💧 Exit Waterfall Machine

An interactive cap table simulator and educational game. Learn why a large startup exit can leave founders and employees with absolutely nothing.

🟢 Kids (0-12)

Kids (0–12)Playable
Teens (13–17)Playable
Adults (18+)Playable

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A hand-crafted HTML5 experience. The original game runtime is preserved intact.

🪙 1 coin per load (exact fresh bytes, 1 MiB = full fee) · 1 coin/hr billed per second (0.0278 centicentcoins/s) · 100 coins = $1.00

🤖 No AI compute — play metering only

This game runs fully in your browser with no metered AI. Coin metering covers play sessions only (100 coins = $1.00, 25% platform cut included). See your usage →

🎮 How to play

Click / tap sliders and fields · Exit slider runs the waterfall

🎯 Learn why a big exit can pay founders nothing: configure rounds, debt, and preferences, then drag the exit slider.

Start in Sandbox mode with the default cap table.
Adjust one funding round at a time and watch the waterfall.
Drag the exit slider end-to-end to see who gets paid.

Tips

Liquidation preferences eat common holders first; stack two and compare.
Debt is paid before any equity sees a cent.
Small exits punish employees hardest; try $10M vs $500M.

💾 Autosave is ON by default — saves every minute plus whenever the game requests it (e.g. after a cutscene) to slot 0 (cheat-proof). Opt out anytime in the Cloud saves section.

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About Exit Waterfall Machine

Exit Waterfall Machine turns startup finance into a visible machine. You configure funding rounds, debt, and liquidation preferences in Sandbox mode, then drag an exit slider from small acquisition to giant public exit and watch cash fall through the waterfall. Preferred investors get paid first, debt clears before equity, and common holders, including founders and employees, receive whatever remains. Scenario mode frames the same math as practical capital puzzles drawn from real startup outcomes.

Curious founders, startup employees, students, and anyone considering stock options will get the most from this simulator. There is no twitch skill curve. Progress means sharper intuition, first seeing that preferences eat common holders, then feeling how debt changes small exits, then predicting outcomes before dragging the slider. Replay value comes from testing ten million versus five hundred million exits, stacking preferences, and replaying Scenario challenges until every surprise payout makes sense.

Compared with Financial Freedom, which simulates decades of household choices month by month, Exit Waterfall Machine studies one ruthless moment, the exit split. Compared with arcade catalog games like Overtake, there is no timer or reflex test, only cause and effect. For a strong session, change one variable at a time, screenshot each waterfall, run the slider end to end, and compare the same company at two exit sizes before adding a second preference or new debt.

Exit Waterfall Machine: questions, answered

Will this help me understand my own stock options?

Yes, as an educational model rather than legal advice. It shows how liquidation preferences, participation, debt, and share counts interact before common stock receives anything. Adjust the settings to resemble a company you know, then compare small and large exits. Bring the resulting questions to a lawyer or finance mentor. The intuition you build here makes those professional conversations far more productive.

Is Sandbox or Scenario mode better for beginners?

Start in Sandbox with the default cap table because nothing is timed and every control is visible. Move one funding control, drag the exit slider fully, and observe who gains or loses. Once that loop feels clear, switch to Scenario mode, where fixed challenges test whether you can diagnose a painful payout. Alternating between free play and structured puzzles builds durable understanding fastest.

Why do founders get nothing in a large exit?

Size alone does not protect common holders when preferences and debt stack. Investors with liquidation preferences collect their multiple first, lenders collect debt before equity, and participation clauses can double dip. If those claims consume the exit amount, founders and employees split the remainder, which can be zero. Try adding two preference layers in Sandbox, then drag from a huge exit downward to see the cutoff appear.

Runtime manifest

Source: /games/html/venturemechanically/ · Runtime: /games/venturemechanically/index.html

Storage: localStorage (game-owned) · Audio: preserved · Cleanup: iframe teardown, event listener cleanup, worker termination where applicable

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