
Toggle "Auto" independently for CTO and COO budgets. Dragging a slider automatically switches back to manual control.
Revenue Multipliers I–III — permanent boosts (1.1× → 1.25× → 1.5×).
Growth Initiative — repeatable +2% per purchase. Cost scales 10% each time. Buy early, buy often.
Biggest RE sink — company-wide revenue multipliers that stack:
Domestic 2× (3K RE) → International 3× (8K) → Emerging 5× (15K) → Global 10× (25K)
All four = 300× total revenue.
Reduces hire cost scaling (normally 1.15× per hire):
Pipeline → 1.12× (5K RE) → Branding → 1.09× (12K) → Magnet → 1.06× (25K)
Employee #50 costs what #20 used to. Pairs well with COO.
Auto-handles mini-tasks so you don't have to click them manually.
Lv1 (500 RE) — handles tasks at 50% reward.
Lv2 (2000 RE) — 75% reward, maintains streaks up to 5.
Lv3 (8000 RE) — 100% reward, full streaks.
Toggle ON/OFF to take back manual control.
Auto-closes "Close the Deal" popups — no more frantic clicking.
Lv1 (1,000 RE) — closes deals at 50% value.
Lv2 (4,000 RE) — 75% value.
Lv3 (15,000 RE) — 100% value. Full deal revenue.
Stats tracked in Reports tab: deals closed, revenue earned, capture rate.
Auto-handles busywork emails — mom's investment, angry customer refunds, college buddy meetings.
500 RE — fires instantly, result shown in formula bar.
Never says no to free press. Auto-accepts TikTok viral, Forbes features, Reddit front page, local news.
2,000 RE — positive media events handled without interrupting gameplay.
Lobbyist / Tax Haven — reduce tax rate (25% → 20% → 15%).
CPA on Retainer — auto-pays taxes and settles debts.
Golden Parachute — blocks one asset seizure (consumed, rebuyable).
Analyst Relations — slows analyst expectation ratchet by 50%.
Each automated department gets a ★ Restructure button post-IPO.
Each level = 10× revenue. Stacks: ★2 = 100×, ★3 = 1,000×.
Appears after your first Board Room purchase. A performance dashboard for every role you've hired.
Each hired role gets a stat card showing how it's performing:
CFO — earnings beats vs misses, win rate.
CTO — upgrades bought, spent this quarter.
COO — hires made, spent this quarter.
VP of Ops — tasks completed, avg reward, capture rate, best streak. ON/OFF toggle lives here.
Sales Director — deals closed, revenue earned, capture rate.
Executive Assistant — emails handled, cash earned/spent, net P&L.
PR Director — events handled, boosts activated.
CPA — total taxes paid.
Board Room is the shop — buy upgrades there. Reports is the dashboard — see how they're doing.
Only roles you've purchased appear in Reports. Hire more from the Board Room to fill out the dashboard.
Esc — Boss key! Instantly switches to a fake empty spreadsheet.
Ctrl+S — Manual save (auto-save is always on).
Click any cell to see its reference in the formula bar, just like real Excel.
Column headers (A, B, C...) are purely cosmetic — for immersion.
File → New Game — start over with a fresh company.
Data → Game Options — toggle active play mechanics on/off.
File → Save — auto-save runs, but manual save works too.
File → Save As... — create a new named save slot.
File → Manage Saves... — view, load, rename, export, or delete save slots. Shows storage used per slot.
File → Export to File... — download your save as a .json file (with integrity checksum).
File → Import from File... — load a save from a .json file. Shows preview before importing.
Multiple save slots — unlimited named saves in your browser. Great for experimenting or trying different arcs.
Dark mode — 🌙/☀️ toggle in the toolbar. Persists across sessions.
Font size — A↑/A↓ buttons in the toolbar. Adjusts global text size.
Resizable columns — drag the right edge of column letter headers (A, B, C...) to resize. Widths saved automatically.
Dimmed buttons — faded toolbar buttons and menu items are decorative (part of the spreadsheet disguise). Bright ones are functional.
Collapsible sections — click P&L, IR, or Tax headers to collapse/expand. Collapsed shows key stats inline.
Pause/Resume — ⏸ button in the toolbar. Shows ▶ on red when paused. Game also auto-pauses when browsing menus or modals.
Speed — click the speed button (1×/½×/¼×/⅛×) to slow the game down. The timescale label shows current effective speed.
Revenue breakdown — bottom bar shows income per second, minute, hour, day, and quarter. Rates adjust for current speed.
Cell flash — green/red background pulse on cash, $/day, and RE cells when values change.
Floating numbers — `+$50K` / `-$12K` float up from cash on purchases, events, and rewards.
Milestones — golden float when cash or $/day crosses $1K/$1M/$1B/etc. RE milestones at 100/500/1K/5K/10K+.
Cash odometer — smooth counter animation rolls between values instead of snapping.
Button press — cells shrink when clicked for tactile feedback.
Stamps — "HIRED" / "UPGRADED" / "APPROVED" stamps slam down and float away on purchases.
Stock heartbeat — stock price display pulses with a glow. Speeds up on beat, slows on miss, jitters during crises.
Earnings ticker — news ticker scrolls across the bottom after quarterly earnings with results and analyst reactions.
Earnings danger — when tracking toward a miss in the last 15 days, cash and $/day jitter, red glow builds around IR section, and a warning banner appears at the top. If you catch up, effects snap off with relief.
Beat celebration — screen flash, confetti, and big floating text when you beat aggressive guidance.
Tune individual effects with the 🎛️ button in the visual effects panel.
Toggle all effects in Data → Game Options → ✨ Visual Effects.
When IT disasters strike, your screen reacts with themed overlays:
Power Outage → Blue Screen of Death with recovery progress bar.
Ransomware → Dark lock screen with ransom demand (if you choose "rebuild from backups").
DDoS Attack → Chrome-style error page with CloudShield recovery.
DB Corruption → Terminal fsck console with line-by-line recovery.
Password Reset → Screen frosts over with "(Not Responding)" in title.
Cloud Outage → Corporate status page with service indicators.
Grid interactions are blocked during crises — you just have to wait it out. Menus and Board Room still work.
Focus spending on the highest tier you can afford — lower tiers become irrelevant fast.
Automate early — the sooner a dept runs itself, the sooner you can focus elsewhere.
Beat earnings guidance to earn RE — conservative guidance is safer but earns less RE.
Growth Initiative compounds — 10 purchases = +21.9% total revenue.
The collapsed P&L and IR rows use color-coded cells to show urgency at a glance:
Earnings/Tax countdown: Gray = relaxed, Yellow = watch it, Orange = tight, Red = danger.
Earnings streak: ✅→🔥→🔥🔥→🚀→👑 (beats) | 😬→❄️→💀 (misses). Color matches intensity.
Analyst expectation: Green (<1×) = easy, Gray = normal, Yellow/Orange = hard, Red (>2×) = near impossible.
Tax and earnings are offset by 45 days — like real fiscal vs calendar years. There's always something coming up.
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